Makshoof Music’s First Winner

Makshoof Music, www.triplew.me’s online platform for Middle East music talent has its first winner – singer/songwriter Shady Ahmed from Cairo.

From a total of 32 entrants (with profiles in English and Arabic), and following an exhaustive process that involved public voting, a judging panel made up of Nash Plenojevic (owner of main sponsor In The Mix Studios) and Adam Grundey (Editor, Rolling Stone Middle East) the winner has finally been announced.

“I was surprised at the caliber of all the entries,” Paul Kelly, Managing Editor of triplew.me said from Dubai “it took us some time to announce the winner, the entries were of a very high standard and the judges needed time to listen through, but Shady is definitely a worthy winner for the first competition.”

Playing a style of solo acoustic guitar songs, in a similar style, but still very different, to Jeff Buckley, Jason Mraz or Dave Matthews, Ahmed will be flown to Dubai to record 3-4 tracks at In The Mix Studios, play live and do a series of meetings and interviews while in town.

As Shady himself puts it "This is a great honor and a privilege that i will try to make the most of, I am very proud of the Middle East musicians for their contribution and I was blown away by the talent I was exposed to through this whole thing, which is why winning feels somewhat bittersweet!" and furthers "I am truly humbled by this process and I will do my best to deserve this, I promise! I would like to thank triplew.me for this opportunity and extend a thank you to everyone who took the time to make this happen! Peace and love!"

“The idea behind the competition is that it’s a level playing field,” say Kelly “be it English or Arabic, whatever genre, everyone has a chance with both public voting counting for part of the vote, and the judges selecting on criteria like readiness to hit the studio, songwriting capability and a number of other points.”

Kelly adds “Judges’ decisions are always final, but we’d like to give special mentions to some other acts that were very close,” adding “we will now try and help a these other acts get their break across the Middle East.”

Those bands that receive Special Mentions from the Judges are: SimpleXity (Cairo), Azraq Samawy (Alexandria), Absolace (Dubai), RaSh Radio (Cairo), Medley (Alexandria), Noush Like Sploosh (Dubai) and Lunacyst (Bahrain). Each of these acts will get some feedback in the coming week and details about how triplew.me will try and get them to a bigger audience.

“We’re also finalizing the details for the next version of Makshoof Music, and this time it’s going to be more about giving more opportunities over a longer period of time – with opportunities to win a range of things like PR, recording, and performances,” says Kelly “watch out for it in early December, and musicians, get ready for something different again.”

Watch out for the announcement of the next Makshoof Music - a new way for artists to get discovered.