Live Review – Success for Elevate Music Project Night 1 in Vancouver

On January 5, the Biltmore Cabaret in Vancouver, BC hosted Night 1 of the Elevate Music Project presented by MRG Live. The artists performing that night were Francis Baptiste, TYA, Aversions, Fallen Stars, Temia and BADMNY. Each artist/band had 15mins to wow the audience and the judges.

Despite the show being the first week of January, the line-up attracted quite the crowd and it’s safe to say that everyone – audience members, judges and artists – had a amazing Friday night.

The judges for Night One were John Donnelly (music festival producer), Brenda Grunau (Manager of the Music Team at Creative BC), Mo Tarmohamed (Rickshaw Theatre) and Magnus Thyvold (Station Manager at CJSF Radio).

First up was Francis Baptiste, an Indigenous songwriter. In 2022, he released his debut album, Sneqsilx (Family), an album that features songs sung in his native language Nsyilxcən [nah-silk-sen], the endangered language of the Syilx [see-ilks] people. Baptiste’s sophomore LP is set to release in Summer of 2024.

Up next was TYA, a self identified anxious queer indie pop artist. She made her performance unique by adding tap dance interludes.

The band Aversions followed with their quixotic mix of American post-punk and ’80s post-hardcore. In April 2023, they released the album ‘You wanted the bike’. The record complements and expands on their 2022’s 4-song EP ‘Sharp Left Turns’ by continuing to contrast jagged post-punk guitar lines with hard-hitting post-hardcore passages.

Then it was time for Fallen Stars, a female fronted LGBTQ2IA+ hard rock / pop-metal band, to take the stage. The Vancouver band described their music as both commercial and catchy but full of heavy and ear-catching riffs. In 2021, they released their full-length album ‘Execution’ to follow up their two EPs ‘Trials’ and ‘Judgement’.

Up next was emerging rapper, Temia. The British-Canadian artist dropped her first track “Granted” in 2020. It received an overwhelming positive reception.

Closing the night was the band BADMNY. The three piece band combines elements of Rock, Funk, and Electronic music. They released their debut single “Black Widow” in 2023.

All Photo Credit: Bailey Morgan