Sam Hunt, Big Sean, Lzzy Hale Looking for Next ‘Grammy Amplifier’

Sam Hunt, Big Sean and Lzzy Hale are teaming up with the Recording Academy and Hyundai to help shine a spotlight on undiscovered singers. The country-pop singer, hip-hop mogul and hard rocker are this year’s judges of the annual Grammy Amplifier program — an online talent competition with career-launching prizes.

The three artist curators will sort through video performance submissions uploaded to www.grammyamplifier.com and will pick three winners. One aspiring singer will get a recording session with a Grammy-winning producer. Another scores an opening slot for a big-name artist and/or a series of festival shows, while the third will be able to shoot an all-expense-paid music video with an established director.

“This is a really tough business that takes a lot of hard work and sacrifice, but it also requires great risk and a lot of determination proving yourself gig after gig,” says Hale, lead singer of Grammy-winning group Halestorm. “The talented artists that have entered this program in the past have received so much in the way of advice, but most of all they’ve been given an opportunity, and as musicians that is the one thing we all hunger for — the opportunity.”

The Grammy Amplifier contest is now open for video submissions through January 4th. Visitors to the program’s website will help determine the Top 25 finalists through track plays and social media promotion. After that list is narrowed to 10, the finalists will travel to Los Angeles for crash courses in social media promotion, music copyright laws and publishing, among other topics crucial to a recording artist.

The final three winners will be announced in February. Last year’s Grammy Amplifier winners, Wes-tone, Cramer and ChinahBlac all performed on the Rolling Stone stage at this year’s South by Southwest festival in Austin.