Where It All Began
As our very first newsletter, let’s begin with the fundamentals – where the award came from.
It just so happens that launching this website has coincided perfectly with the reason it was first created!
The award is held once annually and the winner is awarded a cash prize to put towards recording, marketing, or anything that can contribute to their growth – and all monies are raised by our incredible community!
That reason is to celebrate artists and contributors – something of what our very first winner NICOLE ALLAN is the absolute essence.
Nicole has been singing for over ten years, since arriving in the UK from Spain. She began busking on the streets, before she progressed into running local events – perhaps most notably, The Butler Open Mic Night, where she built up a fantastic community of talent and created a space to socialise and network every Friday night.
In 2022, we decided to celebrate her achievements just as she released her first single “Should’ve Known Better”. Nicole is without doubt one of the most striking voices in Berkshire, belting with enormous prowess reminiscent to that of Whitney Houston, Anastasia and Leanne Rhymes!
So we created the Berkshire Artistree Award to recognise her outstanding achievements in musicianship, events management and fostering new talent. We pooled together what we had and put the word out – and the people came through! So many of you wanted to support and we raised enough for a new professional showreel recorded by Matt Flemming at Minus Tone.
Nicole’s contribution to the community extends beyond her own act, where she encourages talent of all levels onto stage to build their confidence.
In 2023, we decided to continue the award and invited Nicole to join a board of creators to help determine a winner.
We encouraged people to submit their nominations and boy did they come through! We’ll run another article soon on our 2023 winner, but for 2024, we will be opening up a polling system to inspire the fairest outcome as to who the community decides is the most deserved winner.
Nicole was a major factor in the creation of the Berkshire Artistree Award, embodying our mantra of growing the artistry of our community and helping others boost their potential. Notably, she runs the second stage at Marvellous Festival, to showcase acts to over audiences of over 5000 after priming them at her events. She can be commended for paying her acts at the Singer Soup Kitchen and Acoustic Sessions, listed on our events page.
Perfectly timed, we’re excited to announce the release of Nicole’s second single “TIME”, which debuts THIS FRIDAY on 10th May 2024. Nicole has recently taken the leap to becoming a full time musician and we’re here for it!
We’re so excited to hear the new single, so head on over to Nicole’s page and pre-save now, and let’s show her the support she deserves!
This year in 2024, we hope to open up for donations and raise £500 in total to support the award and help with site running costs.
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