EU competition engages talented youth in artistic contest

AMMAN — Videos of Jordan's young artistic talents started emerging on social media this month, as part of the Rise Talent Competition launched by the European Union on February 1.

The competition, open to anyone between 18 and 30 years old, aims to shed light on the vast artistic community among the Jordanian youth and to discover the hidden local talents, according to the organisers.

In a video posted on the Rise Talents Facebook page, EU Ambassador to Jordan Andrea Matteo Fontana called for "anyone who likes to sing, play an instrument or paint" to post a video of his/her talent to be part of the national contest.

"The EU strongly believes in the importance of self-expression in creative ways," said Fontana, stressing that "youth is today’s hope for the future of Jordan". 

After sharing their creations online, artists will be assessed on the number of votes, comments and shares generated by their videos and the most popular ones in each category will be selected to enter an official evaluation by a professional jury.

While the winners will be offered the chance to enter specialised training programmes where they will be taught by professionals in the field, candidates who failed to make it to the final stage will still receive the support of the EU, which will continue liking and sharing their artwork.

In order to reach out to the largest number of Jordanians, the Rise Talents team also launched field tours around Amman and across the Kingdom to spread the word about the competition.

The tours, which began on Friday in downtown Amman and Jabal Luweibdeh continuing on Saturday in Irbid's University Street, included musical performances by gifted Jordanian youth who sought to encourage others to share their talent.

In order to enter the competition, submissions must be uploaded on one of Rise Talents' social media pages, accompanied with one of the following hashtags in English or Arabic: #Risetalentshow; #EU4Youth; #EuropeForCulture, according to the Rise Talents Facebook page.