The 15 nominees for the 2027 Music Moves Europe Awards (MME Awards), the European Union’s prize for emerging musicians, were announced on Wednesday 4 November at Riga Music Week. The prize is supported by the Creative Europe programme and organised by Eurosonic Noorderslag (ESNS) and Reeperbahn Festival. Glenn Micallef, the European Commissioner for Culture, said the awards celebrate “the next generation of European talent”, a statement accurate if one sees the charts of the past decade and how many famous pop artists became known to audiences through the event.
Nominees are chosen using airplay, streaming figures, live performances in Europe and recommendations from music-industry professionals. The organisers say the selection committee draws on SoundCharts data and recommendations from more than 300 European industry figures.
The prize was called the European Border Breakers Awards (EBBA) from 2004 to 2018. It then became the Music Moves Europe Talent Awards from 2019 and was later renamed the MME Awards. The organisers’ records give these years for some of the best-known names:
The EBBA list also includes Mumford & Sons (2011), Emeli Sandé (2013), John Newman (2015), Milow (2010), Selah Sue (2012), José González (2007), Alan Walker and Jain (both 2017), and Alice Merton and Alma (both 2018). The MME Awards have put the spotlight on some of Europe’s most successful artists, such as Dua Lipa, Stromae, Hozier, Rosalía, Christine and the Queens and many more.
The organisers say they look for artists who are still “emerging”, weighing career growth, social media following and current status. Much of the fame of Adele, Dua Lipa, Rosalía and Stromae came afterwards.
British acts feature heavily in that history, and eligibility has since changed. It is tied to participation in Creative Europe, and the UK does not appear on the organisers’ list of participating countries, so no British act is among the 2027 nominees. The jury does include the BBC Radio 1 presenter Jess Iszatt.
The winners will be announced on Thursday 14 January 2027 at the Stadsschouwburg in Groningen, the Netherlands, during Eurosonic Noorderslag, which runs from 13 to 16 January. All 15 nominees will perform at the festival and join an education programme for emerging artists.
Seven prizes will be awarded: five MME Awards, one Grand Jury Prize and one Public Choice Award. An international jury selects the first six. Alkyone will compete against acts from 14 other countries.
Each of the five MME Award winners receives €10,000.
The Grand Jury Prize winner receives an additional €5,000 green touring voucher; the organisers’ own page also lists €10,000 in prize money for this award.
The Public Choice Award winner receives €5,000 and a recording session at Spotify’s Stockholm studio to make a Spotify single, with the artist retaining full rights.
The Public Choice Award is decided by fans, and the nominee with the most votes wins. Voting is open now and closes at midnight on Thursday, 31 December 2026.
Voters choose one of the 15 artists on the MME Awards website and complete a form asking for their first name, surname, email address and country. The organisers’ privacy policy says these details are collected to verify the vote and that they are also used to contact the Public Choice winner.
