The winners of Tremplin L’Boulevard 2018 music contest have been revealed – Morocco.

It’s like every year a long-awaited moment. Young artists, from the Rap/Hip-Hop, Rock/Metal and Fusion/World Music scene battle to show what they are capable of. This year, 19 artists have succeeded each other on the Tremplin L’Boulevard 2018 scene for the three categories, from Friday 14th to Sunday 16th of September.

DAY 1 : Enter the Rap & Hip Hop Contest.

The Tremplin L’Boulevard 2018 for Rap and Hip Hop took place on the first day of this event. The 8 artists selection was very consistent apart from Anycris. This young Ivorian who lives in Casablanca. In my opinion she would have been much more in her element during Fusion and World Music day. Indeed, this Friday’s audience was all about New School Rap .

The overall level was very good, and it mustn’t have been obvious for the Jury to select the two winners. Two artists still stood out thanks to their flow, their energy, and their stage presence. This enabled the Casablanca rapper DZAC to win first prize, and BLANDY who represented Meknes to take second place. We must also salute the DJs who accompany these artists who are fully part of the show.

DZAC : 

BLANDY : 

The evening continued with many guests from the Rap scene. Meanwhile, SAMADOSS and MC ZANZAN took care of the permanent animation and gave all they had to keep the audience motivated and excited during the artist changes. Alongside, DJ AGHARASS sent the big sound.

NESSYOU, BOOBO and BLOCK 10 ALL STAR (7toun, Mehdi Blackwind) all gave a great quality show. But an incident still came to taint the evening with the young rapper ILY. She attracted the wrath of the public who threw bottles of water at her and shouted hostile words before she could even start her set. These negative reactions would be caused by a series of Bad Buzz which concerned the young artist.

Apart from this incident, this Tremplin L’Boulevard Rap / Hip Hop 2018 was a very good edition, and we must salute the very beautiful gesture of 7TOUN who, before starting their show, asked the public to let ILY sing their first song.

NESSYOU : 

ILY : 

Here is a video compiled by the L’Boulevard team and which recounts the highlights of this first day:

DAY 2 : The Number of the Beast…

The second day is the most important historically for L’Boulevard. It is the Rock and Metal part which is an integral part of the DNA of the association and the Festival. However, if it is gradually changing in favor of other current music such as Rap / Hip Hop and electronic music. Indeed, they all have become more important over the years.

This Saturday September 15th, therefore, 6 bands clashed in music. The atmosphere was good, but the quality of the groups selected this year was less interesting in my opinion than for the 2017 edition. It reflected on the performance and the sound on the front. One explanation may be that among the bands that went on stage last year, most had many years of stage experience such as Ship of Wisdom.

The Progressive Metal band from Casablanca, KAWN clearly gave the best performance of the day, despite some technical issues on the monitoring side and had all the attention of the public and the jury which gave them first place on the podium.

Progressive Metal / Djent from Meknes, CYN, came in second place. In my humble opinion did not shine with their performance that day. The show given by the Punk group 3ar9ala convinced me much more and had a significant effect on the public. But the Jury is sovereign of its decision is to be respected. This young band will have an opportunity next Saturday to maybe make me change my mind.

We will deplore some technical issues. In particular regarding stage monitors that did not always work properly. This caused problems with vocal accuracy and even difficulties in tuning for musicians. Other than that, the afternoon went pretty well.

KAWN :

CYN : 

That evening, SAMADOSS was still there, with DJ AGHARASS to set the mood while waiting for the guests to come. That night : General Rest In Peace, the Are You Experienced residence in homage to Amale “Tonton” Samie, and finally the French Rap / Metalcore band Rise of the North Star.

My favorite of the evening was clearly the “Are You Experienced” set, very emotional and very sincere, which allowed several old timers of the Rock and Metal scene to meet again and share on stage a moment of commemoration . The finale was just magnificent. All the participants united to sing together in a moment of very well orchestrated musical chaos which must have been heard up there.

This is the atmosphere that reigned over this second day of musical celebration in Casablanca:

DAY 3 : Last but not the least…

Finally, the 3rd day of the Tremplin L’Boulevard 2018 focussed on Fusion and “World Music”. That’s another way of saying “everything that cannot be classified in Rap / Hip Hop or Rock / metal”. By then, I’ve been wandering for two days in the RUC stadium. Filming, listening to the music, and observing all these young artists. I must admit that I was not very motivated to attend this day. And yet it was clearly the best day of the three in terms of musical quality.

We often hear musicians complain about the sound conditions. They tend to put all the blame on the gear, the console, the sound technician or other. On This Sunday, I had the ultimate and final proof, that on the same stage, with the same equipment, the same sound technicians, what really makes the difference is the musicians and their ability to play together. and use their instruments and ears.

Initially, there were going to be five bands playing. But to my surprise, only four finally played that day. The band INING coming from Tangier were indeed not there for reasons I ignore. The four bands that played that day were Hahoma (Essaouira), Sadrum (Casablanca), Zegro Band (Agadir) and Behind The Walls (Khemisset). They sounded way above the bands that had played the day before. I do not voluntarily mention the artists of the first day. Indeed, most of their sound came from samples and computers.

HAHOMA, whom I did not know before really impressed me and gave the word Fusion all its letters of nobility. They have indeed mixed many influences in a very subtle way without ever falling into stereotypes. Their frontman also had a very good voice, a very good sense of humor. All this will have earned them the first place for this year.

The Reggae SADRUM group had practically disappeared for a year. Their Come Back has brought them luck since they arrive in second place well deserved in my opinion. They gave a solid performance, carried mainly by their new drummer “Zdagadag”. Their lead singer also has an excellent scenic presence.

ZEGRO BAND gave an excellent performance, colorful and perfectly timed. They definitly deserved somekind of special Jury Prize. But competition has its rules and not everyone can win unfortunately.

HAHOMA : 

SADRUM : 

Once again, the interludes SAMADOSS and DJ AGHARAZ took care of the interludes. They also gave everything they had that day with more electronic music which had a huge effect on the public. I unfortunatly didn’t stay until the end that evening. Therefore I cannot tell you how the guest part took place. But I invite you to watch the live shows that L’Boulevard team have posted on their social media pages.

I had a lot of fun covering this Tremplin L’Boulevard 2018. This initiative really makes sense and allows young artists to gain some popularity and some good experience on the stage. Rock and Metal have had the honors from organizers for the past 18 years. However, the bands should redouble their efforts and professionalize themselves. It is the only way for them to last and continue to progress in order to offer quality shows.