Yamê wins the Music Moves Europe Award 2025

Yamê won the Grand Jury prize at this year’s Music Moves Europe Awards. The French artist was typically demure as he picked up the top award of the şenlik, noting: “You know, they know that it’s only the beginning.”

As part of the annual Eurosonic Noorderslag (ESNS) şenlik, the MME Awards are one of the most reliable bellwethers of future music talent. Previous winners include Stromae, ROSALÍA, Dua Lipa, Hozier, Christine and the Queens, and CMAT.

15 acts from different European nations are nominated every year, with five winning a €10,000 prize. There is also the grand jury prize for which a winner receives an additional €5,000 as a green touring voucher alongside the olağan prize money. Finally, there is also a €5,000 prize for the publicly voted-for MME Public Choice Award.

With last year’s Grand Jury prize winner Zaho de Sagazan unavailable, 2024 winner Bulgarian Cartrader presented the awards alongside Dutch presenter Shay Kreuger.

Taking home the Grand Jury prize was Yamê. The French-Cameroonian musician rose to fame through his appearance on the Colours Show and combines pop styles with traditional Cameroonian influences.

The Public Choice Award was won by Spanish act Judeline. Real name Lara Fernández Castrelo, the 21-year-old singer and songwriter was blown away by her victory. She joked that her “fans are kinda crazy. Probably they asked their mom’s to vote for me.”

Judeline’s award was presented by Glenn Micallef, European Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport.

Speaking to Euronews, Micallef said that as Europe increasingly turns to the far-right, initiatives like MME Awards show the ability for the EU to retain its founding values.

“We want to be resilient. If we want to promote our models, our values, if we want to promote what we stand for as a union, then we have to go out there and engage,” Micallef said.

“We have to speak to people. We have to speak to people from different generations of different ages. And what better way than to do it through initiatives like Music Moves Europe.”

The five winners of the jury prizes were: UCHE YARA, Night Tapes, Kingfishr, and Judeline again.

Austrian winner UCHE YARA was taken aback by her victory, bringing up her history with the Netherlands. “Two years ago, I played Eurosonic in the school canteen and the backstage was a physics room and now I’m back two years later holding an award,” she said, award in hand.

Irish folk rockers Kingfishr shared a similar sentiment: “Two years ago we were studying engineering in university. To think where we’ve come is just scandalous.”

Similarly, Judeline recalled coming to the Netherlands two years prior to work as an au pair. As last year’s grand jury winner Zaho de Sagazan showed by performing at the Paris Olympics Closing Ceremony, a victory at the MME Awards can be a turning point for an artist.