Last week on BEAT100 everybody knew Daniel Dobbs’ name without fail. The young solo rock musician from Nottingham wowed viewers with his creative yet simplistic original song ‘Dive’, which topped the BEAT100 Weekly Music Chart in just 5 short days. His impressive vocal skills combined with his powerful lyrics inspired listeners and supportive fans to vote tenaciously, placing Dobbs at the top of the leader board with 23,896 views and 1,141 votes.
Although Dobbs has previously attempted performing in a band, he has found his calling as a solo musician. “I like to have the control over the music that I write as it is an extremely personal art form that I use as an outlet,” says Dobbs. “My music is always driven my something significant.”
The up-and-coming music sensation recently had the honour of supporting one of his main influencers, Thomas Leeb, on his recent UK Tour. Inspired by the Foo Fighters, Jimi Hendrix and Newton Faulkner (along with Leeb), the youngster reveals a true talent and passion for the guitar as he displays his own technique and style on the well-known instrument.
“I've been impressed with how well the site has integrated other social networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube especially,” says Dobbs. “I've been really surprised with the amount of support given on the chart. I was never expecting anything.” “The social networking side of it has allowed me to gain more exposure on my other pages. I’ve been talking with other artists contributing to the site and we've had some great conversations about what we do. It’s a great website,” he exclaims.
Second place was given to 16-year-old singer, Cecília Kovács-Simon, from Hungary for her rendition of the well-known track, “Call Me Maybe”, by Carly Rae Jepsen. The beautiful teen is influenced by several pop artists, including Christina Aguilera, Michael Jackson and Beyoncé. However, Cecília’s biggest influence of all is her brother, Daniel, for guiding and mentoring her throughout her career and teaching her everything she knows to date. Although Cecília has been having singing lessons since 2008, she plans to take her career to the next level and will be attending a College for Musicians in Hungary to do a course in Jazz.
“I am so thankful to BEAT100 because I never thought I’d find an amazing website like this,” says Cecília. “BEAT100 really takes care of emerging musicians and is the best site to show your music off to the world.”
In third place, 17-year-old Ben Bennett has once again placed in the BEAT100 Weekly Music Chart for the third week in a row. This week, Bennett appears to have taken his entry up a notch with his original song, “For You”. His dedicated fans never seem to fail at getting him into the Top 3 of the charts each week as he shocks BEAT100 users every week with something new. In his video for “For You”, Bennett is seen sitting on a wall with yet another beautiful, scenic background, a guitar in his hand and the ability to woo girls of every age with his crystal clear voice and tasteful lyrics.
With 8,546 views this week and 664 votes, Bennett’s fan base continues to grow on BEAT100 and Twitter every day. On every upload, Ben is always flocked by supportive comments from fans such as, “his music is just so amazing” and “I will always support you”. The young singer/songwriter often receives pleads from fans to follow them on Twitter and the humble teen often follows through with the request and continues to connect with his fans on a daily basis.
BEAT100 looks forward to seeing more from these young talented singers in the future.
BE SEEN – BE HEARD – BE REWARDED
By Kelly Donovan
