The finalists’ videos will be judged by a panel of world-class drum artists, including Sheila E, Jess Bowen, Kim Thompson, Dawn Richardson, Susie Ibarra and Hannah Ford. The grand prize winners will be announced on May 1, 2012.

These are the fifteen Hit Like A Girl 2012 finalists (ordered on last name):

• Illari Arbe
  
• Ankita Bhardwaj (Basement)
  
• Nikki Blout (NIKnSTIX)
  
• De'Arcus Curry (dbaby)
  
• Arianna Fanning
  
• Adriana Pinaya Johanssen (Gata)
  
• Agnieszka Matuszczak (agadrummer)
  
• Karmi Santiago
  
• Drashti Thakkar (D.T.)
  
• Mandy Tieman (Pearl Girl)
  
• Monica Del Valle (Moni)
  
• Janitra Priyanka Vaswani (JP Millenix)
  
• Jess De Vries
  
• Lindsey Raye Ward
  
• Taryn Lee Young (TarynDrumfire)

The announcement of the finalists was made by leading women drummers Meytal Cohen and Dawn Richardson along with contest organizers Phil Hood (Drum! magazine) and Mindy Seegal Abovitz (Tom Tom Magazine). Comments Phil:

"With well over 350 entries from around the world, more than 300,000 votes cast, 10,000,000 page views thus far and as many as 12,000 visitors per day, what started out as the first contest for girl drummers became a global phenomenon for the women’s drumming community."

Hit Like A Girl is sponsored by Crush Drums, TRX Cymbals, Vater sticks, Evans drumheads, SKB cases, Drum! magazine, Tom Tom magazine, Alfred Music, Drum Channel and the Enter Music Network.