Supporting Irish Musicians and Artists

Up next in our A New Local Hero news, Mayo's Midwest Radio have crowned Mélia as their overall winner!

Led by vocalist Ciaran O'Malley, Mélia have been building up a reputation gigging around Ireland over the last few years, drawing upon pop, rock, jazz and funk influences.

"A massive thanks goes out to all of the entries we received, with an overwhelming amount of quality our judges had a next to impossible task to select a winner," Midwest Radio stated. "We all want to rally behind Mélia and Ciaran O’Malley now as they hope to represent Midwest Radio in the national finals!"

The other fantastic finalists selected by Midwest Radio included singer-songwriter Rachel Walsh, Castlebar artist Chris Cresham and rising star Conor Ward.

Each finalist got the chance to play live on Midwest Radio, with all of the artists – thanks to the support of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, under its Sound & Vision scheme – being paid for their performance.

As one of the central features of Irish Music Month, A New Local Hero is a major call to arms for Irish musicians and bands – with all 25 participating radio stations having reached out for submissions as part of the talent search.

Watch Mélia being announced as Midwest Radio's A New Local Hero below:

25 acts, including Mélia, have been selected as their radio station's A New Local Hero. Now, an industry judging panel will choose just five of those acts to go forward to play at a special showcase event in Dublin.

The A New Local Hero campaign will ultimately see over  €100,000 paid directly to Irish artists – and one worthy winning act selected, who will get to record a single at the prestigious Camden Recording Studios in Dublin, and release the single on the famed Irish independent record label Rubyworks.