Country Music Awards Finalists Named
Voting has closed for the 2011 National Country Music Awards to be held at Founders Theatre, Hamilton, on 13 August. The cream of New Zealand's musicians will assemble for the awards, including the biggest selling artist of 2011, Dennis Marsh.
The Topp Twins are up for Duo of the Year while Ashley and Michael Tipping together with Kaylee Bell, fresh back from performing on the global stage in Nashville, have also been named as finalists.
The awards will feature performances from some of New Zealand's best-known artists as well as Australian country bombshell Jasmine Rae. They will also be attended by America's Bryan White who dueted with Shania Twain in From This Moment On.
FINAL NOMINATIONS
Male Artist of the Year
Dennis Marsh - New Zealand's biggest selling album of 2011
Trevor Stevens - Reigning male artist of the year
James Ray - One of the hottest young country rock artists performing today
Female Artist of the Year
Katie Thompson
Tami Neilson
Kaylee Bell
Duo of the Year
Michael & Ashley Tipping - Opened for American superstars Lady Antebellum and have just sealed a six month contract in America
Annette Hawkins & Kim Copedo - Multi-award winning solo artists, duo act and songwriters
The Topp Twins - They need little introduction. They supported the legendary Kenny Rogers in concert in January and followed that outstanding appearance by joining forces with the Auckland Philharmonia
Tickets are still available for the 2011 National Country Music Awards to be held in Hamilton on Saturday 13 August.
The event - the most prestigious on the country music calendar - will be held at Founders Theatre, featuring New Zealand's biggest selling (of all genres) artist of 2011, Dennis Marsh. Marsh's album Maori Songbook has achieved platinum status in New Zealand, selling almost twice as many copies as his nearest Kiwi rival.
Also featuring at the 2011 National Country Music Awards will "the hottest new artist to come out of Australia in a long time", Jasmine Rae. Rae was nominated for an ARIA for her debut album Look It Up that yielded two #1 singles.
New Zealand's own country music legends Gray Bartlett, Jodi Vaughn, Brendan Dugan and Eddie Low will deliver a night to remember, alongside the new brigade of stars Katie Thompson, David Shanhun, Vickie Evans, Harry Hookey, Kaylee Bell, NZ Idol runner-up Nik Carlson and Tony Williams.
The awards, staged annually since 2006 by the Kiwi Pro-Am Country Music Organisation, are a place where promoters and international agents can come to for information on the cream of the crop artists in New Zealand. Country music is the world's most listened to genre and sells the most live concert tickets of any music in the world today. In New Zealand alone, there are legions of fans, with some 250 clubs, each supported by between 100 and 200 active members.
Country Music Association international director Rob Potts - whose company has recently toured country mega-stars Keith Urban, Taylor Swift and Brooks & Dunn in Australia - is thrilled with the quality of artists being produced in New Zealand.
"This event is one of the most important events in country music in New Zealand."
American country music powerhouse, Bryan White, has confirmed his attendance at the awards. White has charted 17 singles on Billboard's Country Charts, had six number one singles, two platinum records, two gold records, he joined forces with Shania Twain and together they took From This Moment On all the way up to number four on Billboard's Hot 100 Chart. He has a Grammy, a CMA Horizon Award, and an ACM Top Male Vocalist award among them. And, with his songwriting, he helped several other artists climb the charts including Wynonna and LeAnn Rimes. The accolades led him to various TV appearances such as The Tonight Show, Late Night With David Letterman, NBC's The Today Show, and CBS This Morning.
The National Country Music Awards have also played a key role in establishing a transtasman artist exchange programme that has seen the winner of the NZ Horizon Award perform at the biggest country music event in the Southern Hemisphere at Tamworth and the Australian equivalent perform at the New Zealand awards.
For the fourth year, the Horizon Award winner will have the added distinction of performing on the Global Artist Showcase as part of the CMA Music Festival in Nashville - the largest country music festival in the world. This is a major opportunity at instant stardom.
Potts says "It's very encouraging for country music in this part of the world, to see NZ establishing international pathways for their young artists to gain exposure and experience and Kiwi Pro-Am has been a major force in connecting with the CMA to drive this outcome."
Tickets are available at http://www.ticketek.co.nz
