Over the summer there have been auditions taking place up and down the country and now it is nearing the semi finals stage. The awards ceremony will be taking place on November 15th at the o2 arena

Britain's Next Urban Superstar

Foot Locker and the UMA's Search For Britain's Next Urban Superstar

Foot Locker, leader of style originality, is proud to sponsor the Urban Music Award's newest category, Britain's Next Urban Superstar. Synonymous with great music and great fashion, the UMA's and Foot Locker are on a mission to unveil the next generation of urban music talent in the UK through this exclusive new talent search.

The only strictly urban talent search of its kind to be directly associated with a major awards ceremony, Foot Locker and the UMA's will be searching for Britain's Next Urban Superstar via a nationwide talent search from June 2008. Auditions will be held in major UK cities between June and September. Hopefuls can also audition at exclusive, one-day only, private recording booths at five Foot Locker's this summer - including London, Birmingham, Manchester, Southampton and Cardiff. A selection of the most talented, and the most entertaining, of these in store auditions will be shown exclusively on www.footlocker.eu.

The successful auditions will qualify for the televised heats, to be broadcast on Flava TV (Sky 357) and Invincible TV online from 16th July. The winner of the talent search will be presented with the coveted Foot Locker 'Britain's Next Urban Superstar' award at The Urban Music Awards ceremony hosted on 1st November and broadcast on Channel U on 27th December.

Natasja Jennings, Associate Manager for Media Strategy at Foot Locker comments "Foot Locker is dedicated to supporting the rising stars of the urban music scene, and is excited about this new award that will uncover such a wealth of new urban music talent. Foot Locker is known for providing our consumers with the latest trends and styles and this is a great opportunity to directly communicate with our consumers under such a highly acclaimed awards ceremony like The Urban Music Awards."

Leading the way in the latest exclusives in sneakers, Foot Locker is a perfect partner to the annual Urban Music Awards, which has become synonymous with fresh new music and leading fashion trends.

Previous winners of UMA awards sponsored by Foot Locker include Kano, Sway, Soundbwoy and last year's Best Newcomer - Mr Midas.

URBAN MUSIC AWARDS LIVE ON ITV LOCAL ITV Local London www.itvlocal.com/london has become the official media partner of the Urban Music Awards 2008. The awards ceremony will be streamed LIVE on ITV Local London on a dedicated Urban Music Awards channel www.itvlocal.com/london/umas

Viewers can log on to the website to see some of the biggest names in music perform and pick up the prestigious awards throughout the evening on Saturday 15th November. They will then be able to catch up on the best bits from the show, as well as see exclusive red carpet interviews and backstage gossip from Monday 17th November.

Estelle, Leona Lewis, Dizzee Rascal, Basement Jaxx and dozens of other UK talent will go head to head for the UMA accolades, which will be presented at IndigO2 in London. The ceremony will be attended by more than 5,000 artists, music industry insiders and fans, plus thousands more from around the world online via ITV Local.

The dedicated ITV Local channel will go live this week, and will include information on the nominees, the line-up, and how to get to IndigO2. Video previews and highlights from last year's awards will also be available on-demand.