Tucked away down Auckland central’s Fort Lane, in the Everybody’s venue, a small crowd of industry, music media and fans witnessed three amazing musical acts perform at Live Nation’s early May Ones to Watch Showcase.

First up was Juno Is, a Dunedin-based artist who proved flawless in her ability to charm the audience, while keeping in sync with her extremely talented band who managed to hit note after note, despite being squished onto the stage. A special shout-out to the drummer whose percussion skills worked wonders for Juno Is’s smooth sound, an infusion of keyboard, drums, tambourine and electric guitar matched with Juno Is’s vocals. The band set a high bar for the acts following. 

Keeping things regional the second act was Daily J, the blokes from Blenheim enthralling the audience with summertime vibes that evoked a collective fantasy of a beach performance with the sun glistening off the water. A mixture of beards, long hair and a grooving sound has positioned Daily J as a fixture in the central Aotearoa music scene. Having won us over with Left Me Like Summer at the beginning of their set, a repeat was demanded by the audience as an encore at the end!

Wrapping up the event was Auckland pop duo and brothers Henry and Pierre Beasley, aka Balu Brigada. The light-hearted and melodic sounds, alongside catchy lyrics, helped to snare the rooms’ attention, their music providing an injection of adrenaline that worked to frenzy up the crowd. In a well-judged, early NZ Music Month 2021 event, all three acts successfully showed themselves (pun very much intended) to be ‘ones to watch’.