Having sung about the fact her home town’s “streets are paved with hearts of gold, award winning singer songwriter Lisa Kowalski from Paisley is off to see if she can strike gold on the streets of London.

Lisa has bagged a spot in the Mayor of London Gigs10 busking competition which is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year and runs from 21st of July. There are prizes up for grabs which include Gibson guitars, recording sessions at a London studio, a trip to Europe and many other career development opportunities.

Having already dashed down to the induction day earlier this month, straight on the night bus after a Saturday night gig in Glasgow, Lisa is off to the capital for 5 days on the 21st to perform to the public at various locations. 21st July is also International Busking Day and Lisa will start off her round of performances with an official busking slot at Westminster Underground station.

The competition performance period runs from 21st July to 5th August but local music commitments such as Mugstock, Butefest and a gig for local charity Include Me 2 Club on the 26th at G2 mean that Lisa must gig as much as possible in the time available to her. The winners are decided by a judging panel but there is also a wild card act who makes it to the final based on the votes of the public, both those who see her perform and those who vote online.  Lisa would be very grateful for votes from her local supporters, as she competes in the over 18 category with performers from all over the UK.

“I will be singing my heart out in London and continuing to raise awareness of  music from Paisley. Although we didn’t quite win UK City of Culture last year, I’m still doing my bit to draw attention to the town and to the wider Scottish grass roots music scene”.

The public can give her their vote by visiting London.gov.uk/gigs and looking up her picture/ profile on the web page. Voting commences on 21 July and you can vote once each day throughout the competition.

After all the excitement, Lisa will be returning to Paisley to start recording her second EP and independently release her next single.

Author

Founder of Paisley.org.uk in 1998 and constantly strives to change peoples attitudes to the town, Brian is a self described Paisley Digital Champion who promotes Paisley via any means necessary. You can also follow me on X