The Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga, Metro Station and Esmée Denters will perform in this year’s Isle of MTV event in Malta. The artists will play in a free live concert on the Granaries in Floriana on 8 July.

The Isle of MTV Malta special will form part of a weekend of music activities. The Malta music weekend will run from 3 to 8 July. Malta Tourism Authority chief executive officer Josef Formosa Gauci said that the authority will be promoting packages including flights, accommodation and tickets to the Malta Music Weekend with the European young population.

In July 2006, there were 34,000 aged up to 24 who visited Malta. In 2007 the number rose to 42,000, when the first Isle of MTV concert was held in Malta, and to 46,000 last year. This year, 50,000 people are expected to witness Isle of MTV, one of the highlights of MTV’s European summer music scene.

Black Eyed Peas

They’ve transcended their vigilant hip-hop roots and have become a global phenomenon, the likes of which the music world has rarely seen. Ever-curious and ever-confident, that group is The Black Eyed Peas, and after energising crowds ‘round the globe with the monster-stomp of Elephunk, it’s time for the quartet – Will.I.Am, Fergie, apl.de.ap and Taboo to get down to business – Monkey Business, that is.

If Elephunk was the group being crowned prince of the castle, then Monkey Business, their fourth album, is The Black Eyed Peas conquering the throne to become King. It is an album that further intensifies their passion for making music together, for connecting with their audience through the most fundamental ways: making people have a good time. It is a credo that has inspired the group since they formed in the late 1990s, earning their keep in the nurturing environment of Los Angeles’ vibrant hip-hop underground. Even then, the group possessed a magnetic spirit that helped them establish a worldwide following through their first two albums, 1998’s Behind The Front and 2000’s Bridging The Gap.

The Peas’ Will.I.Am says, “I can’t wait to take our new European inspired dance sound to Europe. I couldn’t think of a better place than Malta for our first Black Eyed Peas show in a long time”.

“I’ve always wanted to visit Malta”, adds fellow band member Fergie, “Plus you always know it’s going to be a party with MTV!”

Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga is making a welcome return to Isle of MTV Malta after rave reviews for her performance at last year’s event. She hit big time earlier this year with her number 1 hit singles Just Dance and Poker Face.

When Lady Gaga was a little girl, she would sing along on her mini plastic tape recorder to Michael Jackson and Cyndi Lauper hits and get twirled in the air in daddy’s arms to the sounds of the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. The precocious child would dance around the table at fancy Upper West Side restaurants using the breadsticks as a baton. And, she would innocently greet a new babysitter in nothing but her birthday suit.

It’s no wonder that little girl from a good Italian New York family, turned into the exhibitionist, multi-talented singer-songwriter with a flair for theatrics that she is today: Lady Gaga.

It’s been a while since a new pop artist has made her way in the music industry the old-fashioned/grass roots way by paying her dues with seedy club gigs and self-promotion. This is one rising pop star who hasn’t been plucked from a model casting call, born into a famous family, won a reality TV singing contest, or emerged from a teen cable TV sitcom. “I did this the way you are supposed to. I played every club in New York City and I bombed in every club and then killed it in every club and I found myself as an artist. I learned how to survive as an artist, get real, and how to fail and then figure out who I was as singer and performer. And, I worked hard.”

Gaga adds with a wink, “And, now, I’m just trying to change the world one sequin at a time.”

Metro Station

If ever a band defined the term ‘internet phenomenon’ it’s Metro Station.

The newest names to hit the MySpace generation, the LA band who formed as 17-year-olds, just two years ago, have witnessed an incredible 28 million plays across four tracks on MySpace alone. Then there are the 35 million plays across three videos on YouTube (including 23.5 million views of Shake It alone), plus 29k page views on Bebo and 16.7k fans. You get the picture.

“When we saw how the internet thing was going off, it was ‘Oh my God, what’s going on - everyone’s gone crazy for us,’” laughs Metro Station singer and guitarist Trace Cyrus. The quartet were voted one of Alternative Press Magazine’s ‘22 Best Underground Bands’, and with their tour in January, have now brought their energetic dance pop to their legion of UK fans.

Despite meeting on a Hollywood set, Metro Station have always been more interested in fun than fame. “I’ve never had any desire to be famous,” says Trace. “My desire has always been to play music. If it wasn’t for the fans telling us how much they loved the music, we would probably have just made a few songs for ourselves.”

And the results are infectious dance pop hooks aplenty and lyrics, which speak directly to today’s youth. “Shake It is a song strictly about having fun. The point of that song is to get kids to dance and have a good time,” explains Trace while Seventeen Forever, a song written as 17-year-olds, is all about being a kid not ever wanting to grow up. Mason says: “That song means a lot to us, it was the first song we wrote that we knew was special.” Then there’s Kelsey, Comin’ Around and Wish We Were Older all songs the band love to play live and go all out.

Esmée Denters

Esmée Denters is undoubtedly on her way to musical stardom, with her debut album filled with songs she co-wrote with a host of top-notch hit-making producers. Esmée is one of the first artists signed to Justin Timberlake’s Interscope imprint Tennman Records, but a mere two years ago, this Dutch 20-year-old was just a pancake house waitress with a webcam and a dream.

An aspiring singer who fell in love with her father’s Stevie Wonder albums as a child, Esmée was 17 when she began posting videos of herself on YouTube singing her favourite hits by Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, Pink, and Natasha Bedingfield, which she recorded in the bedroom of her suburban home of Oosterbeek in the Netherlands. “I had seen all these videos of amateur singers, which gave me the idea,” she says. “I was just interested in what other people thought of my voice,” she says. “My friends had told me they liked my singing, but I was curious to get strangers’ opinions because music was what I really wanted to do.” When the videos were a hit and viewers started to make requests, Esmée was encouraged and began posting several clips a week, including songs she’d written herself. Within nine months, Esmée’s videos had racked up 21 million views and the teenager became the most-subscribed to musician in the history of the popular video-sharing website.

It may have been her YouTube popularity that led Timberlake to seek out Esmée six months after her videos began to appear online, but it was her silky, soulful voice, natural charisma, and songwriting talent that sold him on signing her to his label, executive producing and co-producing the majority of her debut album. Timberlake, chairman/CEO of Tennman Records says, “One of the reasons I started my label was to be able to discover and mentor new talent, and it’s been a great experience guiding Esmée’s development. I’ve been producing with her in the studio and working with some other great collaborators on her album, and I’ve seen her writing go to another level. Some people have it and some people don’t – but this girl’s the real deal!”