Breaking Down The VNZMA Nominees; Why This Should Be Gin's Year
The nominees for the most important industry event in New Zealand music were announced yesterday evening at the Langham hotel in Auckland. The Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards take place on October 7 and this year it’s Gin Wigmore and Dane Rumble that lead the nominations with six each, followed by The Phoenix Foundation with five and J. Williams and Anika Moa with three. Naturally, there’s some discrepancies with the most obvious being that Stan Walker who had the number one single in the country for nine weeks is merely nominated for a People’s Choice Award. But even if Walker has been relegated to the back of the room he should easily pick up the award for Highest Selling NZ Single (the same award Ben Lummis won back in 2004 for what it’s worth) and Airplay Record of the Year; two awards where there weren’t any nominees announced.
But like Ladyhawke shyly dominated at last years awards, this year has to belong to Gin. I guess we all saw this coming a year ago when Holy Smoke was released and she started appearing on magazine covers all around the country, but keep in mind what she’s done. As of this week, Holy Smoke sits at number 16 after spending a total of 45 weeks on the albums chart. Nothing else even comes close to it and even though this isn’t just about how well she’s done commercially, combine it with her international success — which started somewhere around the time she managed to get The Cardinals on her album through to playing on Jimmy Kimmel Live to touring with Citizen Cope and Jamie Cullum — and we should have a cleansweep. Keep in mind that she’ll most likely be the one taking home the award for Highest Selling NZ Album and International Achievement as well.
Plus if you look at the history of the awards, there has always been one artist celebrated the most and it’s usually the one that takes home the award for Album of the Year. For example:
2004: Scribe
2005: Fat Freddy’s Drop
2006: Bic Runga
2007: The Mint Chicks
2008: Flight of the Concords
2009: Ladyhawke
It’s not like Gin doesn’t know this either; someone should thank her management for getting her back in New Zealand for the lead up to the award night (instead of flying her in the day before like Ladyhawke) and booking a tour scheduled for next month that will coincide nicely with the hype that surrounds that music awards. This time around she’ll also be hitting all the smaller spots that she missed before such as Dunedin, Palmerston North and Hamilton.
However, Gin’s competitors will also be the toughest. 2009/10 was the year when local pop music finally gained back some real momentum that it had been lacking. Rumble’s been rearing his sunglass-strapped mug onto our TV screens more than I care to admit and The Phoenix Foundation will undoubtedly take home a couple of awards (most likely Best Rock Album and Best Group) on the back of their critically adored album Buffalo (which has already won three technical awards). But as always, we’ll have to wait until next month for the results. And per usual, we’ll be wrapping this thing up our own way.
The Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards Finalists
Vodafone Album of The Year
Anika Moa – Love in Motion
Dane Rumble – The Experiment
Gin Wigmore – Holy Smoke
Shapeshifter – The System Is A Vampire
The Phoenix Foundation – Buffalo
Vodafone Single of The Year
Dane Rumble – Cruel
Gin Wigmore – Oh My
J.Williams – You Got Me
Kids Of 88 – Just A Little Bit
The Phoenix Foundation – Buffalo
Steinlager Best Group
Shapeshifter – The System Is A Vampire
The Checks – Alice By The Moon
The Phoenix Foundation – Buffalo
Best Male Solo Artist
Connan Mockasin – Please Turn Me Into The Snat
Dane Rumble – The Experiment
J.Williams – Young Love
Mazda Best Female Solo Artist
Anika Moa – Love in Motion
Gin Wigmore – Holy Smoke
Hollie Smith – Humour And The Misfortune Of Others
Pacific Blue Breakthrough Artist of The Year
Artisan Guns – Autumn
Dane Rumble – The Experiment
Gin Wigmore – Holy Smoke
PPNZ Best Rock Album
Dimmer – Degrees of Existence
The Checks – Alice By The Moon
The Phoenix Foundation – Buffalo
Best Pop Album
Anika Moa – Love in Motion
Dane Rumble – The Experiment
Gin Wigmore – Holy Smoke
Best Urban / Hip Hop Album
David Dallas – Something Awesome
J.Williams – Young Love
Young Sid – What Doesn’t Kill Me
Kiwi FM Best Aotearoa Roots Album
Fly My Pretties – A Story
Hollie Smith – Humour And The Misfortune Of Others
Opensouls – Standing In The Rain
Best Music Video
Nathan Hickey – Buffalo (The Phoenix Foundation)
Sam Peacocke – Sleepeater (Shihad)
Tim Van Dammen – Just A Little Bit (Kids Of 88)
Best Electronica Album
Bulletproof – Soundtrack To Forever
P-Money – Everything
Shapeshifter – The System Is A Vampire
Best Gospel / Christian Album
Edwin Derricutt – Three Hours South
John Michaelz – Walk on Water
Magnify – Wonderland
Best Classical Album
John Psathas – UKIYO
NZTrio – FLOURISHES
Simon O’Neill – Father & Son: Wagner Scenes & Arias
Strike Percussion – Sketches
Vodafone Peoples’ Choice
Gin Wigmore
Dane Rumble
Kids of 88
Shapeshifter
Stan Walker
– Technical Awards –
Best Album Cover
Paul Johnson for Buffalo (The Phoenix Foundation) – WINNER
Rebekah Atkins, Kieran Rynhart, Mikee Tucker and Anita Liu for A Story (Fly My Pretties)
Ryan Marx for Everything (P-Money)
MAINZ Best Engineer
Andre Upston for Magnetic (Miriam Clancy)
Lee Prebble for Buffalo (The Phoenix Foundation) – WINNER
Lee Prebble for A Story (Fly My Pretties)
MAINZ Best Producer
Jeremy Toy for Standing In The Rain (Opensouls)
Lee Prebble and Barnaby Weir for A Story (Fly My Pretties)
The Phoenix Foundation for Buffalo (The Phoenix Foundation) – WINNER
