Step Up Fund 2023 powered by Amazon Music reveals 12 artist awardees
Step Up 2023 awardees
The Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) and Amazon Music are delighted to reveal the 12 awardees to benefit from the 2023 Step Up Fund for artists.
Decided by a panel of independent industry professionals and drawn from across the UK, these hugely distinct talents represent an incredibly wide range of genres, and include an Ivor Novello Rising Star nominee, a winner of BBC 3’s The Rap Game, a band who recently performed on the main stage at TRNSMT and artists championed by the likes of Grimes, Gilles Peterson, Iggy Pop and Casskidd.
All 12 artists are in an exciting period of artistic development, and ready to take the next step in their career.
This is precisely what the Step Up Fund was designed to achieve - to help overcome the financial hurdles currently faced by talented independent artists, and to help shoulder the cost of their creative endeavours, whether in recording, touring, marketing, video production or any other aspect of their work.
Developed by the FAC and generously supported by Amazon Music, Amazon’s immersive audio entertainment service, the fund provides grants of up to £8,000, alongside a broader package of benefits - including a one-year membership of the FAC, a 12-month subscription to Amazon Music, an Echo device, and content creation opportunities.
Because of a dramatic year-on-year increase in applications, which were up 35% on 2022, and due to the high quality of submissions, Amazon Music took the decision to expand the fund by supporting 12 artists in 2023.
All are featured in today’s updated Amazon Music Breakthrough UK playlist.
In alphabetical order, the 2023 FAC Step Up Fund powered by Amazon Music awardees are:
AMAHLA: Ivor Novello-nominated Amahla stands apart for her incredible voice and poignant sociopolitical songwriting. Amahla spent her formative years in a Caribbean household in Hackney sifting between history books and Classic Jazz & Soul records. Since then, Amahla has received extensive critical acclaim from music tastemakers and music legends for her nuanced perspectives and distinctive tone. In 2022, Earmilk magazine called Amahla "one of the most authentic voices of her generation”. This year, Amahla held her sixth consecutive sold-out headline show, selling out London’s Omeara.
AMIE BLU: Amie Blu is a hotly-tipped 20 year-old singer, songwriter and musician of French heritage based in South East London, who blends influences of R&B, Soul and Pop forming a sound that transcends genres and eras. Having been named one of DICE's Ones to Watch For 2023, Amie Blu has since been hand-picked to play a sold-out Mahalia Presents show at London's Moth Club, wowed crowds at The Great Escape in Brighton, supported Warpaint at London's Royal Festival Hall and made her Glastonbury debut on the Greenpeace stage. Since the start of 2023, Amie has also released a new series of singles as a primer to her new EP, 'crumbs in my bed' out this month.
AZIYA: Since emerging with the alternative indie smarts of searing debut single ‘Slip!’ in 2021, and vibrant, varied first EP ‘We Speak of Tides’ shortly after, London artist Aziya has been cementing herself as a musical triple-threat. As an artist with naturally powerful vocals, Aziya’s second EP is set for release this summer. Over the past two years, she’s been handpicked to support The Vaccines, Nova Twins and The Amazons; at the end of 2022, meanwhile, she opened up for Florence + the Machine at London’s O2 Arena.
B-AHWE: Now residing in South London after shaping her sound in Leeds, alt-soul artist B-ahwe’s is exploring themes of femininity, mental health, and relationships, whilst challenging societal ideals through her music. A recipient of the 2022 Drake YolanDa award, her versatility and arrangement skills have led to her contributing vocals to several artist projects. These include underground UK hip-hop acts Lausse The Cat and Nix Northwest, and jazz-crossover acts Yaatri & Pyjæn. Her new '26% Mixtape' is set for release in November, with a UK tour to follow.
CALVA LOUISE: Calva Louise are a multicultural British band from Venezuela, France and New Zealand, aiming at London’s underground live scene and driven by the creative vision of Jess since their beginning, at the end of 2016. They soon started supporting artists like Razorlight and Albert Hammond Jr. and played iconic festivals such as Reading and Leeds in England. With their latest singles Third Class Citizen and Oportunista, and after a successful UK headline tour, the band is preparing for a sold out London show on July 20th and summer Festivals including Riot Fest in Chicago on September 15th.
CHALK: Chalk is the three-piece project of Irish musicians and filmmakers Ross (production), Luke & Ben. Influenced by their love of film and the emerging Belfast dance scene, Chalk’s image-driven soundscape is composed of wailing guitars, a relentless rhythm section, and a raw, visceral spoken-word style. Following the release of their debut EP Conditions, Chalk embarked on a sold-out headline UK/IRE tour, highlighted by two performances at The Great Escape in May. Now with European Festivals and a slot at Reading & Leeds on the horizon, the Irish trio have secluded themselves, working on their next project.
DECLAN WELSH & THE DECADENT WEST: DWDW are a band from Glasgow, a prolific writer, Welsh and his band (Duncan McBride, Guitar, Ben Corlett, Bass and Murray Noble, Drums) have already released 4 EPs and 1 Album to critical acclaim, receiving a Scottish Album of The Year Award nomination for their debut Cheaply Bought Expensively Sold. 2023 will see the band tour across the UK and Europe in support of the album release including a monumental appearance on the Main Stage of TRNSMT, Scotand’s biggest festival.
GRAFT: Graft, winner of MOBO Unsung and BBC Three's The Rap Game UK, has propelled himself to national recognition by his unwavering sense of self and musical prowess. Hailing from the vibrant city of Leeds, Graft takes inspiration from genres such as Neo Soul, Hip Hop and Alternative Rap. Graft’s topical and poetic approach to songwriting has seen him grace the stage at the acclaimed Reading and Leeds Festival. Now with this national acclaim, Graft prepares for the release of his highly anticipated EP, Golden Child.
JALEN NGONDA: Jalen Ngonda is a captivating performer in today’s soul scene, as his voice, equal parts raw feeling and elegance, exudes confidence and charm. He has performed at New York City’s Summer Stage Festival, Newport Folk Festival, opened for Lauryn Hill at the Montreal Jazz Festival and most recently, Jalen thrilled audiences and garnered rave reviews with his powerful solo performance in support of Thee Sacred Souls’ US tour. Now with a pair of widely revered singles under his belt at his new home, Daptone Records, Jalen prepares for the release of his debut LP, Come Around and Love Me.
NIX NORTHWEST: London bred, Nix Northwest is a rapper, producer and multi-instrumentalist blending sounds of jazz, hip-hop and broken beats topped with introspective lyricism and catchy hooks. His love for music began from a young age; inspired by the music played by his family. Although he flirted with writing, it wasn’t until Nix met future collaborator Lausse the Cat that his music career began to take shape. He arrived with his first project, 'Life's a Bitch, I Just Need An Early Night' in late 2019, which saw him gain fans from all walks of life. With infinite potential to his artistry, he released his debut album 'Xin's Disappearance' in March 2023, cementing himself as one of the UK music scene’s most provoking and innovative players.
TARA LILY: Growing up in South London with a strong connection to her British-Bengali heritage has enabled Tara Lily to absorb a multitude of sounds and genres from her surroundings, ranging from alternative R&B and electronica to classical jazz and traditional Bengali folk music. She has been championed by Virgil Abloh, Iggy Pop, Gilles Peterson and Jamie Cullum. For her new project, ‘Last Flight Out’, Tara Lily takes listeners on a journey around the globe. The classically trained jazz musician also enters a darker era lyrically with new electronic drum n bass single ‘Double Time’.
TWST: Born and raised in Barry, Wales, twst grew up working at their father’s chicken factory. At 14, they left home and formal education and relocated to a recording studio in the South Wales Valleys. It was here that twst immersed herself in the world of music production, self-teaching and delving deep into the corners of the internet. Now, twst is based in East London and is building a compelling world of striking visuals and huge-sounding pop songs with an edge. Their 2020 debut EP TWST0001 introduced them as an online entity, with carefully crafted subversive songwriting, focused around post-internet subjects such as online relationships, surveillance, and female empowerment. 2023 started big with break-out singles Most Viewed and Off-World, and this summer seeing them make their festival debut at Reading and Leeds (BBC Introducing).
David Martin, CEO, Featured Artists Coalition: “We were blown away by both the quantity and the quality of this year’s Step Up submissions, and thanks to the generous backing of Amazon Music and the passion of the Amazon team, I am delighted that we can assist these 12 incredible artists on the next stage of their journey. Everyone knows that music is an unbelievably competitive business, and accessing finance is tough, so I am immensely proud that the FAC can play such a key role in helping to support diverse talent as we continue to expand our impact and our representation of the UK's artist community.”
Laura Lukanz, Head of Music UK, Australia & New Zealand, Amazon Music: “The Step Up Fund is a project that Amazon Music feels really passionate about and we’re thrilled to be able to support it again this year. We were overwhelmed by the response from applicants which goes to show just how much this kind of help is needed for aspiring acts. We’re looking forward to working with all of the talented artists involved to help boost their development.”
Launched for the first time in 2022, last year the FAC’s Step Up Fund powered by Amazon Music benefitted nine artists: Daniel Casimir, Friedberg, LVRA, Joel Culpepper, Elkka, nineteen97, Cherise, Deyah and VUKOVI.
The fund is open to any UK-based artists aged 18+ who have released at least three songs within the last year - with a minimum of 15k streams per song, or one song with 45k streams on a chart-eligible UK streaming service. Awardees must not have an ongoing agreement with a major or large independent record label.
Follow our socials to keep in touch with this year’s awardees, and visit our dedicated page for further information about the Step Up Fund powered by Amazon Music, or to sign up to the FAC and be first to hear about our latest updates and programmes.
