The Swiss lose their neutrality… (to Danish music)!

Saturdays third edition of SPOT on Denmark at Montreux Jazz Festival was a smashing success. Montreux Jazz Café quickly reached its maximum capacity of 1000 and got packed with hordes of Swiss music fans eager to discover the latest offerings of the Danish music scene.

The crowd swooned to Figurines fine indie tones, danced to Vinnie Who’s disco-pop extravaganza and partied to Reptile & Retard’s jaw-dropping electro-punk. Vinnie Who frontman Niels Bagge observed: “People were very open-minded and I am very proud this was our first show in Switzerland. There was a lot of real music fans having a great time, and it didn’t feel at all like a showcase.”

Overhwelming response from the media
Media reactions to the Swiss SPOT-evening have so far been overwhelming. Joiz TV will be doing a 30-minute “SPOT On Denmark”-special, while France’s biggest radio network (FIP) broadcasted an acoustic session by Figurines. The event and showcasing acts were also covered by a large number of other French- and German-speking media including Les Temps, 20 Minutes, DRS 3, La 1ère, Rete Tre, DRS Virus, 78s.ch and Couleur 3.

The B2B reception was held in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere and yielded great results. Figurines manager Jesper Brodersen pointed out: “The selection of delegates was very good and everybody knew what it was all about. It’s such a useful platform – it gave our partners in Switzerland incentives and tools to work with. SPOT on Denmark can give our bands a head-start!”

Demand for all 3 acts
Both Figurines & Vinnie Who, have successfully cooperated with SPOT to activate their Swiss distributors (Irascible & EMI) around the event  (Reptile & Retard haven’t released any albums yet.) Furthermore, all three acts received booking offers from several interested Swiss agents – thus all three bands will be represented in Switzerland.

While Vinnie Who and Reptile & Retard are still negotiating, Vinnie Who manager Malte Erbs conceded: “It was overwhelming because we had offers from 3 different agencies! We feel that we now have lots of Swiss friends. We wouldn’t be able to do it without SPOT on Denmark.” Figurines and their German agent Headquarter Entertainment, have already set up and confirmed a show in Zürich in September, with Swiss agency Just Because.

Thomas Rohde, Director, MXD said:
”The fact that the audience litterally ran wild underlines the way we’ve been developing SPOT On Denmark. When we started our focus was primarily directed towards the music industry of the markets visited, and ensuring that the right importers would show up at the events. This is of course still a priority today but we’ve significantly upscaled our marketing efforts towards the end-consumer, the music fan.Bringing onboard local PR-partners have proven to be very good investments. SPOT On Denmark today generates remarkable media results and attracts full-houses around Europe. This helps convincing local industry players that visit our events, that Danish music has export potential, and thereby helps our participating acts secure the deals they’re looking for. ”

Gunnar K. Madsen, Director for SPOT Festival & ROSA added:
”SPOT On Denmark promotes the participating bands as well as SPOT Festival. Our main goal is obviously to generate deals for the performing acts, but on a secondary level we use the event to activate relevant international music industry networks to visit the SPOT Festival in Denmark, thus making SPOT On Denmark beneficial for the Danish industry as a whole.”

Delegates’ quotes

 

“I was blown away by Figurines’ acoustic performance. I look forward to playing their music on my show on FIP. .” – Alexandre Desurmont (FIP Radio France)

 

 

 

 

“The Danish scene is very exciting, and the bands we discovered on Spot on Denmark at Montreux reinforced this impression. Vinnie Who is the new king of disco! And this voice! WOW, loved it, future big star!” – Anya Della Croce (For Noise / Pass Pass)

 

 

 

“Reptile and Retard were AWESOME!! AWESOME!! AWESOME!!” – Tanya Gavrancic (Joiz TV)

 

 

 

 

 

“We want to hear more Danish music!” – Tina Nägeli (DRS Virus)

 

 

 

 

“.I really liked Ginger Ninja that played here last year and now we’re working with Figurines, and few other Danish acts like Agnes Obell and n*grandjean.” – Samuel Galley (Just Because)

 

 

 

 

“With SPOT on Denmark at Montreux we managed to radio airplay for Figurines. We wouldn’t have been able to reach the mainstream media without it.” – Valentin Mottier (Irascible)

 

 

 

 

“Almost everyone we invited came to the SPOT on Denmark event.”- Frank Lenggenhager (Lautstark Music)