Generator Insights: Black Music Beyond Borders - Why I Built This Programme

Black Music Beyond Borders started with a feeling I couldn't shake after attending Pitch Scotland last year. I watched a room full of people from completely different cities, countries, and stages of their careers connect over a shared love of Black music.

I saw what happens when collaboration is done properly. People open doors for each other, not because they have to, but because they recognise the opportunity it presented. That experience stayed with me. It was the moment I realised Black music shouldn't have borders, and that the North East had every right to be part of that conversation rather than watching it happen elsewhere.

Not long after, UK Music published its Black Music Means Business report, which found that Black music drives the commercial engine of the UK industry, contributing around 80% of a £30 billion market built over three decades of recorded music. A big figure yet I couldn’t see anywhere in that report where the North East was mentioned as part of the story. That gap sat uncomfortably with me. We have extraordinary Black talent in this region, across songwriters, artists, performers, producers etc and I felt it was time someone made the case for the North East to be written into that narrative rather than left out of it.

So, I started asking a simple question; how do we actually find these opportunities? My first real reference point was Sami Omar, founder of Up2Stndrd, who told me about the songwriting camp which had run before Pitch Scotland. It struck me as exactly the kind of collaboration that works, bringing artists together from outside their usual networks who share the same passion, drive, and ambition, and letting the music do the rest. As I met more people at Pitch, I got talking to Yaw Owusu, Creative Consultant and founder of BLK SCL, who pointed me towards New Skool Rules in Rotterdam, one of Europe's leading international urban music festivals and conferences. I knew immediately that I needed to be in that room, because the audience there is exactly who this programme needs to reach.

Black Music Beyond Borders is the result of pulling those threads together. It is a programme I developed to address a gap that has existed for too long, Black artists and music professionals from the North of England have been building talent in relative isolation, without the international infrastructure, relationships, or platforms that artists from London have historically had access to. The programme is rooted in the belief that sustainable careers in music are built through genuine exchange, not one-off opportunities, and that the North East has both the talent and the ambition to compete and collaborate on a global stage. It sits within Generator's wider mission to develop careers from underrepresented communities, and draws on the relationships we are building across our growing network of international partners.

The goal is to create lasting pipelines, not fleeting moments. That means songwriting credits, real industry relationships, performance platforms, and digital assets that follow artists long after a single trip or showcase ends, building visibility that grows over time rather than leaving the week after an event. It means professional development that goes beyond a panel talk, and creative exchange that puts North East artists in the room with people who can genuinely move their careers forward.

Over the coming months and years, that will take shape through international songwriting camps that bring North East talent together with artists and producers from other scenes, performance opportunities on stages that put our region in front of audiences and industry it hasn't reached before, and structured networking that connects emerging talent with the people who can open doors for them long term. There will be professional development built specifically around what Black artists and music professionals need to navigate this industry sustainably, and a focus throughout on building relationships that last well beyond any single event. We are kicking things off with a songwriting camp in partnership with Up2Stndrd, which sets the tone for everything that follows; collaboration, ambition and building something that lasts.

Chyaro Hylton
Generator Programme Coordinator