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2006 Recipient for Best Blues Society
2010 Detroit Blues Challenge Schedule
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The 2011 International Blues Challenge will have a new format.
1. There will be four nights of competition. The contest will begin with all acts competing in the first night of the quarterfinal on Wednesday, February 2 and continue with a second night of quarterfinals on Thursday February 3. Some acts will then advance to the semifinal on Friday night. The number of acts advancing on Friday will depend on the number of acts and venues. The finals will once again be on Saturday.
The purpose of this expanded format is to accommodate increasing numbers of participating acts. The IBC is like a funnel. In theory, we can handle as many acts as there are when we start, but by Saturday, they have to be narrowed to about 10 bands and 8 solo/duo acts. This is the purpose of the added step. I would note that an increasing number of acts will now get to play 3 times (if they advance to the semifinals) and 4 times (if they advance to the finals) instead of the current 2 and 3 times.
In addition, the FedEx International Showcase will likely be held on Tuesday, February 1. Act registration and orientation would be during the day Wednesday February 2.
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Detroit
Blues Challenge Location Criteria for
Acts
If you are outside of this
region, you may
not sign
up.
THIS IS A
NEW RULE FOR 2010
Detroit
Blues Challenge Scoring Criteria for
Acts
The
Blues Foundation recommends that all Affiliated
Organizations in their competition use our established
scoring criteria. Categories include Talent, Vocal, Blues
Content, Stage Presence and Originality.
1. Blues Content: Everyone has his or her own
interpretation of what is and is not Blues. Thus, any
given three-judge panel will include members with varying
opinions of Blues, covering the spectrum of Blues
whenever possible, from the most traditional to
soul/blues and rock/blues. Bands should pick material
carefully. At the Memphis semi-finals and finals, the
judges are Blues professionals, not a bar crowd, and are
likely to be unimpressed with song selections that are
uninspired. (Call this--with all due respect to Sir Mack
Rice and Wilson Pickett--the "no Mustang Sally rule.")
2. Vocals: The acts vocal skills.
3. Talent: The acts instrumental skills.
4. Originality: Original work is encouraged. Cover tunes
are allowed but playing the recorded rendition lick by
lick is discouraged; will not be looked upon favorably by
the judges; and will be reflected in scoring.
5. Stage Presence: Over the years, the quality of talent
has risen so dramatically that we no longer consider this
an "amateur" competition. Most contestants have performed
on stage enough to know that they are not simply playing
music, but putting on a show. This category rates how
"sellable" a band may be.
To reflect the relative importance of each category in
the success of a band, a band's score in each category is
weighted. Raw scores for Blues Content is multiplied by
four, Talent and vocals by three and Originality and
Stage Presence are multiplied by two. The total in each
category represents the Weighted Score for that category.
The weighted multipliers will be Blues content (4);
talent (3); vocals (3); originality (2) and stage
presence (2).
Penalty Points
A Band is penalized one point from its Total Weighted
Score (see below) for each ten seconds that it runs
overtime. There is no penalty for using less than the
allotted time.
At the producing organization's
discretion, a policy of penalty for excessive time
loading-in and out will also be applied.
