StarAfrica Sounds 2013: Behold the Winner!

StarAfrica Sounds 2013: Behold the Winner!

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, July 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --



Samyr Samson, winner of the 2013 edition of the StarAfrica Sounds contest organised by
Orange on StarAfrica.com with partners Deezer and Zimbalam



Out of the 5 candidates the public voted into the final round, the StarAfrica Sounds
jury named Samyr Samson the winner of this year's contest.



Samyr Samson represented Cote d'Ivoire with his 'Gueha' title, a song mixing tradition
and modernity.



The jury was seduced by the musical universe created by Samyr Samson and enjoyed his
performance.



More widely, the diversity of the songs and the potential of the candidates has
impressed all the members of the jury: Pierre Niboyet (Deezer), Oussama Errafay (Believe),
Claude Bassole (Musiki), Corinne Loze (StarAfrica.com) and Aristide Kouevidjin
(StarAfrica.com).



"The public managed to choose to highlight very promising candidates. I am glad
StarAfrica Sounds rewarded Samyr Samson, a young talent with the potential for a good
career in the music business", Corinne Loze (StarAfrica.com)



Pierre Niboyet said: "There was no doubt that we would want to be a part of Star
Africa Sounds this year and help discover the very best in young African talent. Discovery
is part of our DNA; our editors are continuously on the look-out for great new sounds from
around the world that we can introduce to our subscribers in 182 countries. The jury ended
up deciding on Samyr Samson, who enticed us with "Geha", a track that seamlessly blends
tradition and modernity. I'm really pleased for Samyr and we're looking forward to helping
him reach new audiences with this beautiful song."



The final ranking of the 2013 Star Africa Sounds contest is as follows:



1st: Samyr Samson (Cote d'Ivoire) with 'Gueha'



2nd: Papa Abdoulaye Diop (Senegal) avec 'Babylon'



3rd: Bril Fight 4 (Senegal) with 'Toxic'



4th ex-aequo: Mehdi Badri (Tunisia) with 'All the pain' and Linda Mauwa (RD Congo)
with 'Ne crains rien'



The jury congratulates all five finalists, who gathered enthusiastic support with
about 50,000 votes from the public.



Launched on the 15th of April 2013 by Orange, in partnership with Deezer and Zimbalam,
the StarAfrica Sounds contest promotes the young talents of the African music scene and
was a great success - recieving entries from 101 candidates across 18 African countries.



The contest aims to give maximum visibility to artists coming from the African
continent, notably through the distribution of their songs on the main streaming and
downloading platforms.



Deezer, the global music subscription service, recently launched in Africa bringing
people access to over 25 million songs on any device with just one subscription. Deezer's
partnership with StarAfrica.com will offer artists an exciting platform to reach new
audiences around the world.



Thanks to the partnership with Zimbalam, the finalists will have the possibility to
sell their music on the streaming and downloading platforms all over the world, receiving
90% of the generated royalties, without exclusivity or time commitment: they remain
independent, free and owner of their music.



The music videos of Samyr Samson and the 4 other finalists are available on



http://en.starafrica.com/music/top-5-the-finalists-are-known.html



Find out all the details about the 2013 edition on:



http://en.starafrica.com/music/starafrica-sounds-2013



About StarAfrica.com



StarAfrica.com, the Orange Entertainment portal in Africa, aggregates content from all
the countries.



With more than 1 million visitors in January 2013**, available in French, English and
Arabic, StarAfrica.com is among the African youth top portals, especially with its
flagship channels: football, music and education. StarAfrica.com offers 7 thematic
channels: news, music, football, sport, education, jobs and the diaspora shop.




Find out more on StarAfrica.com on the internet: en.StarAfrica.com
[http://www.StarAfrica.com ]
Facebook: StarAfrica [https://www.facebook.com/starafrica ]
Twitter: @star_africa [https://twitter.com/star_africa ]
**source Nielsen January 2013


About Deezer



Deezer delivers an exciting, broad and truly global music experience across over 180
countries. With 10 million monthly active users, 4 million paying subscribers, more than
1.5 million Facebook fans and over 100 million shareable playlists, Deezer allows fans to
enjoy music unconstrained by any of the barriers of the past, providing unlimited access
to a catalogue of 25 million tracks, instantly available on any device - smartphone,
laptop, tablet, home speakers, car, or work PC. Deezer's mantra is music discovery,
helping fans rediscover the joy of finding and sharing fantastic new music through
specially selected editorial recommendations for every single market in which it is
present. With an international partnership with Facebook and strategic telecoms
partnerships with Orange, Everything Everywhere and Telenor, amongst many others, Deezer
is committed to bringing music to new audiences worldwide.




Discover Deezer on http://www.deezer.com
m.deezer.com [http://m.deezer.com ]
blog.deezer.com [http://blog.deezer.com ]
Facebook.com/deezer [https://www.facebook.com/deezer ]
Twitter: @Deezer


About Zimbalam



Zimbalam, founded by Believe Digital in 2009, is the first European digital music
distributor, dedicated to independent and self-produced artists. The vocation of Zimbalam
is to release talents, pay creation and promote the musical diversity. Zimbalam allows any
artist to make his music available on the main streaming and downloading platforms
worldwide, then remit him 90% of the generated royalties, without any exclusivity or time
commitment: the artist remains independent.



Available all over the world since 2012, Zimbalam has already seduced more than 80 000
artists.



Press contact: Juliette Charlot (juliette.charlot@believedigital.com)



http://www.zimbalam.com




Starafrica.com

CONTACT: Laurence Ramananantoandro +33-1-44-44-93-93.


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