The Grammys - (some of) the winners

Album Of The Year: 25 — Adele 

Record Of The Year: “Hello” — Adele 

Song Of The Year: “Hello” — Adele Adkins & Greg Kurstin, songwriters 

Best New Artist: Chance The Rapper

Best Pop Vocal Album: 25 — Adele 

Best Pop Solo Performance: “Hello” — Adele 

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance: “Stressed Out” — Twenty One Pilots 

Best Dance Recording: “Don’t Let Me Down” — The Chainsmokers Featuring Daya 

Best Dance/Electronic Album: Skin — Flume 

Best Contemporary Instrumental Album: Culcha Vulcha — Snarky Puppy

Best Rock Performance:“Blackstar” — David Bowie

Best Metal Performance: “Dystopia” — Megadeth

Best Rock Song: “Blackstar” — David Bowie,

Best Rock Album: Tell Me I’m Pretty — Cage The Elephant

Best Alternative Music Album: Blackstar — David Bowie 

Best R&B Performance: “Cranes in the Sky” - Solange

Best R&B Song: “Lake By the Ocean” — Hod David & Musze, 

Best Urban Contemporary Album: Lemonade -  Beyoncé 

Best R&B Album: Lalah Hathaway Live — Lalah Hathaway

Best Rap Performance: “No Problem” — Chance The Rapper Featuring Lil Wayne & 2 Chainz 

Best Rap Album: Coloring Book — Chance The Rapper 

Best Country Solo Performance: “My Church”  -  Maren Morris

Best Country Duo/Group Performance: “Jolene” — Pentatonix Featuring Dolly Parton

Best Country Album:  A Sailor’s Guide To Earth — Sturgill Simpson

Best Jazz Vocal Album: Take Me To The Alley — Gregory Porter 

Best Gospel Album: Losing My Religion — Kirk Franklin

Best Latin Pop Album: Un Besito Mas — Jesse & Joy 

Best Music Video: “Formation” — Beyoncé 

Best Music Film: The Beatles: Eight Days A Week The Touring Years 

2016 EUROPEAN FESTIVAL AWARDS - the winners

The 2016 EUROPEAN FESTIVAL AWARDS are done and dusted, with live performances from James TW, Roosevelt and The Children of the Revolution, and those winners are:

Best Small European Festival: SNOWBOMBING (Austria)

Best Line Up: PRIMAVERSA SOUND (Spain)

Brand Activation Award: PUKKLEPOP - Smart Energy Grid (Belgium)

Agent of the Year: NATASHA BENT (Coda Agency, UK)

Best Indoor Festival: REEPERBAHN Festival (Germany)

Best New Festival: MAD COOL (Spain)

Artist’s Favourite Festival: SZIGET (Hungary)

Headliner of the Year: MUSE

Health & Safety Award: SOUTHSIDE Festival (Germany)

Best Medium Sized Festival: PALEO FESTIVAL Nyon (Switzerland)

Green Operation award: SHAMBALA Festival (UK)

Newcomer of the Year: DUA LIPA

Promoter of the Year: AFTER ART (Poland)

Best Major Festival: ROCK WERCHTER (Belgium)

Award for Excellent and Passion: CHRISTOF HUBER

Lifetime Achievement Award: DAN PANAITESCU

A Greener Festival Award Winners Announced at EuroSonic

The European and US  festivals who have won of the prestigious Greener Festival Award 2016 have been announced at the Eurosonic Noorderslag festival and conference in Groningen, the Netherlands.  The winners are a select elite of sustainable events who have entered the Greener Festival Awards scheme,  and submitted their environmental good practice to an external independent assessment. AGF's Teresa Moore made three awards in person, to Body & Soul, Das Fest and the Glastonbury Festival. The Awards ceremony also announced a new initiative from the municipality of Utrecht, A Greener Festival and Green Events Nederland. Utrecht's Hedwih Leijten and Green Events Paul Schurink were on hand to explain that Utrecht would now support festivals to enter the Greener Festival Awards scheme, and that the scheme is likely to spread to other Dutch municipalities.

The Greener Festival Award 2016 winners:

IMPROVING
Arla Food Fest
Body & Soul
La Sema
Metal Days
Nozstock - the Hidden Valley
Paradise City

COMMENDED
Bona Nit BCN
Das Fest
Extrema Outdoors
Greenbelt Festival
Kew the Music
Liberation Festival
Malmofestivalen
Northside Festival
Primavera Sound
Wood Festival

HIGHLY COMMENDED
Cambridge Folk Festival
DGTL
Glastonbury Festival
Green Music Festival
Heart of Glass Heart of Gold
Oya Festival
Welcome to the Future

OUTSTANDING
Boom Festival
We Love Green

AIM AWARDS 2016 - THE WINNERS!

BEST SMALL LABEL in association with Proper Music Distribution NUMBERS

BEST DIFFICULT SECOND ALBUM in association with Radio X DAUGHTER - NOT TO DISAPPEAR

SPECIAL CATALOGUE RELEASE OF THE YEAR  in association with MODO SLADE – WHEN SLADE ROCKED THE WORLD

HARDEST WORKING BAND OR ARTIST DARREN HAYMAN

GOLDEN WELLY AWARD FOR BEST INDEPENDENT FESTIVAL in association with AIF, voted for by readers of DIY BRAINCHILD FESTIVAL

INDEPENDENT BREAKTHROUGH OF THE YEAR  in association with YouTube CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS

INDIE CHAMPION in association with CI JON TOLLEY - BANQUET RECORDS

INDEPENDENT VIDEO OF THE YEAR in association with Vevo OSCAR - SOMETIMES

INDEPENDENT TRACK OF THE YEAR in association with MCPS ADELE - HELLO

BEST LIVE ACT voted for by visitors to Songkick BABYMETAL

PPL AWARD FOR MOST PLAYED NEW INDEPENDENT ACT SIGALA

INDEPENDENT ALBUM OF THE YEAR in association with The Orchard LITTLE SIMZ - A CURIOUS TALE OF TRIALS + PERSONS

INDEPENDENT LABEL OF THE YEAR in association with Believe Digital EPITAPH / ANTI

INNOVATOR AWARD in association with FUGA STORMZY

PIONEER AWARD RICHARD RUSSELL - XL RECORDINGS

OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO MUSIC in association with Amazon Music RÓISÍN MURPHY

Event Production Awards 2016 - the winners!

EPA winners!

The Event Production Awards 2016 winners are:

Best Audio Visual Supplier
Creative Technology

Best Crewing Company
Connection Crew CIC

Best Security Company
Specialized Security

Best Fencing/Crowd Barrier Company
Eve Trakway

Best Flooring/Trackway Company
LION Trackhire

Best Staging Company
Actavo Events

Best Structure Company
Neptunus

Best Plant Company
Winner Events

Best Indoor Venue of the Year
Banqueting House

Best Technology Provider
Intellitix

Best Ticketing Company
Skiddle

Green Supplier of the Year
Big Green Coach Ltd

Best Outdoor Venue of the Year
Hampton Court Palace

Sustainable Event of the Year
Arcadia Metamorphosis by Arcadia

Public Event of the Year
Para Tri by Sportsworld

Cultural/Food Event of the Year
London Korean Festival

Music Event of the Year
Liverpool Sound City

Sporting Event of the Year
Progress Productions for Rugby World Cup 2015

Best Visual Spectacular
Fantastic Fireworks for The War of the Worlds Spectacular

Brand Activation of the Year
Sense Marketing for Guitar Hero Live

Production Team of the Year
Ground Control

Access All Areas Editor’s Award
Tania Harrison

Highlights of the 2016 Grammy Wins

Record of the year "Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars

Album of the year  "1989" by Taylor Swift

Song of the year "Thinking Out Loud": Ed Sheeran & Amy Wadge, songwriters (Ed Sheeran) 

Best rap album "To Pimp A Butterfly": Kendrick Lamar 

Best country album "Traveller": Chris Stapleton 

Best urban contemporary album "Beauty Behind the Madness": The Weeknd

Best pop duo/group performance  "Uptown Funk": Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars 

Best new artist  Meghan Trainor 

Best dance recording "Where Are Ü Now": Skrillex and Diplo with Justin Bieber 

Best rock performance "Don't Wanna Fight" : Alabama Shakes 

More here  http://www.grammy.com/

European Festival Awards 2015

The 2015 European Festival Awards ceremony at the EuroSonic convention in Groningen in the Netherlands took place last night. A gala dinner, hosted by Ben Challis and Gordon Masson, featured live performances from Dutch band Kovacs, Scotlands White and Carnival Youth from Latvia, and a special performance from the star sudded Natural Peace and Love Orchestra.  With over 800,000 votes cast by fans, the winners are:

Best New European Festival: Untold Festival (Romania)

Best Indoor Festival: Les Transardentes (Belgium)

The Green Opererations Award: Tollwood Festival (Germany)

Agent of the Year: Emma Banks (CAA)

Festival Anthem of the Year: Major Lazer with Lean On

Best Small European Festival: Happiness Festival (Germany)

Artists Favourite European Festival: Rock Werchter (Belgium)

The Health & Safety Innovation Award: Das Fest (Germany)

The Best Medium Sized European Festival: Telekom Volt (Hungary)

Promoter of the Year: Horstmann Unterbehmensgruppe (Germany)

Newcomer of the Year: Hozier

Best European Festival Line Up: Sziget (Hungary)

Best Headliner: The Prodigy

Best Major European Festival: Untold Festival (Romania)

Award for Excellence and Passion: Prof Chris Kemp (YES and MOM)

Lifetime Achievement Award: Jean Louis Brossard and Beatrice Mace

AIM Awards 2015

The AIM Awards are out, held at a star studden event at the Brewery in London EC1, attended by a host of indie label bods, indie festival organisers, publishers, merchandisers - well anyone who is anyone in independent music, including ever irrepresible Michael Eavis and that Noel Gallagher chappie, Tom Robison, The Charlatans Tim Burgess and Radio 1's Huw Stephens. Winners on the night included a delighted Wolf Alice, who won Independent Breakthrough, All Time Low won Best Live Act, Swans won Hardest Working Act, Young Fathers won 'Best Difficult Second Album' for 'White Men are Black Men Too', Brainchild won the 'Golden Welly Award' for best independent fetsival and the Ninja team (Matt, Peter and Johnathan) won the indie Innovator Award.

Transgressive won the Independent Label of the Year Award, the PPL Award went to Jungle, Enter Shakira picked up Indie Album of The Year for 'The Midsweep', FKA Twings was ever so pleased to get Track of the Year for 'Two Weeks',  Skepta won the 'Outstanding Contribution' Award and Digby Prarson from Earache Records picked up the Pioneer Award and Marc Riley got the Indie Champion gong. Always kicked the whole thing off with a live show. Well done all! 

Drowned In Sound have put together a Spotify playlist, offering a taste of 2015's AIM Awards nominees. The playlist highlights the incredible year independent music is having and features a wide range of winners and nominees from this year's Awards. Click here to give the playlist a spin!

2015 Grammy Awards - and the winners are ....

With live performances from Madonna, Sir Paul McCartney, Rihanna and Kanye West - the winners at the 57th Grammy Awards, topped by UK sould singer Sam Smith with four awards, are:

Record of the Year - Sam Smith – "Stay With Me (Darkchild Version)" 

Song of the Year  - Sam Smith - "Stay With Me (Darkchild Version) (James Napier, William Phillips & Sam Smith with Tommy Petty and Jeff Lynne)

Album of the Year - Beck - Morning Phase 

Best New Artist - Sam Smith

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance  - A Great Big World With Christina Aguilera - "Say Something"

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album  - Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga - Cheek To Cheek

Best Pop Solo Performance  -Pharrell Williams - "Happy"

Best Pop Vocal Album - Sam Smith - In The Lonely Hour

Best Rock Performance  - Jack White - "Lazaretto"

Best Rock Album  - Beck - Morning Phase

Best Rock Song  - Paramore - "Ain't It Fun" (Hayley Williams & Taylor York)

Best Alternative Rock Album - St. Vincent - St. Vincent

Best Metal Performance  -Tenacious D - "The Last In Line"

Best Rap Performance  - Kendrick Lamar - "I"

Best Rap/Sung Collaboration  -Eminem Featuring Rihanna - "The Monster"

Best Rap Song - Kendrick Lamar - "I"  (K. Duckworth & C. Smith)

Best Rap Album - Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP2

Best R&B Performance  - Beyoncé Featuring Jay Z – "Drunk In Love"

Best R&B Song  - Beyoncé Featuring Jay Z - "Drunk In Love"  (Shawn Carter, Rasool Diaz, Noel Fisher, Jerome Harmon, Beyoncé Knowles, Timothy Mosely, Andre Eric Proctor & Brian Soko)

Best Urban Contemporary Album -  Pharrell Williams - Girl

Best R&B Album  - Toni Braxton & Babyface - Love, Marriage & Divorce

Best Contemporary Instrumental Album  - Chris Thile & Edgar Meyer - Bass & Mandolin

Best Dance/Electronic Album - Aphex Twin - Syro

Best Dance Recording -Clean Bandit Featuring Jess Glynne - "Rather Be"

Best Country Album  - Miranda Lambert - Platinum

Producer of the Year, Non-Classical  - Max Martin 

Best Reggae Album - Ziggy Marley - Fly Rasta

Best World Music Album  - Angelique Kidjo - Eve

Best Blues Album  - Johnny Winter - Step Back

Best Spoken Word Album  - Joan Rivers - Diary Of A Mad Diva

Best Comedy Album  - "Weird Al" Yankovic - Mandatory Fun

Best Jazz Vocal Album - Dianne Reeves - Beautiful Life

Best Folk Album  - Old Crow Medicine Show - Remedy

Best Music Video  - Pharrell Williams - "Happy"


And there are more - full list here ..... http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/grammy-awards-2015-the-complete-winners-list-20150208

European Festival Awards .... and the winners are .....

The 6th Festival Awards Europe are done and dusted and at a star studded gala celebration at De Oosterport on January 14th at the start of this year's EuroSonic festival and conference in Groningen, host Ben Challis welcomed guests and winners and live performances from MØ (Denmark), Jack Garratt (UK) and Aurora Asknes (Sweden) - as well as a special surprise opening act, The Illegal Terms, made up of Ben on vocals, Michal Kaščák, organiser of the Pohoda Festival on drums, Open Air St Gallen's organiser Christof Huber on guitar alongside Virtual Festivals' Steve Jenner, and Das Fest booker and boss of Green Events Europe, Holger Jan Schmidt,  on bass. The Illegal Terms gave  barnstorming renditions of 'Blittzkrieg Bop' and 'I Fought The Law'. Sponsoring partners for the Awards included hosts Yourope, the European festivals association, EuroSonic and Eventbrite, Intelligent Venue Solutions, Plug Go and Snack Media. With over 1.2 milllion votes cast in the public categories this year, the Arctic Monkey's won two awards for Headliner of the Year and Festival Anthem of the Year, collected on the night by the bands long time manager Geoff Barradale. Hungary's Sziget won Best Major Festival, Glastonbury picked up the Best Lineup Award for their Metallica and Dolly Parton inspired summer bash, and Stromae picked up best newcomer.

Best Small European Festival - Festival Tuaron Nowa Muzyka (Poland) 

Best Indoor Festival - I love Techno (Belgium)

The Green Operations Award - Roskilde Festival (Denmark)

Newcomer Of The Year - Stromae

Artist’s Favourite European Festival  - Primavera Sound in Barcelona (Spain)

Best New European Festival - Down the Rabbit Hole (The Nederlands)

Festival Anthem of the Year - Arctic Monkeys – R U Mine

YES Group H&S Innovation Award  - Mojo Concerts

Best Medium-Sized European Festival - Sea Dance Festival (Montenegro)

Promoter Of The Year -  Live Nation (Belgium)

Best European Festival Line-Up - Glastonbury Festival (UK)

Best Headliner - Arctic Monkeys

Best Major European Festival - Sziget (Hungary)

Lifetime Achievement Award - Melvin Benn 

Award For Excellence And Passion - Rikke Oxner

The European Border Breakers Awards (EBBAs), which give recognition to new European acts who have achieved cross-border chart success were also confirmed at a ceremony hosted by Jools Holland earlier in the day at EuroSonic. The ten winners were announced in October, with three - Melanie De Biasio, MØ and Indila - performing live  (as did previous winners, The Ting Tings), The other seven nominated acts were Klangkarussell, Milky Chance, Hozier, The Common Linnets, Todd Terje, Tove Lo and John Newman. Last year's Dutch Eurovision entrants The Common Linnets were handed the Public Choice Award after an online vote, and Jungle were awarded the EBBA Best Festival Act prize.

Mumford & Sons, Fun and Black Keys top Grammys

Mumford & Sons topped British success at the 55th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles as their album Babel won Record of the Year - and they were given their award by another Brit pop darling, Adele, who joked that winning the prize means you go on to get "knocked up". The folk band won their second Grammy for Big Easy Express in the Best Long Form Music Video category as well as performing on the night with Sir Elton John. Sir Elton also performed a duet with fellow Brit Ed Sheeran.

New mum Adele took home her ninth Grammy, this time it was for Best Pop Solo Performance for Set Fire to the Rain (Live). Belgian/Australian Gotye won three awards including record of the year for his smash hit Somebody That I Used To Know, featuring New Zealand singer-songwriter Kimbra. Other big winners were Fun., who won Best New Artist and Song of the Year for We Are Young which featured Janelle Monáe. Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys ended up the night's top winner with four trophies, including producer of the year and three rock category victories with band mate Patrick Carney

Kelly Clarkson walked away with Best Pop Vocal Album for Stronger, and Sir Paul McCartney won best traditional pop vocal album for Kisses On The Bottom. Beyonce won best traditional R&B performance, Franck Ocean picked up two Grammys for best Urban Contemporary album and best rap/spoken collaboration, Jay-Z picked up three Grammys in the rap genre including Best Rap Song, Skrillex picked up two Grammys in the Dance categories and Carrie Underwood topped the country genre with Best Country Solo and  Best Country Song.

A tribute to the late reggae legend Bob Marley was performed by Bruno Mars, Sting and Rihanna along with sons Damian and Ziggy Marley. Other stars who performed included Taylor Swift, Kelly Clarkson, Alicia Keys with Maroon 5, Justin Timberlake with Jay-Z and Frank Ocean.

European Festival Awards - the winners!

With outstanding live performances from Jake Bugg, C2C and Bernhoft, the 2013 European Festival Awards, held at the De Oosterpoort at the EuroSonic conference and festival in Groningen in the Netherlands, were a sell out success last night (January 9th). And, as host Ben Challis said just thirteen times to events, organisers and artistes from across Europe as the Awards were handed out, the winners are:

BEST NEW FESTIVAL  WINNER: Electro Magnetic (Germany)

BEST INDOOR FESTIVAL  WINNER: Sensation (Netherlands)

FESTIVAL ANTHEM  WINNER: Lykke Ly  I Follow Rivers

GREEN OPERATIONS AWARD WINNER: We Love Green (France)

BEST EUROPEAN FESTIVAL LINE-UP  WINNER: Rock am Ring / Rock im Park (Germany)

NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR  WINNER: Of Monsters and Men 


ARTISTS’ FAVOURITE FESTIVAL  WINNER: Roskilde (Denmark)

HEADLINER OF THE YEAR WINNER: Foo Fighters

PROMOTER OF THE YEA   WINNER: Pukkelpop (Belgium)

BEST SMALL FESTIVAL   WINNER: Tauron New Music Festival (Poland)

BEST MEDIUM-SIZED FESTIVAL   WINNER: Heineken Balaton Sound (Hungary)

BEST MAJOR FESTIVAL  WINNER: Tomorrowland (Belgium)

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD   WINNER: Herman Schueremans (Live Nation Belgium)

The Awards were organised by Festival Awards Limited, Yourope and EuroSonic Noorderslag and sponsored by Planet Festival, Intelligent Venue Solutions and ID&C.

The European Border Breakers Awards were also handed out at the preceding show in the Grote Zaal hosted by Jools Holland, and the international winners are

• Nabiha (Denmark)
• Ewert and The Two Dragons (Estonia)
• French Films (Finland)
• C2C (France)  winners of the overall Public Choice Award
• Emeli Sandé (Great Britain)
• Of Monsters and Men (Iceland)
• Dope D.O.D. (Netherlands)
• Amor Electro (Portugal)
• Juan Zelada (Spain)
• Niki and the Dove (Sweden)

 More on the EBBAs on the Eurosonic-noorderslag website

One Direction top VMAs

Rihanna, Chris Brown and Drake were all winners at the VMAs,  but Brit boy band One Direction stole their thunder winning  best new artist, best pop video and most share-worthy video. Rihanna’s “We Found Love” (featuring Calvin Harris) was video of the year; Brown’s “Turn Up the Music” was best male video; Drake’s “HYFR” (featuring Lil Wayne) was best hip-hop video. Drake’s labelmate Nicki Minaj won best female video for “Starships.” Coldplay picked up best rOck video for "Paradise". The MTV event was held at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles but suffered fierce competition for TV viewers from the Democrat's National Convention 2012.