COVER ME 2023 | Contest musicale

Contest 2023

Presentation
Regulations
Artists
Expert panel of Judges
Panel of judges for the Critics’ Award

Presentation

Cover me '23

The first musical contest dedicated to Springsteen!

The “Cover Me” contest has been organized by NOI & SPRINGSTEEN in order to focus attention on the value of Springsteen's music and the talent of participating artists and bands, giving them space and visibility through social forums, the regular event of the Festival dedicated to Springsteen in Bergamo and several national radios.

The best band or best performing artist will be selected in this free competition. The contest is open to all artists; each artist or band can participate with a musical piece chosen from Bruce Springsteen’s outstanding repertoire. The piece must be reinterpreted and most importantly, the artist or band must “make it their own” without distorting the essence and melody. Songs identical to the original will not be accepted by the panel of judges and will not participate in the contest.

Regulations

Find out about the regulations and participate in the contest

REGULATIONS

01 How to register:
Registrations will open on March 31, 2023.

To register properly, you must send an email to info@noiespringsteen.com with the subject line "participation in musical contest" no later than May 31, 2023, including a biography, a photo, your contact information and a YouTube/Vimeo link in which the artist/group performs the song for the contest.
The covers that arrive will be published on social media to make them known to the general public.

02 Selection:
By June 15, 2023 the Expert Panel of Judges will select 20/30 pieces (depending on the number of participants) from those received which will be published on the www.noiespringsteen.com website. After registering, the general public will be able to vote for the selected songs (until July 15 2023) and the 10 songs that obtain the highest score, added to the votes given by the Expert Panel of Judges, will participate in the final phase scheduled for Sunday September 3, 2023 in Bergamo. The list of the 10 finalists will be announced within July 31, 2023.
The Expert Panel of Judges, the audience attending the finals and those from home will determine the three winners of the "COVER ME 2023" Contest after listening to the live performances.

03 Categories admitted:
Bands and single artists from all musical genres can participate.

04 How the Contest will be conducted:
The songs selected by the Expert Panel of Judges will be published on the www.noiespringsteen.com website.
The audience will then vote on the 20 best songs. The vote, combined with that of the Expert Panel of Judges, will determine the 10 Cover finalists.
The contest will take place on Sunday September 3 from 4 pm to 7 pm.
Each band/artist will have approximately 10 minutes including preparation, performance of the song, technical evaluation and turning the stage over to the next group.
The sound check will be conducted previously, in a time slot to be defined.

05 Instruments
The stage is equipped with drums and amplifiers for guitar, bass, drums, and vocals.
Groups must bring:
1. Their own instruments, excluding drums.
2. Any pedals and pedalboards.
3. Cymbals and drumsticks.

For organizational matters, please specify on the registration form if there is a left-handed drummer in addition to any special request.

06 Expert Panel of Judges
The panel of judges, composed of experts, is responsible for selecting 20/30 covers from those received. The same panel of judges together with the audience will decide the winner of the Festival at the end of the day on Sunday, September 3, 2023.
The President of the Panel of Judges will be Claudio Trotta (promoter and founder of Barley Arts).

07 Voting Procedure
The Expert Panel of Judges will evaluate each individual piece assigning a score from 0 to 5.
The panel of judges will vote in a discretionary manner and in full autonomy. The score assigned by the President of the Expert Panel of Judges has a double value.
The 20 or 30 pieces that receive the highest score will participate in the second selection. The audience will be able to vote on every single song, in the same way, awarding a score from 0 to 5. In order to vote, you must register on the www.noiespringsteen.com website and access the GARA (CONTEST) section. You will be able to vote for all 20/30 pieces or only one, according to your preference.
During the final, the scores will be given in the same manner both by the audience attending the live performance as well as those from home and the Expert Panel of Judges. From 0 to 5 points will be awarded.
The final ranking will be determined by the total of the scores obtained according to the order of the partial rankings determined by the home audience, the attending audience and the Expert Panel of Judges.

The points awarded will be as follows:

10 points	1st place
09 points	2nd place
08 points	3rd place
07 points	4th place
06 points	5th place
05 points	6th place
04 points	7th place
03 points	8th place
02 points	9th place
01 point	10th place

The points awarded through the classification determined by the votes of the Quality jury will have a coefficient equal to 2 and therefore in the case of a third place winner, instead of 8 points, 16 points will be awarded.

08 Prizes
The winner of the contest will receive a cash prize of €1,500.00.
The runner-up will receive a cash prize of €1,000.00. The third-place contestant will receive a cash prize of €500.00.

The winner of the Contest will be able to create a video clip in collaboration with Studio Da Re, will play a live concert at Druso in Bergamo and also 3 months for free with Sorry Mom.

09 Other information
Participation is free of charge.
All participants will be offered lunch and dinner on Sunday September 3 at the event venue. Any accommodations will be in charge of the participant in the Contest, as well as any expenses for travel and transport to and from the event venue.

10 Technical organization: NOI & SPRINGSTEEN
Noi & Springsteen arose from a group of friends whose goal was to create a place (real for past events and those under construction, and virtual on these pages) where all of us, so very different yet all the while sharing the same…passion?...faith?…source of inspiration?...could come together and meet again. A community. People bound by a common interest. And “The Ties That Bind”, the subheading of our new name, makes this declaration.

11 Contact information
C/O Alberto Lanfranchi office – Via Palma il Vecchio, 111 – 24128 Bergamo (BG), Italy.
EM: info@noiespringsteen.com F: Noi&Springsteen | Mobile: +39 338 2606461.
www.noiespringsteen.com

12 Registration (HOW TO PARTICIPATE)
Send the requested data no later than May 31, 2023 to the following email address:
info@noiespringsteen.com

Specify the following in your email:

01 NAME OF THE BAND | NAMES OF BAND MEMBERS OR ARTIST
02 CONTACT INFORMATION
03 CV AND PHOTO
04 YOUTUBE/VIMEO LINK (with proposed song/cover)
05 DECLARATION / CONSENT FORM *
06 NOTES: indicate any specific requests or questions.

DOWNLOAD THE CONSENT FORM

CRITICS’ AWARD

COVER ME - The first musical contest dedicated to Springsteen!

The Critics' Award is a supporting accolade in the COVER ME Musical Contest. It was established with the aim of having this prestigious award given by five expert journalists who have been appointed by the Contest.

ETTORE CARDAMELLIS & PAOLO ERCOLI

Band

Something in the Night

COVER NOT IN THE FINAL

Biographies

Expert panel of Judges

Claudio Trotta

Claudio Trotta, Milanese, born in 1957, is one of the most esteemed and important independent producers and promoters of live shows in the world.

After various experiences in free radio in the 1970s, he founded Barley Arts in 1979, of which he is still the driving force. Since then, he has organized more than 15,000 events around the world with many artists, including Bruce Springsteen, AC/DC, Kiss, Sting, David Bowie, Metallica, Frank Zappa, Renato Zero, Ligabue, and Negramaro.

Eleonora Bagarotti

She is a journalist for the newspaper «Libertà». She has published the books: The legacy of the dream (Cortina), Magic Bus, The Who, The songs of Tom Waits, Ligabue, History of rock and Elvis Costello (Editori Riuniti). The Who - Pure & Easy and Tom Waits - The voice and the oblivion (Arcana). Graduated in Harp, she obtained a Master's degree in Educational Projects for the theater at the Boito Conservatory in Parma and is the author of theatrical texts, curator of exhibitions and events.

Giovanni Poglio

Journalist, author, music critic.
After numerous experiences in radio and television, he worked on the editorial staff of the monthly Tutto Musica (Mondadori).
Talk show host for Panorama d'Italia Tour, with "live" interviews with the protagonists of Italian music and debates spanning themes from science to entertainment as part of Focus Live, he published the book Ferdinando Arno Entrainment with Electa Mondadori.
Since 2008, he has been writing about music and entertainment for the weekly Panorama and the Panorama.it website.

Giorgio Berta

Born in Bergamo on 22.03.1960, he received his degree from the University of Bergamo in Economics and Commerce with a thesis in Tax Law regarding corporate accounting obligations.
Since 1988 he has been registered in section A of the Register of Certified Accountants and Accounting Experts of Bergamo.
After conducting the activity for five years at another professional’s studio until 1993, he opened his own office in Bergamo.
Currently he carries out his professional activities mainly in Bergamo, in via Mazzini, 4, in the Berta, Nembrini, Colombini and Associates studio of which he holds an absolute majority. Two partners and around 80 employees support him in the business. Members of the professional register amount to around 35. The firm conducts its activities mainly based on tax, corporate and insolvency consulting. A merger with another professional firm made it possible to include job counselling among the activities it offers. The studio is part of the professional ACB network.
From 2015 to 2017 he was the effective statutory auditor of Banca Popolare di Bergamo and holds the same role within the UBI group in relation to a number of investee companies.
Since 1988 he has been collaborating with the University of Bergamo where to date, he has held various positions. He has collaborated with industry magazines, in which he has published:
• “IVA sulle attività finanziarie” in “IVA 96 Analisi di alcune significative fattispecie giuridiche” edited by Claudio Sacchetto, Giuffrè (publisher).
• Il software destinato alla vendita” in “Società e Diritto” no. 1, May 1995 Il sole XXIV ore (publisher).
• “Affitto d’azienda: aspetti civilistici e tributari” in “Società e diritto” no. 12 December 1994 Pirola (publisher). On a regular basis for a certain period of time, he wrote for “L’informatore Pirola”.

He has also contributed, as co-author, to the publication of many other texts in the field. He began playing tennis at the age of 7 and in the early 1980s earned a B-level player classification.
Music, however, is his great passion. His father was an acclaimed pianist and influenced him. He bought his first record (Thick as a Brick by Jethro Tull) at the age of 12, and still today, buys at least one CD or vinyl record daily, either physically or downloading it from Apple Music.
His favourite musical genres are soul, blues, rock 'n' roll, and jazz (Springsteen, Otis Redding, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, Tom Waits, Van Morrison, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson, Snarky Puppy, Talking Heads, and Tim Buckley are some of my favourite artists), and being President of the Foundation.
The Donizetti Theatre has brought him closer in recent years to other genres such as symphonic music and opera.
He plays (terribly, in his opinion) flute, sax and percussion.
With a certain regularity, he has been writing about music for at least 10 years for an online newspaper in the province of Bergamo, Bergamonews, which has a daily readership of over 150,000.
A few years ago, he got involved in organizing the first event in Bergamo with the theme of Springsteen and his art.

David Drusin

David (Druso) Drusin was born in Cividale del Friuli on December 16, 1973. After a life spent on basketball courts as a professional player and having played in many cities in Italy, after 24 years of basketball career he became a founding member of Druso, one of Italy’s most important live clubs, and as art director coordinating 2315 concerts...

Biographies

Panel of judges for the Critics’ Award

Gino Castaldo

One of Italy's best-known music critics, for over 40 years he has been telling the stories of the great names in Italian and international music with images and words.
A journalist for La Repubblica since the newspaper was established in 1976, during his career he has interviewed all the giants of music - from Bob Dylan to Paul McCartney, from Lou Reed to Bruce Springsteen. In addition to the supplement Musica! he has edited numerous publishing initiatives for the Espresso Group, including record series such as "La storia del Jazz e l'America del Rock". From 2011 to 2017 he hosted Playlist on Radio Capital with Ernesto Assante. He was the author of musical programmes on Radio Tre and has carried out important cycles of musical narratives for Radio 2, some of them live entitled Let's Play, while he has been hosting Back2back with Ema Stokholma since 2018. For over ten years he has been taking his musical narratives to theatres and Italy’s most beautiful squares, depicting the big names in the history of Italian and international music, alternating words and music.
He conducted ten episodes of Magazzini Musicali on Rai2 in 2021 and his most recent books include Il romanzo della canzone italiana (Einaudi 2018) and Lucio Dalla (Mondadori, 2021), written with Ernesto Assante.

Marco Biondi

Marco Biondi (Soresina, May 2, 1961) is an Italian radio presenter. His began working in Italian radio at the end of 1976 when he was offered a job at his hometown radio station, RCL 26. In the years afterwards, Marco Biondi broadcast from a number of important local radio stations, such as Radio Antenna Nuova in Castelleone, Radio Music Boy in Cremona, Radio Mambo in Cagliari, and finally Rete Radio Azzurra in Montichiari, an Afro music station.

In 1987 he started up a collaboration with Radio Deejay, which lasted 11 years, presenting the Pop News programme and conducting hundreds of interviews with artists from the worldwide pop/rock scene (David Bowie, Bon Jovi, Oasis, Take That, Robbie Williams, U2, R.E.M., Lenny Kravitz, Depeche Mode, Jamiroquai, The Cure, and many others). At Radio Deejay he also hosted Sera Dedicata, a single-subject programme devoted each time to a specific artist, and also Martedì Grasso, a weekly programme in tandem with Giacomo Valenti.

In 1998 he went to Radio 105 where he presented an evening programme called Milano Londra New York, before moving to New York where he did the live broadcast of 105 Live From New York and the nightly electronic music programme No Label.
In 2001 he began collaborating with RIN - Radio Italia Network, where for five years he presented the house music programme Welcome to the Jungle, which for two consecutive summers was broadcast live from Ibiza. At RIN he also presented Suburbia Chart, the house music chart compiled by Alex Benedetti and House Gallery where he narrated the history of house music.

In 2005, RIN-Radio Italia Network became Play Radio, and Marco Biondi, together with Petra Loreggian, presented the music news programme Playlist, on air from 2 to 4 p.m. It dealt with the latest developments in music, news and many Italian and international guests, including Pharrel Williams, Take That, Vasco Rossi, Francesco de Gregori, Sean Paul, Lucio Dalla and many others.

In 2007 Marco Biondi became musical director of the emerging Virgin Radio, for which he also oversaw the Virgin Rock 20 chart and presented the programmes The Rocket, Rock Coming Up and Extra Virgin. There he also conducted many interviews with countless important figures in Italian and international rock music, such as Bruce Springsteen, Carlos Santana, Liam Gallagher, Michael Stipe, Vasco Rossi, Ligabue, Litfiba, Negrita and Subsonica. Since 2010 he has also been music director for Virginradio TV.

Simultaneously with his radio work, Marco Biondi is also a songwriter, composer and record producer of dance and pop music. Some of artists he has collaborated with and produced include Mato Grosso, Ava and Stone, Pin-Occhio, Space 1 and D.J. Speciale.

He has also written for music magazines such as Rolling Stone, Discotec, Tutto Disco, Tutto Musica & Spettacolo, Dance Music Magazine and Rock Show, for which he was also artistic director for a year.

Since October 9, 2017, Marco Biondi has hosted the TV programme "Pop News TV" on air on 30 television channels. It is a daily capsule of across-the-board musical information and is also available on the web on the programme’s official channels and on Flipps

In 2018 he founded the radio crash-course Do You Radio, together with Luigi Speciale, PF Colombi and Cesare Zanotti.

In 2019 he founded Be NEXT Music, the brand he uses to scout for new artists and up and coming bands, which then led him to become A&R and partner of Sorry Mom! Management together with founding partner Luca Bernardoni.

Since May 2020 he has been the Artistic Director of Showtime.it music, events and entertainment marketplace.

Since May 2020 he has been Artistic Director of Radio Vigevano.

In June 2020 Marco Biondi turned his Be NEXT Music into a record label with distribution by Sony Music Italy.

Since December 1, 2020, he has been station manager of Giornale Radio, a new information radio talk show that broadcasts 200 news reports daily.

In 2021 he wrote the preface to the book La Radio Libera La Radio Prigioniera by Ubaldo Ferrini, the preface to the book Professione Speaker - L'Intervista Radiofonica by Alessio Aymone, the afterword to the book I 60s In Un Trip by Marco Franco and Paola Mattavelli and also wrote the final chapter entitled "Viva Il Vinile!" for the book Voci Alla Radio by Enzo Mauri.

In 2022 he joined the expert panel of judges for the "Cover Me" contest organised by "Noi & Springsteen".

In March 2022, he founded "School to Radio", with Luigi Speciale, a radio course held in schools and aimed at primary and secondary school children.

Ugo Bacci

Ugo Bacci, giornalista e critico musicale per L'Eco di Bergamo.

Patrizia De Rossi

Patrizia De Rossi was born in Rome where she lives and works as a journalist, author and host of radio programs.

She published two books on Luciano Ligabue in 1995 and 2011 and published a third entitled ReStart in 2020. In 2005 she published “Ben Harper. Arriverà una luce”. In 2012 “Gianna Nannini – Fiore di Ninfea” was released. In 2014 she published “Bruce Springsteen e le donne. She’s the one”, about female figures in the Boss's songs.

As an author and radio host she has worked at Rai Stereo Notte, Radio M100, Radio Città Futura, and Enel Radio. Since 2006 she has been editor-in-chief at «Hitmania Magazine», a publication on music, entertainment and youth cultures.

Stefano Rusconi

Stefano Rusconi, born in Lecco in 1967, has owned Discoshop since 1991 (he was barely 20).
He runs his record and concert-ticket store in the city of Lecco with great enthusiasm and vitality.
Ever since he was young, he’s had a dream to achieve; that dream was called 'the passion for music' and, incredibly, he continues to cultivate and pursue it day after day, even today.
He also organises live music events with local and national artists in-store and in special locations on Lake Como.
Customers call him the “vender of emotions”: that’s how he still gets his desire to resist and exist.
And the music plays on!