Billie Eilish, Sam Smith, Ice Spice and more feature in Vevo’s 10 year anniversary of DSCVR Artists To Watch

newsofmax01/09/2024

4 2 minutes read

Vevo recently celebrated 10 years of its DSCVR Artists To Watch program. It celebrated chiefly, because such is the nature of Artists To Watch, by looking forward not back.

Specifically it revealed the 2024 cohort (main picture), accompanied, as always by exclusive video footage from each artist.

A few weeks on, however, the company has looked back on the past decade and the very early work of some of the Artists To Watch who went on to be watched rather a lot.

JP Evangelista, SVP, Content & Programming, said: “Over the past 10 years Vevo has seen nearly 200 rising artists go through its DSCVR Artist to Watch programme. Starting in the UK with no studio and shot in the office kitchen after hours, the programme has since substantially upscaled.

“The Artist to Watch we know today is shot in the Vevo studios in London and in New York, with impressive stages, cutting edge lighting and sound equipment. In its first year alone back in 2013, Vevo’s list championed then-emerging artists including Sam Smith, George Ezra and Ella Eyre – all of who are now household names.

“After initially working with these artists during their Artist To Watch campaigns, Vevo continuously nurtures these artist relationships, leading to many alumni coming back to film on another Vevo set, as part of another franchise.

“2016 Artist to Watch Alessia Cara returned for multiple franchises – a Vevo Presents later that year, Official Live Performance in 2018, and studio performances in 2021, among others.

“Hip-hop artists Toosi and EST Gee both returned for ctrl performances, and James Bay returned for a series of LIFT performances and various studio performances over the years. Finally, Billie Eilish, who has taken part in all of Vevo’s franchises, including their exclusive making-of series, Footnotes.

“We feel really privileged to be able to continuously work with these artists as their careers continue to grow and evolve, and cannot wait to see how far this year’s list goes! 10 years of DSCVR Artist to Watch is something we are immensely proud of at Vevo.

“Working with artists that we see huge potential is always something we, as a company, look forward to every year. It goes without saying that there’s a whole lot of effort, hard work and passion that comes from all sides to make sure this is the best work yet, and show the artists’ abilities.

“Supporting and championing artists at this stage of their careers is incredibly special, to see them go on to develop into the stars they are today is amazing. We have seen artists from all years of the programme become household names, go on to be Grammy nominees, and some have come back to Vevo Studios to shoot our other original content we have to offer from ctrl to Official Live Performance.”