ERNIE BALL BATTLE OF THE BANDS WINNER!

It all started with an idea and a passion for live music. The year was 1997 and The Warped Tour was in its second year of exhistance. With live gigs becoming harder to obtain and local music scenes fizzling out across America; Sterling Ball wanted to come up with a way to keep the local music scene thriving, and also give unsigned bands a chance to show off their chops in front of sold out crowds across the North America. Fast forward to 2011: The Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands is now in its 15th year and has proven to be a breeding ground for America's best un-signed talent.


This year the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands Contest received over 23,000 entries, making it the largest Battle of the Bands of its kind! On December 1st, 2011, Ernie Ball flew the top 4 finalists out to Hollywood, CA for one final performance to determine who would take home the grand prize; which includes, a 2 week slot on next years' Vans Warped Tour, a $15,000 shopping spree from Guitar Center, a full endorsement from Ernie Ball, a 3 song EP with legendary producer Matt Squire, and many other prizes from Vans, Atticus, Electro-Voice and more!

Sleepwalker, June Divided, Taylor Thrash and Danielle Barbe had all come a long way since submitting their profile online at www.battleofthebands.com in March. All of their hard work would come down to one 25 minute set in front of our panel of music industry judges and the sold out crowd at the world famous Key Club in Hollywood, CA. After watching all four bands perform our judges sat down in the VIP section to make what would be one of the most difficult decisions throughout the 15 years Ernie Ball has put on this competition. As hard as it was our judges came to a unanimous decision and selected Danielle Barbe as the winner of the 15th Annual Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands Contest!

Danielle went on to say, “ I am so extremely honored to have been chosen by Ernie Ball as winner of the Battle of the Bands and fired up beyond belief to play the Warped Tour! We had a blast and met a bunch of great bands and this has been such a wonderful experience”

Brian Ball, Vice President at Ernie Ball, added, “We are exremely excited to have the chance to work with Danielle and her band over this next year. Their live performance really impressed us and we can't wait to see what the future holds!”

Head over to http://www.facebook.com/danibarbe for touring updates and information for how you can get ahold of Danielle's music. And don't forget to catch Danielle Barbe performing live on the Ernie Ball Stage at this summers Vans Warped Tour.