"The (international) breakthrough song of George Ezra was titled Budapest, and even though he never made it to the city yet, he thinks of it as a magical place. The story immediately got our attention, so we have contacted Ezra's manager to invite the young talent to Sziget festival and sight-seeing tour." - said Gerendai Károly, the main organiser of Sziget festival. The answer was that August is already filled with programmes, but the endy of May would be perfectly fine. Budapest will be the last station ofEzra's special "train-tour", titled Ezra Express. Those who are lucky enough - and live in one of the five participating countries - can join Ezra on his journey - as a part of an international competition.
"The end of May is also the time of Budapest Essentials, which is an urban festival that aims to prove young tourists, that during last years, Budapest turned into one of the coolest places on Earth - we thought that it's a great idea to invite Ezra as a part of the programme" - said Gerendai. The organisers also loved the idea, so George will perform two times: once during the afternoon of 31st of May, at Erzsébet square, he will do a free "mini-concert and the same day at night, he will give a "full" concert at Hello Baby.
George Ezra has announced the release of his debut album, Wanted On Voyage, due for release on 30 June via Columbia Records in digital, CD and gatefold vinyl formats. It is preceded by a single format, Budapest, on 15 June.
During last autumn, Ezra has shared his song on the internet as a free download, and after a little bit more than six months, it was played more than 10,000,00 times on Spotify and 5,000,000 times on Youtube. So it's not a wonder that the song made it to the Top10 in most of the European countries, including Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Italy and Nederland - in the last two countries, the "Budapest" single is already a gold record. As far as Hungary is considered, Petőfi Radio played the song on a heavy rotation.
Ezra's first two EPs, 'Did You Hear The Rain?' and 'Cassy O propelled the young talent into the top five of the BBC Sound of 2014, as well as onto " Ones to Watch"
lists from the likes of Vevo, Xfm, iTunes and MTV.
“I keep being told that this is my year,” he says. “Which is nice, but problematic because I’m planning to be around in 2015 and long beyond.”
„Young in years but old of voice, combining delta blues, pop smarts and a folkish bent” - wrote the Sunday Times Culture.
Wanted On Voyage was recorded at South-London, with Cam Blackwood as the album's producer. Ezra plays the guitar, the bass guitar and the keyboard instruments on the record too.
“It’s definitely a fun sounding album,” says Ezra. “Probably because it was such fun to make.”
