Bermuda-based singer Will Black is on a quest to become the next big Canadian breakout artist.

The one small catch? He’ll need your help.

The 37-year-old has entered CBC Music’s Searchlight competition for the second year in a row.

This year, with the help of local fans, he’s hoping he can get enough votes to reach the finale stage where one of his songs will be heard by a panel of celebrity judges.

“I didn’t get beyond the first round last year,” Mr Black said. “So far I’ve been promoting the competition on my social media maybe every other day or so. You don’t want to over-saturate your fans.

“The competition is a great opportunity for me to get some new content out for the fans to interact with. It’s also a great way to get some more exposure.

“For me in particular, because I’m based in Bermuda for most of the year at Hog Penny, it means I’m not performing in music circles with music makers. I don’t rub shoulders with people in the industry, only when I’m away on tour, so it could open some new doors.”

It doesn’t hurt that the grand prize is $20,000 towards music equipment and a spot on a high-profile music showcase.

“It would be cool if that meant opening for Bryan Adams, but no matter what it is it wouldn’t hurt,” he said.

Mr Black has been a regular on the local music scene for the past ten years.

He performs rock cover songs and some original hits at the Hog Penny four nights a week.

Music has always been a big part of his life.

In high school he was in a couple of bands and performed in the choir. Then after graduating, he started delving more into rock music.

“I travelled around the West Coast of Canada from 1994 until 2001, mostly based in Victoria, British Columbia,” Mr Black said.

“I was what they called a weekend warrior, playing gigs on the weekends and working a day job for the rest of the week. It wasn’t until I was 23 I actually got on the cruise ships in a rock guitar duo called The Door Crashers.

“Then I went from working weekends to performing seven nights a week and it just carried on from that.”

Mr Black found out about the Searchlight competition last year through social media. One of his fans encouraged him to join.

“That’s normally how it happens,” he said. “People usually hear about things before I do. Then I took a look at the competition site and thought ‘why not?’

“CBC is the main organisation for TV and radio in Canada so it has a long history and tradition in Canadian entertainment.

“And it was easy to enter — you just have to be a Canadian citizen. You upload the song of your choosing and if you get through to the final round the judges will take a look at it and look at things like song quality and lyrical composition.”

Right now his main focus is generating enough fan votes until next Monday.

Voting tallies aren’t made available to the public, however he does know his song has been played 181 times so far.

“That’s not really the best indication of where I stand because a lot of my fans have already heard Trace your Tattoo a million times,” he said. “They just go on the link and vote without hearing it again. In the end the number of votes is all that counts.”

Mr Black said no matter the outcome, he still has some great things on the horizon — he plans to record his third studio album next year.

His ultimate goal is to keep making music 20 or 30 years down the road.

“One of my favourite artists is Bruce Springsteen and he’s 65 and still making records,” Mr Black said.

“If I could be 65 and still making a good living performing music and be relevant that would be fantastic. A lot of it has to do with your health and your ability to stick with the music and devote to it full-time.

“For the time being I’m focusing on this. I’d encourage anyone to vote if they’ve seen me performing at Hog Penny or if they are curious to know what my best track was from the current record. They just have to go to the link, have a listen and vote if they like it.

“It would be much appreciated because it really is up to the fans to decide whether the songs get through to the next round or not.”

Visit: WillBlack.com/cbc.