An Interview with CBC Music’s Grant Lawrence about all things Toyota Searchlight 2022

Play MPE is fully stoked to once again sponsor the CBC Music Toyota Searchlight competition! The 2022 edition promises to illuminate the brightest undiscovered talents cropping up in the Canadian music scene. 

We spoke with CBC Music’s Grant Lawrence about everything Searchlight 2022. Grant is the host, creator and co-producer of Toyota Searchlight, and we asked him to look back over the years since its inception and give us the lowdown on why he thinks it’s a great thing for Canadian music, and how this year’s competition will differ from previous years. 

Judges for this year’s competition include some big movers and shakers in Publishing A&R, Music Supervision and more! They’ll have the tough challenge of combing through hundreds of submissions to unveil the cream of this year’s crop!

Speaking of which, past winners of Toyota Searchlight include Shawnee Kish – who was just nominated for a JUNO – and Jhyve, who we also recently profiled. Both of those past winners have benefited a great deal from the Music Promotion Distribution prize they received via Play MPE! We’re excited to see how Toyota Searchlight 2022 plays out (see what we did there?) and even *more* excited to watch their music make its way to the industry’s tastemakers via Player!

Here’s our interview with the voice of CBC Radio 3, CBC Top 20, and Searchlight, Grant Lawrence!

https://youtu.be/JOgeWnUkm-c

If you’d like to stay in the know as Toyota Searchlight unfolds, follow along here.