The winners of the 2010 European Border Breakers Awards (EBBAs) will receive their awards in a show to be presented by British TV personality Jools Holland in Groningen. The show will be covered on television throughout Europe. For the first time ever, a new category of winner, the 'Public Choice EBBA', has been selected by the European public by voting online

The European Border Breaker Awards are given to debut artists or groups for their success in crossing national borders and reaching audiences outside their own country. They are given by the European Commission, in cooperation with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). They aim therefore to stimulate the mobility of artists and the circulation of their work within Europe and beyond, as well as to raise awareness and appreciation among audiences of music from outside their national borders.

With theEuropean Border Breaker Awards, the European Commission and the EBU wish to highlight the success of 10 debuting European artists in selling albums and touring outside their home territory. The prize aims to stimulate the cross-border circulation of artists' works and to highlight Europe's great musical diversity.

A novelty for 2010 is the introduction of the Public Choice EBBA: one of the 2010 winners will be chosen by the European audience as the most popular border breaking act in Europe and will be rewarded with the Public Choice EBBA.

The awards are funded through the EU Culture Programme, which also funds the European Union Contemporary Architecture Prize, the European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage and the European Union Prize for Literature.

The event

The European Border Breaker Award Ceremony will take place in the Oosterpoort Theatre in Groningen, Netherlands, during the the EuroSonic Noorderslag Festival in the evening of 14 January 2010. The list of winners is available in the website of the Awards.