IQALUIT - Iqaluit will be host to the 26th annual True North concert this year, and all Nunavut residents - the musical ones, anyway - can try their best to become one of the five acts.

Mathew Nuqingaq stands on the stage at the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre, where he performed as part of CBC's 25th annual True North Concert. This year's concert is taking place in Iqaluit. - NNSL file photo

This year, Peter Skinner and a panel of judges will review CDs and DVDs from aspiring musicians in five of the CBC's coverage areas - in the True North "Undiscovered" Talent Search - and build the concert schedule from there.

"It's important to see what's out there in terms of musical talent, in terms of singers and musicians," he said.

Skinner decided upon this method of recruiting musicians to get a wider scope of what's out there.

"The problem is our broadcast area is so big... I can't really get to see everybody that I'd like to see. I can't get out there and hit the clubs and see the musicians in schools and that," he said.

The concert, in its 26th year, takes place in different communities around the North. Last year, for its 25th anniversary, it was held in Yellowknife.

This year the concert will take place in Iqaluit, which will be getting a CBC Radio 2 transmitter the same week.

"We were in Iqaluit last in 2001 so it's nice to get back to the Eastern Arctic," he said.

The talent search is open to a large number of musicians in the North, the only major requirement being that the artist must not already be signed to a major label. People of any age can try out with any style of music, so long as the recording is on either CD or DVD.

"I want a straight recording of exactly how you sound because we don't want to be fooled," he said.

Skinner is hoping to get a wide variety of styles of music to choose from. "It shows off what we've got in the North because you can't really pigeonhole Northern music as one thing," he said.

People in Nunavut are eligible to try out for the opportunity to play at this concert along with residents of Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavik and the James Bay Cree area.

The first half of the concert will feature the top musicians from each of the five coverage areas, and the second half of the show will be delivered by the CBC radio orchestra, along with Simeonie Keenainak, an accordion player from Pangnirtung.

Musicians have until July 31 to get their submissions in for the September concert.