It was just by chance that Sharmaine and Luvena Kwong found out about the contest.
The Coquitlam sisters had been performing with Port Coquitlam singer/songwriter David Blair at PechaKuchaCoquitlam last spring when he told them about the Mobile Artist Community, which promotes new music and emerging artists - and was giving away a record deal with EMI Music Canada to the top vote-getter in an online competition.
The Gleneagle graduates jumped at the opportunity, typed in their information and uploaded their music videos.
And, since then, the duo has managed to secure not only a place in the finals but a spot in the Top 5, thanks in part to their friends and social media followers.
"We originally thought the contest was a good way to get our music out there, to give us a bit of a profile," Sharmaine said, "but we can't believe how well we've done. It's really nice support."
Before they signed up, music was not part of their futures - at least not professionally, said Sharmaine, 20, a UBC student of sociology (Luvena, 22, studies psychology at SFU).
"It has always just been a hobby for us," she said, adding, "We took piano lessons when we were younger and, a few years ago, we started with guitar but mostly we've been self-taught with that. We didn't really want to study music in high school because we didn't want to get technical. We just wanted to do our own stuff."
Three years ago, the pop/rock/country pair took their "hobby" a little more seriously and posted their music videos on YouTube. To date, their pages have had more than 900,000 hits and generated 1,650 subscribers.
They also uploaded their professionally recorded song, My Turn to Leave, on MySpace and started to enter contests like the Lilith Fair Local Talent Search 2010, Shout It Out with Hanson and CMT Canada's Ultimate Fan Access to Taylor Swift.
Last year, they hit the summer circuit, playing their original and cover tunes - especially Swift's songs - at several gigs around the Tri-Cities including the popular Golden Spike Days Festival in Port Moody.
Performing live "is lots of fun and I like connecting with the audience," Sharmaine said. "When they sing along with us, it's a lot of fun."
Still, finding somewhere to play can be a challenge, she admitted, noting their lack of stage experience and backup band as well as their young ages don't appeal to all venue operators. "Two girls unplugged with guitars is a hard sell sometimes," Sharmaine said. "It can take a lot of convincing that we can do it just as good as the older artists."
To vote for Sharmaine and Luvena Kwong in the EMI contest, visit moartist.com.
