Soul singer Michael Kiwanuka came out on top last year, with Adele, Jessie J and Ellie Goulding among past winners. The 2013 line-up includes boy-girl pop duo AlunaGeorge, Birmingham indie group Peace and Californian sisters Haim. Other acts tipped for success include all-girl post-punk band Savages, Glasgow electro-pop three-piece Chvrches and London rock quartet Palma Violets, whose debut single Best Of Friends was recently named track of the year by the NME.
The Sound of 2013 winner will be announced online and by DJ Huw Stephens on the BBC Radio 1 breakfast show on 4 January.
Theatre Awards - Danny Boyle's Olympic opening ceremony is going head-to head with Shakespeare at the Whatsonstage.com theatre awards. Boyle's stadium spectacular is shortlisted for theatre event of the year alongside the multi-lingual Globe to Globe Shakespeare festival. The most nominated play is the National Theatre's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. The winners will be revealed in February.
Boyle's nomination comes shortly after he was honoured for his Olympic ceremony at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards in November. The Globe to Globe season, part of the Cultural Olympiad's World Shakespeare Festival, staged 37 Shakespeare plays in 37 languages.
Also on the shortlist for theatre event of the year is Mark Rylance's return to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in Twelfth Night and Richard III, the Jesus Christ Superstar arena tour, the opening of the new St James Theatre, and Susan Boyle bio-musical I Dreamed a Dream.
Mixed Reviews - The stage version of Whitney Houston film The Bodyguard has received mixed reviews at its West End premiere. The Telegraph's Charles Spencer called it "proof that if you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, you can sometimes come surprisingly close". But the Guardian's Michael Billington claimed it was "one more example of the necrophiliac musical morbidly attracted to a cinematic corpse". However, there was universal praise for Heather Headley in the lead role. The former Broadway star, who is returning to musical theatre after a break of more than 12 years, won acclaim for her "sassy stage presence" and "vocal swoops and trills... at least as fine a singer as Houston in her heyday, if not even better," wrote Spencer.
Grammy Nominations - Mumford & Sons dominate the nominations for next year's Grammy Music Awards. The band have received six nominations for their second album Babel including best rock song and album of the year. Jay-Z, Kanye West, Frank Ocean, Fun and The Black Keys are also up for six awards. The winners will be announced in a televised ceremony on 10 February from Los Angeles.
(Jim Evans)
