For the fifth year running, Hard Rock is maintaining its commitment to aspiring musicians around the world with another edition of Hard Rock Rising, the world's most far-reaching Battle of the Bands competition. The worldwide search will again feature Malta among its participating countries, giving local bands a shot at stardom and an all-expenses paid trip to Barcelona to compete for a slot at this summer's first-ever Hard Rock Rising Barcelona Music Festival.
Since 2010, Hard Rock Rising has been a staple of Hard Rock Cafe's global live music program, attracting more than 15,000 participating bands each year and offering them unprecedented exposure to new fans from all over the world. The competition is held in partnership with ReverbNation, widely regarded as the global leader in providing independent musicians with tools to manage their careers. It is in fact the combined reach of Hard Rock’s iconic brand and commitment to live music and ReverbNation’s unique platform and extensive community - to date more than 3.8 million artists in 250 countries worldwide and rising, that makes this competition the perfect platform for undiscovered bands to catapult their careers and reach a global audience.
Registration for the competition opened on Monday, January 5 and will close on Monday, January 26. Interested bands are encouraged to visit HardRockRising.com to download full details and register themselves. Following open registration, bands that have entered will receive a unique URL to encourage their fans to vote. Fan voting will not be limited to a specific market and fans can vote for multiple bands located in any participating city. Bands with the largest number of votes in their cities will take the stage at participating Hard Rock locations around the world for a series of live battle events. One winner will be selected from each location by a panel of local industry judges. The winning band from each location will receive a prize of $1,000 and move on to the regional phase of the competition, where they will then be reviewed by a panel of international music industry professionals to determine regional winners. Each of the regional winners will receive an all-expenses paid trip to Barcelona, Spain to perform at Hard Rock Cafe Barcelona for the final live battle event. The overall winner will perform on the main-stage at Hard Rock Rising Barcelona.