Cutting-edge Aloft® brand and global youth entertainment brand MTV today revealed the winners of the third annual Asia Pacific edition of music talent discovery competition Project Aloft Star, Amplified by MTV. They are Soph Retief for Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand), Wang Dazhi (a.k.a. Big Tattoo) for Greater China (China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan), Brown Whale for South Korea, and After Acoustics for India. The competition aims to identify and support the hottest emerging music acts in these markets. More than 600,000 online votes were cast and over 500 original song entries were published this year. These figures represent year-on-year increases of over 50% for the number of entries published and over 15% for the number of online votes cast.

The top five finalists for each cluster performed at the finals held at Aloft Hotels in Guangzhou (23 September) for Greater China, Seoul (30 September) for South Korea, Bengaluru (30 September) for India, and Bangkok (7 October) for Southeast Asia in front of a live audience and a panel of judges comprising of representatives from Aloft, MTV, and music industry experts. They were evaluated on music composition and song-writing skills, international appeal, originality and creativity, technical skill, “wow” factor, showmanship, and stage presence. Project Aloft Star 2015 winners Gusian Yu, Run Pussy Run, and Jenny & The Scallywags were special guest performers at the Greater China, India, and Southeast Asia finals respectively.