Glastonbury Festival have announced the Longlist for this year’s Emerging Talent Competition. The Longlist is a list of 90 different musical acts who have been selected by a panel of judges from the thousands of acts that entered this year.

I’m one of a panel of 30 judges, made up of online music writers, that helped select the acts who go through to the next round. Each judge is hand selects just three artists, with the overall Longlist of 90 ultimately being further whittled down by the festival organisers to just eight finalists, who will all perform live in next month’s finals.

You can see the full list and listen to a playlist including music from most on the Longlist over on the Glastonbury Festival website.

The three artists I chose were JacobNeverhill, Kudu Blue and Jen Simmonds. I’ve included the track I judged from each band below, together with a very brief description of why they stood out for me.

JacobNevrhill

JacobNeverhill creates emotionally vulnerable R&B with beautiful, sophisticated production that lets the songwriting really shine in a way that has led to crossover success for the likes of Miguel.

The song I judged isn’t currently available publicly but the video below is a great demonstration of what made me think JacobNeverhill’s talent deserved recognition.

Kudu Blue

Kudu Blue blend melancholic vocals with sophisticated and soulful house music to create something that feels undoubtedly modern whilst drawing on three decades of dance music… The result is a little like the xx collaborating with John Talabot, that is to say, excellent.

Jen Simmonds

Jen Simmonds captures a blissful dreamlike state on the spectral yet grungy One In A Million… A shoegaze wall-of-sound that feels like the soundtrack to a time when you have been untethered from your day-to-day reality and instead have become lost in all the things we hold close in our inner lives.