Slovenian artist July Jones is one of the five recipients of the Music Moves Europe Award, handed out at the Eurosonic Noorderslag (ESNS) festival in Groeningen, the Netherlands. The award, which comes with a €10,000 prize, is to support artists in their careers.

The list of previous winners includes artists such as Dua Lipa, Hozier and Stromae.

"July Jones is about as 'fresh and current' as you can get, mixing pop, hip-hop beats, polished production and songs that are statements about personal identity," the judges said.

The winners were picked out of 15 nominees by Jacqueline Baghdasaryan, a singer from the Armenian group Ladaniva, the festival's manager MadCool Cindy Castillo, Gemma Bradley from the BBC radio, Bryan Johnson from Spotify and Kevin Cole from the US radio station KEXP.

Other winners are Schmyt from Germany, Oska from Austria, Queralt Lahoz from Spain and the duet Kids Return from France.

The Grand Jury Award went to Sans Soucis from Italy, while the winner of the Public Choice Award went to Jerry Heil from Ukraine.

After the awards ceremony, all 15 nominees were presented at the ESNS, Europe's largest showcase festival, alongside last year's winners Blanks from the Netherlands, Francis of Delirium from Luxembourg and Alina Pash from Ukraine.

The ESNS website describes Jones as a "future superstar with a distinctive look and point of view". "Their edgy electro pop songs combine razor-sharp hooks with forward-thinking production choices and unfiltered lyrics about relationships, queerness and mental health."

Jones studied jazz at Berkley and currently lives in London.