Paul wins Abbey Road date

A BALLYMENA musician is set to follow in the footsteps of his musical heroes, The Beatles.

Nineteen-year-old Paul Shevlin has won a recording session at the world-famous Abbey Road studios as part of his prize for winning the Next BRIT Thing competition.

Following a six month nationwide search for the best in young UK musical talent, Paul was crowned winner of winner of the national music competition for 11-19 year olds backed by the UK music industry, The BRIT Awards and the Government.

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Having battled his way through regional auditions after being selected from 2,500 entries in a public online vote, 13 Next BRIT Thing finalists performed in front of a panel of celebrity judges and an audience of thousands on Monday 5th March 2012 at the IndigO2 in Greenwich, London.

After stiff competition, the judges - pop band McFly, operatic tenor Noah Stewart, best-selling soprano Laura Wright and managing director of Columbia Records Mike Smith - chose winners in three different categories.

Singer-songwriter Paul Shevlin won the General Category with his original melodic piano led songs.

This category was open to all genres and Paul wins a recording session at the world-famous Abbey Road.

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“I’m really humbled to have been selected from such a standard of artists on the night,” said Paul.

“Being a massive Beatles fan I cannot wait to get into Abbey Road studios - it’s a bit surreal!”

BPI Chief Executive Geoff Taylor said: “All the performances on the night were truly inspirational, showing the real breadth of musical talent from Britain’s young performers.

“Paul’s performance was astonishing – a star in the making and a true natural performer.

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“He’s a worthy winner of our first Next BRIT Thing national competition and I look forward to hearing his Abbey Road recording.”

Launched in Summer 2011, Next BRIT Thing - www.nextbritthing.com - looked for young musicians in any genre to share their performances, compete in online charts and perform live. The competition was open to all 11-19 year olds whether in formal education or not.

In all, some 36,000 young people registered to get involved and the website attracted over 100,000 unique users. More than 2,500 entries were made by young people uploading tracks, which were voted upon during a two-month period prior to Christmas 2011. After 60,000 votes were cast, a long list of performers to audition in one of ten regions emerged.

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