There are less showcase events at MIDEM than there used to be, and there is an impression that the owners of the event would like to cut back even further, but as we know there is still nothing to match seeing and hearing artists performing for real. The Danes opened the show on the Sunday with five acts at the Martinez Hotel the Monday night British Showcase in the same venue (announced in the last News) was again packed, and a night of four Italian acts followed on the Tuesday. Presentations in the upstairs rooms of the Palais des Festivals ranged from Placebo to The Danish Radio Big Band featuring the venerable harmonica player Toots Thielemans. Electro and Dance events were available each night, and the Voices of The World events featured, amongst others Portugal’s Mariza and from the US via France, Ilene Barnes following her success at Noorderslag. (See last News)

A variety of artists turned up at different types of events:

At the official British reception following speeches from Government Minister Mike O’Brien and officials from the BPI and their British at Midem partners the timing could not have been better for a short acoustic performance from current BRIT school student Katie Melua, accompanied by veteran UK songwriter Mike Batt on piano. Her debut album Call Off The Search has now sold over 300,000 copies and has gone to the number one spot in the UK charts. The British at Midem stand hosted over 300 UK delegates.

Irish artist Mickey Harte who has had a number one, double platinum selling single, and a number two in Ireland in 2003, being voted the best thing to happen to music in Ireland by a national TV public survey conducted by R.T.E turned up to play four shows in pubs around Cannes. One of these was attended by MIDEM President Paul Zilk, a man who knows his music. Mickey will be playing further European dates and will showcase at SXSW in Austin, Texas in March.

Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno appeared, but did not play, they chose MIDEM to launch their provocative new Musicians Alliance which aims to turn the industry on its head by challenging the label system and pushing for full rights for artists to sell their music online rather than through the record companies. The press reception was packed and I was too far back in the crush to grab one of the small orange booklets, which they handed out, containing their manifesto: the "Magnificent Union of Digitally Downloading Artists" - or MUDDA, however I did get a photocopied A4 version, and it makes for very interesting reading, as well as being something else for record companies to worry about.

The musicians claim that they and others must act now to claim digital music's future.
Now that the Internet is transforming the way people buy and listen to songs. Gabriel and Eno want to suggest ways that artists can make their music available at their own prices and determine their own release schedules free of record label dictates. They hope to launch the online alliance within a month. This is something that we will definitely return to in a future Vip News.

The ‘Border Breakers’ Awards were presented at MIDEM for the first time. The European Commission created this initiative in collaboration with professional European Music Industry bodies, such as EMO (European Music Office), GESAC, ICMP/CIEM, IFPI, IMPALA and the Billboard Information Group. These Awards were presented to those artists whose debut albums had achieved the highest sales in the European Union in 2003, outside their country of origin. The aim of these prizes is to help improve the distribution of European Music across the EU.

The winners were: The Darkness (UK), The Thrills (Ireland), Las Ketchup (Spain), Carla Bruni (France), Masterplan (Germany), Tiziano Ferro (Italy), Lasgo (Belgium), Saybia (Denmark) and Mariza (Portugal).

Now this seems to me to be a very positive and forward thinking move, and this event could become the basis of a great live show, far more suited to MIDEM than the NRJ Awards. How about it for next year?