YouTube Cover Carnival: The Judges

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AHMIR

AHMIR - Group Shot - Nov 2012AHMIR is the #1 MOST POPULAR R&B GROUP on YouTube with over 60 million video views and comments by celebrities such as Ryan Seacrest, Ashton Kutcher, Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Perez Hilton, Pink, and more.

The group has used their success to bring awareness to several charity organisations including Lucy’s Love Bus, Haiti Relief Fund, American Red Cross, American Cancer Society, Words Matter, YMCA, Kevin Youkilis Hits for Kids, and The Pixel Project. Their cover video of Pink’s “Perfect” was named one of the top Anti-Bullying PSA’s by The Huffington Post. AHMIR is now signed to Robbins Entertainment (distributed by RED / Sony Music). Ahmir is The Pixel Project’s YouTube Music Ambassador.

Ali Brustofski

Ali Brustofski - 1Ali Brustofski is a 19 year old singer/songwriter from Oakland, NJ. She was a finalist on “The Next” on the CW Network this fall, and won the 2011 Z100 Hometown Hero Award. Ali won the prestigious NY Songwriters Circle “Young Artist Award” in November, 2009 and she’s been writing and recording original songs and covers ever since.

At 10, Ali performed with Nick Jonas in the “Sound of Music”, and she was the voice of Piper O’Possum for Nick Jr. on Nickelodeon from 2003 to 2007.  Recently, Ali has been working with talented producers to develop her own distinctive sound and record her first EP. Her single “Rewind” was used on “The Voice” and in promos for “iCarly” on Nickelodeon. Ali has 175,000 YouTube subscribers and her videos have been featured all over the web, including RyanSeacrest.com, iHeartRadio stations, and Saturday Night Online.

J Rice

J Rice pic 4_compressed J Rice grew up listening to artists like Take 6, Boyz II Men, Brian Mcknight, Wynton Marsalis, Kenny G and many other R&B/Jazz greats. He lived in a simple house where his parents taught him to work for everything he wanted. At about age 11 he was running a paper route to pay for his first trumpet. Later in High School he started taking his singing seriously and built his own studio in his bedroom. Equipment was expensive so he had to improvise with dental floss stapled to the ceiling holding up the mic and a cool whip lid with a hole in it and nylons stretched across for the spit guard.

One day he started a youtube channel and has since grown to over 170,000 subscribers and over 30,000,000 views. J is now working on producing and writing his own material for his 4th independent album along with writing and producing for other artists.

Lisa Lavie

PROMO2aLisa Lavie is a Canadian singer and songwriter originally from LaSalle, Québec, Canada. Lavie is known for using the Internet to independently promote her own music and concerts. With over 75 million video views and counting—more than one view for each person in her native Canada—Lavie’s raw stats are both staggering and inspiring. “Angel,” her soulful mid-tempo original, racked up 1.5 million views in its week as a featured video on YouTube’s front page, and now has registered over 8 million views. Beyond the originals that form the core of Lavie’s video repository, the Montreal born and bred singer-songwriter has also scored millions more hits for her videos of pop song covers.

Lavie’s vocals have appeared on soundtracks of major motion pictures, and her independently produced debut album Everything or Nothing was released on iTunes in 2008. Lavie has received national television coverage for her vocals, and for her production of the charity collaboration video “We Are the World 25 for Haiti (YouTube Edition).” She was chosen as a vocalist for Yanni’s 2010-2011 tours of South, Central, and North America.

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The judges above were the judges for the Valentine 2013 YouTube Cover Carnival. Please note that the contest is currently being revamped and will not be back until 2015 and we may have changes in the line-up of judges.

To learn more about the YouTube Cover Carnival and how taking part in it helps to raise awareness about violence against women, check out our introduction page.