H.E.R. AND MBK'S PROTÉGÉ ANNOUNCED

H.E.R. and the MBK Team have been a part of Protégé since its inception. As Protégé began to strategize on who would be an ideal inaugural expert, someone who is fiercely passionate about helping other artists and an extremely skilled artist themselves, H.E.R. was at the very top of the list. With 5 Grammy Wins and another 20 nominations, her expertise as a vocalist, instrumentalist, and songwriter is truly among the best today. So, when their team brought up the idea of adding on starting their Protégé campaign with a search at the Lights On Festival and pairing this with the digital component, we knew it was the perfect start and launch to Protégé.

On September 1st H.E.R.’s campaign officially began on protege.com and opened up submissions for the winning Protégé to be signed by MBK Entertainment to a full management deal. The premise would be to both consider submissions online as well as the two days at the Lights On Festival in the Bay Area in late September. The amount of talent was inspiring, and the opportunity was clearly groundbreaking given the emotional response from both digital submitters who received their feedback, but also day of festival goers who got their shot auditioning in front of MBK and friends.

At Lights On, the first day entailed “open-mic” style auditions where the best submitters received a Silver wristband that guaranteed a spot the following day to audition in front of MBK judges. All in all over 100 people sang and performed for only 20 spots the following day. Although the Protégé ended up not being selected at the event, the amount of energy and talent was overwhelming and friends made were lasting.

Submissions online kept coming and Protégé officially ended accepting more talent in early November. In the bunch of talent, was one women named Osé whose vocals, passion, and raw talent truly stood above the rest. After reviewing all the submissions across key judges (H.E.R., Jeanine McClean, Jordan Chapman, and Jeff Robinson), the decision was clear. Osé would receive an offer to join the management company behind the stardom of Alicia Keys, H.E.R., and so many others trailblazing artists pushing the boundaries on what R&B means in today’s society. Protégé looks forward to seeing Osé be the next shining star on that journey.