The Audience Award One of the main awards has now been decided by you the audience. The winner will be announced at the Poll Winners concert in March. A huge thanks to all those who contributed. It was wonderful to see such a wide-ranging list of nominations (left) and the way so many of the musicians have touched your lives.
Here are the bands who were voted onto the final shortlist. Click on each name to read more about them and click on the 'listen' icon to hear a selected track from each band. A large selection of your comments can be found by clicking on the list to the left.
Ian Martin, Leeds:
'A man with a foot either side of the Mediterannean, U-cef's Halalium is an energetic riposte to those who think that the Christian and Islamic worlds are destined for confrontation. He sounds like Morocco with the trance inducing simplicity of the Ney and Darbuka. He sounds like London, with the most cutting edge drum and bass ever witnessed. But most of all he sounds like hope. That deserves a nomination if nothing else.'
