Above photo courtesy of Elvis Presley Enterprises / Graceland.com.
The Highlight of the 2022-23 ETA Year is Upon Us!
One week from today, the Elvis Tribute World will experience the highlight of its year – what is akin to its New Year’s Eve – the Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artists Contest.
- What is the Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest?
- How does it work?
- How does Elvis & Co fit in to the Ultimate?
- Which Elvis & Co competitors qualified for this year’s Ultimate & which ones have qualified in past?
What is the Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Competition & How Does It Work?
The Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest is exactly what it says it is – the biggest, most prestigious and only official ETA contest in the world, not only recognized but actually owned by Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE). The contest year runs August to August with the semi-finals and finals occurring at Graceland in Memphis during Elvis Week at which time another ETA is added to the official list of Best ETAs in the World by EPE.
How Does an ETA Make It to the Ultimate ETA Contest?
Although there are many (hundreds) of ETA contests held worldwide every year, there are only a few that are sanctioned as Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Preliminary Rounds by Elvis Presley Enterprises (Elvis & Co is one). These preliminary rounds begin immediately after the Ultimate is announced for that particular year (and by immediate, we mean the next day). Due to the prestige of this contest, these preliminary rounds attract the world’s leading professional ETAs.
2021 Ultimate ETA Contest Winner – Pat Dunn
The winner of each preliminary will advance to the semi-finals at Graceland at the end of which the top 5 finalists will be announced.
Those finalist advance to the Finals which are held a few days later.
This year, the Semi-Final Round will be held on Wednesday, Aug 9 and the Final Round with the announcement of the Ultimate Winner is on Saturday, Aug 12th.
What About the Elvis & Co Preliminary Contest?
The Elvis & Co preliminary Ultimate ETA Contest will take place Oct 27-29, 2023. The winner of our preliminary will compete against other preliminary winners from contests held Aug 13, 2023 through Aug 2024 to hopefully achieve the title 2024 Ultimate Champion.
Which Competitors Registered for the Elvis & Co Contest Have Earned A Place At the Ultimate This Week?
At Elvis & Co, we will be watching this year’s Ultimate with great excitement. Several of the competitors we have lined up for our Elvis & Co Ultimate preliminary contest to be held Oct 27-29, 2023 have already qualified for the 2023 contest this week. These competitors are Oliver Steinhoff, Emilio Santoro, Toki Toyokazu, Mat Shank and Louis Brown. We are extremely excited for these performers, some of whom have qualified and attended the Ultimate before (Oliver & Toki) and some of whom have qualified for the first time. Winning the Ultimate is a life changing (and career changing) experience for an ETA, we will therefore be extremely happy for one of these men if he wins even if we will be disappointed to not have him compete with us in October.
To show what an outstanding line up of competitors we will have at Elvis & Co, there are also several who did not compete this past year in a preliminary contest but have qualified and attended the Ultimate several times before. In 2022, both Brooke Wright and Bruno Nesci made it to the top five and advanced to the Ultimate Finals. In fact Bruno has qualified 4 times in past. In 2019, Sylvain Leduc won 3 qualifying contests (even though he could only represent 1) and Anthony Joseph has also attended the Ultimate semi-finals once.
Our Ultimate Winning Headliners
In addition to having several of our committed Elvis & Co competitors competing this week at Graceland, we have 2 Ultimate Winning ETAs performing in our Signature Shows.
Pat Dunn, 2021 Ultimate Winner will be appearing in our Sunday Signature Show, A Tribute to Elvis at the Forum ’74, in which we will see a different side of him as he performs as Robert Plant rather than Elvis. He will, however, be appearing as Elvis in a Special Guest appearance during the 2nd Round of Competition on Saturday afternoon. Pat will also be performing some emcee duties throughout the weekend because he is an unparalleled entertainer.
Victor Trevino Jr, 2022 and reigning Ultimate Winner, will be pulling triple duty as he headlines our Saturday Night Signature Show, From Beale Street to RCA along with Juno award winning blues artist Harrison Kennedy. He will also deliver a shorter appearance during our Grand Finals on Sunday at which we crown the Elvis & Co competitor who will advance to Graceland in 2024. On top of all of this, Victor will also be serving as one of the judges for our competition, so to say he will be busy may be an understatement!
Who Is The Elvis & Co Judging Panel?
It all starts with the judges.
All of our judges are musicians, performers &/or songwriters themselves, and have been greatly influenced by Elvis Presley! They are: