expo

I have attended almost all the European Blues Challenges since the very beginning, when it started in Berlin in 2011. In those days I had just bought a new digital camera and I was returning to concert photography. In that first year of the EBC I didn’t take many pictures because I was a newbie on the blues scene.

But since then, and except for 2014, I attended all the editions of the EBC and each was really a great and fun experience meeting the members of the Euroopean Blues Union (EBU) : a mix of festival organizers, blues associations, national blues magazines or broadcasters, and of course musicians and people in the record industry. It’s also great to discover new bands from all over Europe.

The format of the challenge starts with 2 nights of semi-finals – usually thursday and friday – where 10-12 bands (12 this this year) compete each night. The 4 best bands of each semi-final night are selected for the finals on the saturday. If you followed, that’s 8 bands on stage for the final on saturday.

The event says “challenge” in the title, but as a member of the Swiss Blues Society who organises of the Swiss Blues Challenge, I always tell the musicians that they should consider this event mainly as a social event, a great opportunity to meet and great people from everywhere in Europe, make new friends and have the chance to play in front of many festival director and bookers. I know a lot of bands who never reached the podium in any of those challenges, but started getting gigs outside their town, or region because other people noticed them in the challenges-

Here below are the winners of the European Blues Challenge. Check their websites or listen to them on your favorite music provider, they are all outstanding:

Winner – Adama Janlo, from Norway

Second – Gloria and the Doctors, from Italy

Third – SirJo Cocchi & Balta Bordoy – The Blues Way, from Spain

Winner of the solo/duo act – Tom Eylenboch, from Belgium

In addition some special prizes were awarded: René Rothacher (Eve Gallagher, Switzerland) won the the prize for best guitarist at the EBC, Richard Koster (The Hoochies, Netherlands) was the best Harmonica player.
My friend photographer Frank Nielsen received a “Blues Behind the Scenes” Award in the category “Media”, Runar Lia (Notodden Blues Festival) received this prize in the catgory “Promoter” and Marcin Krupa (Mayor, Katowice) received a special prize for the city of Katowice, the new “Blues Capital in Europe”.

EBC2026 – Selection