April 2010 Male and Female Solo Artist Winners

April’s first two $100 talent competitions have just concluded, with Los Angeles singer Yael Meyer and New Jersey singer and guitarist Dov Alperin winning the prizes.

Yael Meyer’s song ‘Favorite Two’ survived a tough challenge from San Diego singer Natisha Lyne and her song ‘For The Rest of Our Lives’.

Click here to listen to Yael Meyer and Natisha Lyne.

Yael Meyer was born in Santiago, Chile and moved to the United States when she was nineteen. She studied classical piano from the age of five. Growing up she was also heavily influenced by indie folk music from the 70’s and pop influences from the 80’s and 90’s. Her parents, both aficionado artists and musicians encouraged and nurtured her creativity and musicality. At the age 13 she began playing guitar and writing her own songs as well as performing them live in festivals around the city. In 2000, after receiving a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music she moved to the U.S. where she currently resides. She often collaborates with other artists, songwriters and filmmakers including Cathy Heller, Lindsey Ray and Alan Fischer.

Her sound and new EP “Heartbeat” (out Nov. 10th 2009) have been described as “a balanced new age of folk, independent pop, and electronic…” and “…a female-feel of Death Cab for Cutie meets Jack Johnson…” (My Crazy Music Blog / Loud Dreams)

Meanwhile in the Male Solo Artist contest, Dov Alperin collected his second win in as many months, combining his March victory in the Instrumental song contest with a victory that displays his vocal and lyrical skills as well as his musical compositions.

The April Male Solo Artist final match saw Dov’s song ‘Search for Soul’ survive a very close call from Texas electronic producer and vocalist Matt Barron and his industrial dance track ‘Walk’.

Click here to listen to Dov Alperin and Matt Barron.

Dov Alperin was born and raised in Israel. From the tender age of 4 when he first picked up a guitar he could not drop it. He initially learned through the variety of music offered by The Beatles.

Eventually he was introduced to the guitar music of Israeli legend David Broza where he was able to successfully mix the sounds of The Beatles and David Broza to come up with his own style of playing. Today Dov tours the world with a variety of song and music in langauages such as Hebrew, Russian, English, as well as French. His myspace page also cites Jimi Hendrix, Billy Joel, and Metallica as influences.