Funzo win 'New Irish Christmas Classic' award

The diverse six-piece band have won music vouchers, recording time and a lot of airplay on 100.3 Christmas FM (until the 28th December, when the station will close until next year). Their new Christmas song, 'This Christmas', will also be available for download from this Friday from the Christmas FM website.

Christmas FM received hundreds of entrants, which were narrowed down by industry experts (Jackie Hayden, Hot Press; Keith Johnston, IMRO and Lauren Murphy, Irish Times) to 6 finalists.

The final decision was then down to public voting by text which went on for four days, and on Wednesday Funzo was announced as the winner with a landslide victory of 40 percent of the votes.

Funzo will be touring around the country this month and will be performing the winning song at each live show. The dates are as follows:

December 6 - Lillie's Bordello, Dublin (The Pogues Aftershow Party)
December 10 - Roisin Dubh, Galway
December 11 - Dolan's, Limerick
December 17 - The Stables, Mullingar (FREE)
December 18 - Citi Bar, Dame St, Dublin (FREE)
December 21 - Whelan's, Dublin
December 23 - The Globe, George's St, Dublin (FREE)
December 31 - The Village, Dublin

Christmas FM is this year in aid of the Simon Communities in Dublin and Cork, where it is broadcast. Texts from the competition votes and for song requests etc. all cost €1 and all proceeds go to these charities.

More details at www.christmasfm.ie/songcontest.

www.myspace.com/listentofunzo