The final for the Emergenza Acoustic Festival was held about two weeks ago at the MCM café in Paris. This new event in the Emergenza competition is the consequence of a recent cooperation between Emergenza, Ernie Ball, Takamine, and Ovation, two world-famous names in the area of acoustic guitars. The outcome of the event can be summarized in a few words. On the 14th of December, four European bands selected by Emergenza during 2002, came to Paris for the Emergenza Acoustic Final at the MCM Café. We are talking about: McKINLEY Black, melancholic singer from Berlin, JAHCOUSTIX AND JUNIOR MANGO, two reggae players from Munich, SOUL A RISE, excellent acoustic band from Paris, and Luca Casagrande from Rome. It was an amazing night, with a huge audience – thousands of people – great performances and great performers. Luca Casagrande was the best, warmly acclaimed by the audience, admired by the other musicians, and chosen by the jury- thanks to his great technical and artistic ability. Luca Casagrande plays guitar with a very open finger picking style. Even if he has a marvelous technical talent, he doesn’t restrict his performance to show us that. He loves blues, evergreen ragtime, rock, pop, and disco music. He surprises the audience with a fresh and amusing mix of this kind of music arranged for acoustic guitar. The continuation of the story? Due of his winning night, Luca is going to the United States in January 2003 to participate in a great night of guitars organized by the biggest American magazine for acoustic music: ACOUSTIC MAGAZINE. The concert - Acoustic Magazine Café – will be organized in the central hall of the Hilton of Anheim in Los Angeles and is an important tradition in the history of the NAMM. At this annual event, lots of people from the music industry meet for business. Saturday night is reserved for a performance of the best American guitar players. An Emergenza artist will be among them, the first European musician ever that will be a part of the entertainment line-up. We are proud to send Luca Casagrande to represent us.