Awards
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On Sept. 13, 1988, the media assembled at the United Nations for a press conference. Representatives for the nonprofits Greenpeace, Cultural Survival and Rainforest Action Network sat before them, alongside the U.N. Environment Programme’s director and three, less expected emissaries: the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia, Bobby Weir and Mickey Hart.
The band was about to begin a multinight fall run at Madison Square Garden and had decided to make the ninth and final concert of the stint a rainforest benefit. Garcia, Weir and Hart weren’t at the U.N. as rock stars; they were there as activists.
“Somebody has to do something,” Garcia told the assembled crowd, before adding wryly, “In fact, it seems pathetic that it has to be us.” As the audience applauded and Hart and Weir voiced their agreement, Garcia cut through the din: “This is not our regular work!” Eleven days later, in a more familiar setting, the band invited Bruce Hornsby, Hall & Oates and Suzanne Vega, among other artists, onstage at the sold-out benefit show, which grossed $871,875, according to an October 1988 issue of Billboard.
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At the press conference, Garcia had said, “We hope that we can empower our own audience with a sense of being able to do something directly and actually having an effect that’s visible in some way.” But he’d also expressed the Dead’s trepidation concerning activism.
“We don’t want to be the leaders, and we don’t want to serve unconscious fascism,” he said. “Power is a scary thing. When you feel that you’re close to it, you feel like you want to make sure that it isn’t used for misleading. So all this time, we’ve avoided making any statements about politics, about alignments of any sort.” While Garcia’s comment wasn’t entirely accurate — the ’88 benefit was far from the first time the Dead had aligned itself with a cause — its sentiment was honest: He understood the influence his beloved band wielded.
“As a young fan, I really learned about the issue in the rainforest from the Grateful Dead when they did that press conference,” recalls Mark Pinkus, who started seeing the band in 1984 and was a college student in 1988. “If a band like the Grateful Dead took the time to care about a cause, it definitely got our attention as young fans.”
From left: Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart outside San Francisco’s New Potrero Theatre in 1968.
Malcolm Lubliner/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
For a then-17-year-old David Lemieux, who had started seeing the Dead the year before and whose father worked at the U.N. from 1953 to 1973, “it added this huge level of legitimacy to this band I was following around” for his parents. “It certainly had me go out and learn more about [the issue],” he reflects. “To this day, the way I view the world is very much what I learned from my days on tour — and seeing the Dead take a stance that was so big … meant a lot to me.”
At the time, Pinkus and Lemieux were impressionable young Deadheads. Today, they’re central to the Dead’s present and future business. Pinkus is president of Rhino Entertainment, the Warner Music Group branch that publishes the Dead’s archival releases, and Lemieux, the band’s legacy manager and archivist, is intimately involved in the curation of those releases.
It’s telling not just that the Dead’s business is shepherded by members of the very community it fostered, but that the band’s philanthropic work in particular resonated with Pinkus and Lemieux from the jump. The Dead’s members haven’t merely been philanthropically active since the band’s 1965 formation in the Bay Area — they have been forward-thinking, reimagining the potential of the good works musicians can do and inspiring other artists to follow in their footsteps. All the while, their activism has fed on — and been fed by — their passionate fans.
“We’re part of a community, and so the better the community is doing, the better we’re doing,” Weir says today. “Jerry always used to say, ‘You get some, you give some back.’ It just makes sense.” And since the beginning, “that’s been our mode of operation,” the Grateful Dead’s Bill Kreutzmann says. “We help people and give them stuff. It’s just a good way to live life. I wish that more people in the world lived life that way, instead of wars and bombings.”
From left: Randy Hayes of Rainforest Action Network (seated), Dr. Jason Clay of Cultural Survival, Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, Peter Bahouth of Greenpeace and Bob Weir at a New York press conference in 1988.
Marty Lederhandler/AP
Since Garcia’s death in 1995, the Dead’s surviving members have continued to tour — and continued to advocate for the causes that matter to them. That’s why MusiCares, the charitable organization that the Recording Academy founded in 1989 to support the music community’s health and welfare, is recognizing the Grateful Dead as its 2025 MusiCares Persons of the Year.
“It all follows in that tradition of teaching the industry what it should know about,” Hart says. “That’s that Grateful Dead kind of style, where we just did it because we knew it was the right thing to do. If we wanted to do this the rest of our lives was the idea, we have to do these things, because people support us — and we reciprocate.”
“Everybody had everybody’s back in the Haight-Ashbury, and we were a big functioning organism,” Weir recalls. “And we had roles within the community.”
It’s a crisp, mid-November evening in Chicago, where Weir, 77, has just spent the afternoon doing what he does best: playing Grateful Dead music. He’s in town for two shows at the Auditorium Theatre with the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra, which will accompany him and Wolf Bros, his current solo project, and after rehearsing “Weather Report Suite” and “Terrapin Station” — two of the Dead’s densest, most ambitious compositions — he’s back on his tour bus, reminiscing about the band’s early days.
Even then, philanthropy was core to the group. It began performing as The Warlocks in mid-1965, and while accounts differ about when, exactly, it changed its name later that year, many believe it debuted its famed moniker on Dec. 10 — at Mime Troupe Appeal II, the second in a series of benefits for a satirical San Francisco theater troupe that often clashed with local law enforcement over free speech.
From left: Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Mickey Hart onstage at the Oakland (Calif.) Auditorium in 1979.
Ed Perlstein/Redferns/Getty Images
The first decade or so of the Dead’s philanthropy “is an incredibly eclectic mix,” Lemieux says. In San Francisco, the band gigged for radical activists, arts spaces, spiritual centers (a Hare Krishna temple, a Zen monastery) and music education. As the band grew, it played for hippie communes and music venues, for striking radio workers and bail funds, for the Black Panthers and the Hells Angels. It performed with the Buffalo (N.Y.) Philharmonic Orchestra in 1970 to support the ensemble; in a concert that became one of its most revered live recordings, the Dead played in Veneta, Ore., on Aug. 27, 1972, to save the local Springfield Creamery.
“We saw something in need, and we would just write a check,” Hart, 81, remembers today. “The Grateful Dead, we never thought of business. We just wanted to play, play, play.”
“That was really delicious for us, to make everybody happy,” says Kreutzmann, 78. “Because that’s the goal: Make everyone happy, not just the band.”
But as the band’s following grew throughout the ’70s, that charitable approach — guided by the band’s generous attitude, which meant lots of “yeses” and not many “nos” — became untenable. It needed to streamline its operation. “We had always been given to community service, but we just wanted to get organized about it,” Weir says, alluding to the tax burden of the band’s initial model.
So the Dead did something that was then novel for a musical act: It started a foundation. In 1983, the band’s early co-manager Danny Rifkin (who held a number of roles in the group’s orbit over the years) helped it launch The Rex Foundation, named for Rex Jackson, a roadie and tour manager for the band who had died in 1976. The foundation eliminated the need for the Dead to do the types of one-off, cause-based benefits it had done previously, instead directing earnings from its charitable initiatives into the foundation, which then disbursed that money — after approval by its board, which included the band’s members and others in its inner circle — to various grant recipients. By refusing to accept unsolicited grant proposals (applications were, and still are, submitted by the Rex board and those in the Dead’s extended community) and focusing its grants on organizations with small, sometimes minuscule, budgets, the Dead retained the homespun feel of its earlier charitable efforts.
The Rex Foundation quickly became the primary beneficiary of the Dead’s philanthropy. The band played its first Rex benefits in San Rafael, Calif., in spring 1984 and made a point of staging multishow Rex benefit runs — generally in the Bay Area or nearby Sacramento — annually for the rest of its career. “They were just regular gigs, there was no other fanfare, but the money would go to The Rex Foundation,” Lemieux says. “We all thought that was pretty darn cool. It wasn’t like the Dead played any less hard because it was a benefit gig. The Rex Foundation mattered to them.”
From left: Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir at Berkeley’s Greek Theatre in 1985.
Richard McCaffrey/ Michael Ochs Archive/ Getty Images
Over the next decade, the Dead played upwards of 40 Rex benefits. Without the requirement that a given show benefit a specific charity — and with the larger grosses Dead shows now earned — “it allowed the money to be spread a lot more,” Lemieux explains. A beneficiary “wouldn’t be like a multi-multimillion-dollar organization that needed $5,000. It was a $10,000 organization that needed $5,000. That makes a huge difference.” (Weir, Hart and Garcia’s widow, Carolyn, and daughter, Trixie, are among the present-day board members of Rex, which still holds benefits and disburses grants; in July, Dark Star Orchestra, which re-creates classic Dead shows, played a benefit at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, Calif., to celebrate the foundation’s 40th anniversary.)
During this period, the Dead also continued to play non-Rex benefits for specific causes, including AIDS research and eye-care organization Seva. The 1988 rainforest benefit was a hybrid — the rare Rex benefit with pre-announced beneficiaries in Greenpeace, Cultural Survival and Rainforest Action Network. “Those were all people that we had already funded to in their infancy,” says Cameron Sears, who managed the band in the late ’80s and ’90s and is today Rex’s executive director. (As it happens, Sears’ entrée into the Dead’s world as a recent college grad in the early ’80s was through philanthropy: He’d pitched the band on getting involved in California water politics.) As Garcia put it at the U.N., “We’ve chosen these groups because we like that direct thing … We don’t like a lot of stuff between us and the work.”
The model continues to reverberate through a music industry where it’s now common for major artists to have charitable foundations. “The fact that all these bands now have looked to that model and replicated it, [the Dead] don’t need to take credit for it, even though it may rightly belong to them,” Sears says. “They’re just happy that people are doing it. Their vision has had a multiplier effect now around the world. What Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam are into might be different than what Phish is into and is maybe different than what Metallica is into. But together, the amount of philanthropy that’s being generated through all these different people makes an incredible difference.”
Pull up just about any bootleg of a Phil Lesh show from 1999 through his death in October, and you’ll see a track between the end of the second set and the start of the encore, usually called “Donor Rap.” Lesh received a life-saving liver transplant in 1998; henceforth, he used his platform to encourage Deadheads to turn to their loved ones and say that, if anything happened to them, they wanted to be an organ donor.
After Garcia’s death, the Dead’s surviving members remained active musically — and philanthropically. When The Other Ones — the first significant post-Garcia iteration of the Dead comprising Weir, Lesh, Hart and a cast of supporting musicians — debuted in 1998, it did so with a benefit, raising more than $200,000 for the Rainforest Action Network. They all championed causes important to them: Weir with the environment and combating poverty, Hart with music therapy and brain health, Kreutzmann with ocean conservation, Lesh with his Unbroken Chain Foundation, which benefited a litany of things including music education. The Rex Foundation has also remained active, supporting a range of organizations across the arts, education, social justice, Indigenous peoples’ groups and the environment.
And, over the years, the band members began to work more closely with MusiCares. Early in the pandemic, Dead & Company — the touring group formed in 2015 by Weir, Hart and Kreutzmann and rounded out by John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti — and the Grateful Dead launched weekly archival livestreams that raised $276,000 for the organization’s COVID-19 Relief Fund. Dead & Company expanded the affiliation to epic proportions on May 8, 2023, when the band kicked off its final tour at Cornell University’s Barton Hall in Ithaca, N.Y., where it played one of its most revered gigs 46 years earlier to the day; the 2023 show raised $3.1 million, with half going to MusiCares and half to the Cornell 2030 Project, a campus organization dedicated to sustainability.
“If you want to talk about making a statement in modern times,” Pinkus says, “here they return to the venue of arguably the most famous Grateful Dead show ever, play the tiniest show that they play on a farewell tour, which is all stadiums, and then they turn around and do it as a fundraiser. It really spoke to everything about the Grateful Dead and Dead & Company’s commitment to giving back.”
“The industry is a very dangerous place at times,” Hart says. “When you get engulfed with the harder side of the business and fall through the cracks or stumble and you need some help getting your mojo back, that’s really what MusiCares does.”
From left: Bruce Hornsby, Jeff Chimenti, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Phish’s Trey Anastasio, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann at one of the band’s Fare Thee Well shows at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.,
on June 28, 2015.
Jay Blakesberg/Invision for the Grateful Dead/AP
Over the last decade, Activist Artists Management has helped guide the band members’ philanthropic efforts. The company is both the manager of record for the Grateful Dead — a status conferred by Grateful Dead Productions, an entity comprising the band’s living members and representatives of Garcia’s and Lesh’s estates — and co-manages Dead & Company alongside Irving Azoff and Steve Moir of Full Stop Management. (Kreutzmann toured with Dead & Company from 2015 to 2022 but did not appear with the group on its final tour in 2023 or during its 2024 Las Vegas Sphere residency. On Dec. 4, Dead & Company announced it will play 18 shows at Sphere in spring 2025; a representative for the band confirmed the lineup will not include Kreutzmann.)
“There was this mosaic of incredible good works that this band was doing, and there was a feeling that we could help amplify those good works and those dollars by putting a little more structure and support around it and a little bit more intentionality around it, which is what Activist came in and did,” Activist founding partner Bernie Cahill says.
When discussing the Dead’s activism with the band and its affiliates, words like “apolitical” and “nonpartisan” come up often. As Kreutzmann puts it, “It’s much more fun to see all the people smiling, not half the people bickering at the other half.”
“These are objective things that I think everyone will agree with,” Lemieux says of causes ranging from rainforest preservation to AIDS research. “And that’s what the Dead were kind of getting on board with and raising awareness.”
Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Bob Weir, Tom Constanten (with a cut-out standee of Jerry Garcia) and Vince Welnick of the Grateful Dead at the 1994 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction.
Steve Eichner/WireImage
But while it’s true that, both before and after Garcia’s death, the Dead’s members have avoided the strident political rhetoric some other artists favor, the band has still advanced progressive causes. In the ’60s, it rubbed shoulders with radical groups in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury. In the ’80s, when AIDS was a stigmatized topic, it headlined a relief show for Northern California AIDS agencies.
That has continued in recent years. Dead & Company’s Participation Row — an area it allots at its shows for nonprofit and charitable partners — has featured entities like the voter registration organization HeadCount and the sustainable-touring group Reverb, among other social justice, environmental and public health organizations, helping the band to raise more than $15 million since its 2015 debut. But Dead & Company have not shied from using their touring to platform more contentious causes. The summer following the Parkland, Fla., high school shooting, Dead & Company included the gun control group March for Our Lives on Participation Row. And after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, the band displayed pro-choice messages at its shows and even sold a “Save Our Rights” shirt benefiting women’s health organizations.
“We support artists being authentic,” Cahill says. “If an artist feels called to speak out … our job is to make sure they have all the information so that they can speak intelligently on the matter. I think we’ve done a really good job with that over the years. We have both protected our clients and amplified their positions.”
And the Dead’s members have, judiciously, supported political candidates. Weir, Lesh and Hart played a February 2008 benefit dubbed “Deadheads for Obama,” and that fall, Kreutzmann joined them for another pro-Barack Obama gig. This fall, both Weir and Hart publicly endorsed Kamala Harris. While “you don’t want to tell people what to do,” Hart explains, “there are some issues you must speak out [about] if you feel right about it and if you’re really behind it.”
Bob Weir, Phil Lesh and Mickey Hart backstage at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco at a rally for Barack Obama in 2008.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images
As the Dead nears its 60th anniversary in 2025 and adds its MusiCares honor to a lengthy list of accomplishments — induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, recipients of Kennedy Center Honors, a recording included in the Library of Congress, among numerous others — its surviving members are emphatic that this is far from a denouement.
“Obviously, they’re quite humbled and honored by it all,” Cahill says. But “they always see these things as something that you get at the end of your career, when you’re done. And of course, these guys don’t feel like that’s where they are in their career. They feel like they have a lot more ahead of them, and I believe they do.”
Rhino continues to mine the Dead’s vault for new releases — its ongoing quarterly archival Dave’s Picks series helped the band break a record earlier this year previously held by Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley for most top 40 albums on the Billboard 200 — and orchestrate merchandising partnerships from Igloo coolers to Nike shoes that ensure the ongoing omnipresence of the band’s iconography. (“We’re always open for business — if it feels right,” Pinkus says.)
Most importantly to Deadheads, Weir, Hart and Kreutzmann are all resolute that they’ll remain on the road as long as they can; in 2024, Weir toured with Wolf Bros and, along with Hart, staged Dead & Company’s 30-show Sphere residency, while Kreutzmann kept his livewire Billy & The Kids act alive with Mahalo Dead, a three-day November event near his home in Kauai, Hawaii. Last year, Weir toured supporting Willie Nelson, whom he’s shared bills with for decades — and who at 91 is 14 years his senior. “His hands don’t work as well as they used to,” Weir says. “Nor do mine. But as the years go by, you learn to help the music happen through force of will. And Willie is as good as he’s ever been.”
Willpower is something the Dead’s surviving members have in spades. “These guys have always been the outsider,” Cahill says. “They’ve flourished by being the outsider and by being a maverick and doing things their own way. Because they’ve written their own rules, they’re not beholden to anybody. They’re not looking for anyone’s approval, and they continue to write their own rules and to do things that inspire them.”
That core ethos is what has driven, and continues to drive, the Dead’s approach to both its business and its philanthropy — two things that, as the band is still proving to the industry at large, need not be mutually exclusive.
“I would like to be able to have people who disagree with me still be fans of the music or the art that I make,” Weir says. “But at the same time, I’ve got to be true to myself, and I expect that they have to be true to themselves as well.”
This story appears in the Dec. 7, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Paul Robinson, Warner Music Group’s executive vp/general counsel, will be recognized on Friday, Jan. 31, when the Recording Academy Entertainment Law Initiative (ELI) hosts its annual Grammy Week luncheon at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills. Robinson will receive the 2025 ELI Service Award.
“As a part of its mission, the Recording Academy works to advocate for creators, and the Entertainment Law Initiative advances this through legal representation, celebrating the achievements of entertainment law practitioners, and providing year-round educational opportunities to cultivate future leaders in the field,” Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, said in a statement. “Paul exemplifies these values, and we are proud to honor him … for his three decades at Warner Music Group, where he has championed fair practices and guided the industry through transformative changes.”
Robinson joined Warner Music Group’s legal department in January 1995 as associate general counsel. In December 2006, he was appointed to his current role, in which he is responsible for WMG’s worldwide legal, business affairs, public policy, compliance and corporate governance functions. Before joining WMG, Robinson was a partner at the New York City law firm of Mayer, Katz, Baker, Leibowitz & Roberts.
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The Entertainment Law Initiative was established by the Recording Academy to foster discussion on legal issues shaping the music industry. Each year, the recipient of the Service Award is selected by the ELI’s executive committee.
The ELI Grammy Week Luncheon also recognizes the winner and runners-up of the Entertainment Law Initiative writing competition.
Individual tickets, along with a limited number of discounted student tickets, will be available for purchase on Wednesday, Dec. 11. For more information, visit https://www.recordingacademy.com/entertainment-law-initiative.
Grammy Week culminates with the 67th Annual Grammy Awards at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena on Sunday, Feb. 2, broadcasting live on CBS and streaming live and on-demand on Paramount+ from 8-11:30 p.m. ET/5-8:30 p.m. PT. Prior to the telecast, the Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony will be held at the Peacock Theater at 12:30 p.m. PT/3:30 p.m. ET and be streamed live on live.Grammy.com and the Recording Academy’s YouTube channel.
Ariana Grande’s performance as Glinda in Wicked has been generating awards buzz since even before the film’s Nov. 22 release. Now, the Palm Springs International Film Awards has selected Grande as the winner of the Rising Star Award, an honor previously presented to such actors as Terrence Howard (Hustle & Flow), Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air), Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation) and Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone).
The awards ceremony will be held at the Palm Springs Convention Center on Jan. 3. The festival will take place from Jan. 2-13.
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“In Wicked, Ariana Grande’s portrayal of Glinda elevates her to new heights with a powerful acting performance that beautifully combines her outstanding musical talent, brilliant characterization and impeccable comedic timing,” Festival chairman Nachhattar Singh Chandi said in a statement. “Ariana is an iconic global performer, who has seamlessly transitioned to film in her first major starring role, proving herself to be a multifaceted and undeniable talent. This role is certain to be the beginning of the many accolades she will garner throughout her acting career. It is our great honor to recognize Ariana Grande with the Rising Star Award.”
Billboard’s Joe Lynch was similarly impressed with Grande’s performance. He allowed that he wasn’t sure she had the acting chops to play the role made famous on Broadway by Kristin Chenoweth. “No one with ears could question Grande’s pipes, but based on her acting credits, we simply didn’t know if she was capable of filling Chenoweth’s small but mighty heels. Well, having seen Wicked: Part 1 in theaters, I can say without exaggeration that Grande isn’t just a good witch – she’s sinceriously astonishing,” playing off Glinda’s penchant for amusing spoonerisms.
Lynch’s bottom-line: “Some pop stars turned actors acquit themselves competently on the big screen, but like Lady Gaga in A Star Is Born, this performance signals the arrival of a formidable cinematic talent with a lot more to show us.”
Fans, of course, have also rallied behind the film, which was directed by Jon M. Chu and which also stars Cynthia Erivo, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh and Jonathan Bailey. The film has grossed $275.8 million in the U.S. and Canada. Worldwide, it has grossed $372.9 million.
This year’s award winners also include Timothée Chalamet for the chairman’s award for his performance as a young Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown and Emilia Pérez actors Karla Sofia Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Edgar Ramírez and director Jacques Audiard for the vanguard award.
Coldplay is set to perform on the 2024 Billboard Music Awards.
Hosted by actress and comedian Michelle Buteau, the 2024 BBMAs presented by Marriott Bonvoy is set to air on Thursday, Dec. 12, at 8 pm ET/PT on FOX and Fire TV Channels, and on-demand on Paramount+, with performances also rolling out across Billboard.com and via @BBMAs and @Billboard social channels. Coldplay joins SEVENTEEN, Teddy Swims and Tyla, who were previously announced as performers on the show.
Coldplay is a finalist for two Billboard Music Awards this year: top duo/group and top rock touring artist.
In October, the band landed its fifth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 – its first in more than 10 years – with Moon Music. The album has spawned two hits on the Billboard Hot 100 – “Feels Like I’m Falling in Love” and “We Pray” (featuring Little Simz, Burna Boy, Elyanna & Tini). Coldplay has so far had two No. 1 Hot 100 hits – “Viva La Vida” in June 2008 and “My Universe,” a collab with BTS, in 2021.
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As previously announced, Zach Bryan, Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen and Sabrina Carpenter are the leading finalists for the 2024 Billboard Music Awards.
This marks the show’s return to FOX, which carried the show from its 1990 inaugural broadcast through 2006. In addition, Paramount+ will provide on-demand streaming of the show, while the free Fire TV Channels app will provide one-click access to fans using Amazon devices (Fire TV smart TVs and streaming media players and Fire Tablets).
The BBMAs will celebrate music’s greatest achievements with exclusive original performances, artist interviews, and award celebrations taking place from global locations and in the midst of sold-out tours. Shaboozey will deliver a special performance from W Hollywood, part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio. Additional performers and special guests will be announced soon.
The BBMAs honors the year’s biggest artists, albums, songs, producers and songwriters across multiple genres, as determined by year-end performance metrics on the Billboard charts. The eligibility dates for this year’s awards are aligned with Billboard’s Year-End Charts tracking period, which measures music consumption from the charts dated Oct. 28, 2023, through Oct. 19, 2024.
The Billboard Music Awards are produced by Dick Clark Productions, which is owned by Penske Media Corporation. PMC is also the parent company of Billboard.
The show is presented by Marriott Bonvoy, Marriott International’s travel program and portfolio of more than 30 hotel brands. For more information, visit MarriottBonvoy.com
The full nominations for the 2025 MOBO Awards have been revealed, with Central Cee, Jorja Smith and Sampha among the names leading the way with three nods each.
The 27th edition of the annual ceremony, which was established in 1996 and celebrates music of Black origin, is scheduled to take place in Newcastle for the first time. It’ll be held at the city’s Utilita Arena on Feb. 18.
The album of the year category features Bashy (Being Poor Is Expensive), Cleo Sol (Gold), Ghetts (On Purpose, With Purpose) Jorja Smith (Falling Or Flying), Sampha (Lahai) and Skrapz (Reflection). The former marks a return to music after 15 years for the London rapper, known otherwise as Ashley Williams, having built a successful acting career including his role as Jermaine Newton in hit Netflix series Top Boy.
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Elsewhere, Raye is up for best female act and video of the year (“Genesis”). Alternative artist Jordan Adetunji, who made his Billboard Hot 100 debut in July with viral single “Kehlani” peaking at No. 24, picks up two nominations for best newcomer and song of the year.
In the running for best international act are Asake, Ayra Starr, Beyoncé, GloRilla, Kendrick Lamar, Latto, Megan Thee Stallion, Nicki Minaj, Tems and Tyla.
“Each and every time we unveil the MOBO Awards nominations, I am taken aback by the sheer amount of incredible talent we have in the UK,” MOBO founder Kenya King said in a statement. “It inspires us all to continue pushing the industry to be more inclusive of a greater variety of Black music and culture. The music coming out of the U.K. this past year has been some of the best we have had in years. These distinct, uncompromising voices are not just soundtracks for our days. They provide healing and reflection, and also escapism in times of need.”
The major winners at the MOBO Awards 2024, which were held in Sheffield, included Little Simz, Dave, and Stormzy.
Here’s the full list of nominees for the MOBO Awards 2025:
Best male actBashyCentral CeeD-Block EuropeGhettsNemzzzSampha
Best female act Cleo SolDarkooJorja SmithLittle SimzNia ArchivesRaye
Album of the yearBashy – Being Poor Is ExpensiveCleo Sol – GoldGhetts – On Purpose, With PurposeJorja Smith – Falling Or FlyingSampha – LahaiSkrapz – Reflection
Song of the yearCentral Cee Feat. Lil Baby – “Band4band”Chase & Status, Stormzy – “Backbone”Darkoo Feat. Dess Dior – “Favourite Girl”Jordan Adetunji – “Kehlani”Leostaytrill – “Pink Lemonade”Odeal – “Soh-soh”
Best newcomerChy CartierElmieneFimiguerreroFlowerovloveJordan AdetunjiLenLeostaytrillMyles SmithOdealPozer
Video of the year Meekz – “Mini Me’s” (Directed By Kc Locke)Mnelia – “My Man” (Directed By Femi Bello)Raye – “Genesis” (Directed By Otis Dominique & Raye)Sampha – “Only” (Directed By Dexter Navy)Skepta – “Gas Me Up (Diligent)” (Directed By Steveo)Unknown T Feat. Loyle Carner – “Hocus Pocus” (Directed By Felix Brady)
Best R&B/soul act Cleo SolElmieneFloJaz KarisJorja SmithNippaOdealSasha KeableShae UniverseSinead Harnett
Best alternative music act ALT BLK ERABob VylanHak BakerKid BookieNative JamesSpider
Best grime act ChipD Double EDuppyKruz LeoneManga Saint HilareScorcher
Best hip hop act BashyCristaleHeadie OneNinesPotter PayperSkrapz
Best drill act163MargsCentral CeeHeadie OneKairo KeyzK-trapPozer
Best international actAsakeAyra StarrBeyoncéGloRillaKendrick LamarLattoMegan Thee StallionNicki MinajTemsTyla
Best performance in a TV show/filmAngela Wynter As Yolande Trueman In EastendersCaroline Chikezie As Noma In Power Book II: GhostDiane Parish As Denise Fox In EastendersDionne Brown As Queenie In QueenieGhetts As Krazy In SupacellJacob Anderson As Louis In Interview With The VampireJasmine Jobson As Jaq In Top BoyJosh Tedeku As Tazer In SupacellKingsley Ben-adir As Bob Marley In Bob Marley: One LoveTosin Cole As Michael In Supacell
Best media personality90’s Baby ShowAJ OduduChuckie OnlineCraig MitchHenrie KwushueMadame JoyceMicah RichardsSpecs GonzalezThe Receipts PodcastZeze Millz
Best African music act Asake (Nigeria)Ayra Starr (Nigeria)Bnxn & Ruger (Nigeria)King Promise (Ghana)Odumodublvck (Nigeria)Rema (Nigeria)Shallipopi (Nigeria)Tems (Nigeria)Tyla (South Africa)Uncle Waffles (South Africa)
Best Caribbean music actPopcaanShenseeaSkillibengSpiceValiantYg Marley
Best jazz actAmy GadiagaBlue Lab BeatsEgo Ella MayEzra CollectiveKokorokoYussef Dayes
Best electronic/dance act Eliza RoseNia ArchivesPinkpantheressSaluteShygirlTsha
Best producerCeebeaatsInfloJulsM1onthebeatP2jSammy SosoBest gospel act AnnatoriaImrhanLimoblazeReblahStill ShadeyVolney Morgan & New Ye
Kankawa Nagarra, the Queen of the Bandaral Ngadu and a Walmatjarri Elder, has been named the winner of the 20th Soundmerch Australian Music Prize (AMP) for her debut album Wirlmarni.
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The recognition highlights the album’s cultural depth and emotional resonance, blending Aboriginal blues, country, and gospel with Nagarra’s powerful storytelling.
The album’s title, Wirlmarni, meaning “disappearing,” reflects themes of loss, resilience, and cultural preservation. Recorded on her ancestral lands, it features natural community sounds and raw compositions, including the poignant title track, a duet with Archer.
In her acceptance speech, Nagarra expressed pride in her achievement and the impact it will have on her community in Wangkatjungka, particularly on the school and children she hopes to inspire as a role model. She dedicated the award to her “future ancestors.”
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“I am so thrilled and proud to receive this award. Thankyou so much to AMP. Coming from the remote community of Wangkatjungka which in the past has been shown in a negative light with the focus on the issues and problems,” Nagarra said.
“People don’t often get to see the beautiful and positive aspects of my home and I know this award brings much pride to the people of Wangkatjungka, especially to the school and all the children who I hope to be a role model for. I dedicate this award to all my little Greats with a special mention to Tykrira Wilson who stands with me on the cover of the album. I love them all very much. They are my future ancestors.
The AMP judges praised Wirlmarni for its authenticity and profound connection to Australia’s heritage. Nagarra emphasized that the album’s production is deeply rooted in ancestral traditions, calling it “thousands of years in the making.”
AMP founder Scott Murphy described the judging process as challenging but ultimately rewarding, calling Wirlmarni a deserving winner, saying, “The judges met this morning, face-to-face, to decide that the very deserving Wirlmarni by Kankawa would win the prize. It wasn’t a quick and easy decision to make – there were nine great albums, all quite diverse, all with judge support. Congratulations, Kankawa, on winning our 20th prize!”
Inspired by the U.K.’s Mercury Prize, the AMP focuses exclusively on artistic merit, recognizing albums that transcend commercial considerations. This year’s competition featured over 600 eligible albums, narrowed to a shortlist of nine, showcasing the diversity of Australian music. Other nominees included Hiatus Kaiyote, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, and Dobby.
Born on Gooniyandi and Walmatjarri land, Nagarra’s music blends traditional sounds with contemporary influences, delivering songs in Kriol, English, and traditional languages. Her work highlights the intersection of nature, culture, and music, reinforcing her message of environmental and cultural responsibility.
Kankawa Nagarra joins a prestigious lineup of past AMP winners, including Genesis Owusu, Sampa the Great, and The Avalanches. Nagarra’s victory not only cements her place in Australian music history but also amplifies the voices and stories of her remote community on a global stage.
Listen to Wirlmarni below.
The first-ever Billboard Arabia Music Awards (BBAMAs) will take on Dec. 11 at the King Fahad Cultural Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. After a year of tracking trends on the Billboard Arabia charts, this landmark event will celebrate the most talented artists from the Arab world and North Africa – those who have made waves on the charts and dominated streaming platforms worldwide. Throughout the year, Billboard Arabia’s 10 charts have spotlighted listening trends across four key dialects and four musical genres, in addition to the flagship charts: Artist 100 and Hot 100.
Winners of the BBAMAs will be determined based on their performance on Billboard Arabia’s flagship charts, such as the Hot 100 and Artist 100, as well as its four dialect-specific charts — Khaleeji, Egyptian, Levantine and Maghrebi — and genre-specific charts, including Arabic Hip-Hop, Arabic Indie, Shelat and Mahraganat. These charts are built on the trusted methodology that has defined the Billboard brand.
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Beyond celebrating the year’s leading artists and tracks, the BBAMAs will highlight the region’s rich talent pool with an exciting lineup of live performances and unexpected collaborations. The event will feature a mix of established and rising stars from across the Arab world and its diaspora.
With over 40 award categories already revealed, the BBAMAs promise to be a comprehensive tribute to the region’s vibrant music scene. Below is the full list of finalists for these awards. Stay tuned; more categories will be unveiled soon.
Song of the Year“Fouq” by Assala Nasri“Guli Mata” by Saad Lamjarred, Shreya Ghoshal, and Rajat Nagpal“Ya Leil W Yal Ein” by Al Shami“Haygely Mawgow” by Tamer Ashour“Sabran” by Al Shami
Artist of the YearAmr DiabAl ShamiNancy AjramSherine Abdel WahabAhmed Saad
Top Male ArtistAl ShamiDystinctAhmed SaadAmr DiabTamer Ashour
Top Female ArtistNancy AjramElissaAssalaSherine Abdel WahabElyanna
Top BandCairokeeMassar EgbariMiami BandSharmoofersAl Massrieen
Top New ArtistDystinctElyannaTUL8TESiilawyAl Shami
Highest GainerAmr DiabTUL8TEAnghamAl ShamiTamer Ashour
Top Arabic Collaboration of the YearAmeen Khattab and Essam Sasa – “Ehna Say’ Monharifin”Assala Nasri and Ahmed Saad – “Sabb Farhety”Nassif Zeytoun and Rahma Riad – “Ma Fi Leil”Saint Levant and MC Abdul – “Deira”Tawsen and Ayoub Anbaoui – “Dawini’
Top Khaleeji SongAdel Ebrahim – “Dl’nak”Ayed – “Lammah”Ayed – “Rdy”Fouad Abdulwahed – “Kel Ahebek”Fouad Abdulwahed – “Thaag El Ghamaam”
Artist of the Year – Khaleeji DialectAbdul Majeed AbdullahMajid al-MuhandisAyedRashed al-MajedHussain Al Jassmi
Top Male Artist – Khaleeji DialectAyedHussain Al JassmiRashed al-MajedMajid al-MuhandisAbdul Majeed Abdullah
Top Female Artist – Khaleeji DialectAssala NasriBalqeesAseel HameemShamma HamdanOumaima Taleb
Top Egyptian SongWael Jassar – “Koul Waad”Tamer Ashour – “Haygely Mawgow”Assala Nasri and Ahmed Saad – “Sabb Farhety”Assala Nasri – “Fouq”Elyanna – “Ganeni”
Artist of the Year – Egyptian DialectAhmed SaadNancy AjramAmr DiabTamer AshourSherine Abdel Wahab
Top Male Artist – Egyptian DialectTamer AshourRamy SabryAhmed SaadMohamed HamakiAmr Diab
Top Female Artist – Egyptian DialectAssala NasriElyannaNancy AjramElissaSherine Abdel Wahab
Top Levantine SongAli Saber – “Dawaat Ommi”Al Shami – “Sabran”Nassif Zeytoun and Rahma Riad – “Ma Fi Leil”Al Shami – ‘Wein”Al Shami – ‘Ya Leil W Yal Ein”
Artist of the Year – Levantine DialectAl ShamiElissaMahmod AlturkyNassif ZeytounNancy Ajram
Top Male Artist – Levantine DialectAl ShamiSiilawyNassif ZeytounWael KfouryMahmod Alturky
Top Female Artist – Levantine DialectNancy AjramMyriam FaresElissaAbeer NehmeRahma Riad
Top Magharebi SongSoolking and DYSTINCT – ‘Y Dor’Lartiste – “Zarzour”Cheb Hichem Tgv – “Fatou Liyam”Saad Lamjarred, Shreya Ghoshal, and Rajat Nagpal – “Guli Mata”Lazaro – “Mahboul Ana’
Artist of the Year – MagharebiZouhair BahaouiSaad LamjarredDystinctCheb KhaledSamara
Top Male Artist – Magharebi DialectZouhair BahaouiSaad LamjarredDystinctCheb KhaledSamara
Top Female Artist – Magharebi DialectManalHind ZiadiKawtarMarwa LoudChaama
Top Arabic Hip-Hop SongMuhab – YazmeelyDraganov – 3dabiElGrandeToto and Hamza – DellaliStormy – PopoElGrandeToto – Blue Love
Artist of the Year – Arabic Hip-HopSamaraElGrandeTotoMarwan PabloStormyWegz
Top Arabic Hip-Hop Male ArtistSamaraElGrandeTotoMarwan PabloStormyWegz
Top Arabic Hip-Hop Female ArtistRaja MezianeHalaPerrieJaraKhtek
Top Indie SongTUL8TE – “Mateegy A’ady Aleiky”Al Shami – “Sabran”Hamza Namira – “Reyah El Hayah”TUL8TE – “Habeeby Leh”Elyanna – “Ganeni”
Artist of the Year – Arabic IndieSiilawyMuslimTUL8TEElyannaCairokee
Top Arabic Indie Male ArtistAl ShamiTUL8TESiilawyMohammed SaeedMuslim
Top Arabic Indie Female ArtistZeyneEmel MathlouthiDana SalahGhaliaaElyanna
Top Mahraganat SongEslam Kabonga and Kalosha – “Elli Nefso Feya Beti Maytawehsh”Eslam Kabonga – “Aywa Ya Habibty Wahashtiny”Reda El Bahrawy and Muslim – “Lafena El Donya”Hamada El Leithy and Amr Salama – “Tarek El Andal”Reda El Bahrawy – “Aal Doghrey”
Artist of the Year – MahraganatMuslimEssam SasaHassan ShakoshAmeen KhattabEslam Kabonga
Top Mahraganat ArtistHassan ShakoshMuslimEssam SasaEslam KabongaAmeen Khattab
Top Shelat SongMohammed Bin Grman – “Ma Gelt Lak”Mohammed Bin Grman – “Alek Akhaf”Abdullah Al Farwan – “Jamalek Gheer”Nawaf Fraih – “Thalath Ayam”Asad Albathari – “Makhboob Khelli”
Artist of the Year – ShelatNader AlsharariMohammed Bin GrmanGhareeb Al MokhlesBadr AlezziAbdullah Al Farwan
Top Shelat Song“Alek Akhaf” by Mohammed Bin Grman“Jamalek Gheer” by Abdullah Al Farwan“Thalath Ayam” by Nawaf Fraih“Al Makhoob Khelli” by Asad Albathari
Tyla is set to perform on the 2024 Billboard Music Awards.
Hosted by actress and comedian Michelle Buteau, the 2024 BBMAs presented by Marriott Bonvoy is set to air Thursday, Dec. 12, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on FOX and Fire TV Channels, and on-demand on Paramount+, with performances also rolling out across Billboard.com and via @BBMAs and @Billboard social channels.
Tyla joins SEVENTEEN and Teddy Swims, who Monday became the first performers to be announced for the show.
Tyla’s global hit “Water” hit No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January. The following month, it was the inaugural Grammy winner for best African music performance. Her debut album Tyla reached No. 24 on the Billboard 200 in April.
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Tyla is a finalist for eight Billboard Music Awards: top R&B artist, top R&B female artist, top Afrobeats artist, top R&B album (Tyla), top R&B song and top Afrobeats song, where three of her songs are finalists – “Truth or Dare,” “Water” and “Jump,” the last-named title a collab with Gunna and Skillibeng.
As previously announced, Zach Bryan, Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen and Sabrina Carpenter are the leading finalists for the 2024 Billboard Music Awards.
This marks the show’s return to FOX, which carried the show from its 1990 inaugural broadcast through 2006. In addition, Paramount+ will provide on-demand streaming of the show, while the free Fire TV Channels app will provide one-click access to fans using Amazon devices (Fire TV smart TVs and streaming media players and Fire Tablets).
The BBMAs will celebrate music’s greatest achievements with exclusive original performances, artist interviews, and award celebrations taking place from global locations and in the midst of sold-out tours. Shaboozey will deliver a special performance from W Hollywood, part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio. Additional performers and special guests will be announced soon.
The BBMAs honors the year’s biggest artists, albums, songs, producers and songwriters across multiple genres, as determined by year-end performance metrics on the Billboard charts. The eligibility dates for this year’s awards are aligned with Billboard’s Year-End Charts tracking period, which measures music consumption from the charts dated Oct. 28, 2023 through Oct. 19, 2024.
The Billboard Music Awards are produced by dick clark productions, which is owned by MRC. MRC and Penske Media are co-parent companies of Billboard.
The show is presented by Marriott Bonvoy, Marriott International’s travel program and portfolio of more than 30 hotel brands. For more information, visit MarriottBonvoy.com
Actors Mindy Kaling and Morris Chestnut will present the nominees for the 2025 Golden Globes on Monday, Dec. 9, with all 27 categories announced on CBS’ Golden Globes website and the CBS News mobile app at 8:15 a.m. ET/5:15 a.m. PT and 10 exclusive categories revealed beginning live at 8:30 a.m. ET/5:30 a.m. PT on CBS Mornings.
The nominees will be highlighted across Golden Globes social media accounts as they are announced, with the complete list of nominees available on the Golden Globes website immediately following the announcement.
The 82nd Annual Golden Globes will air live on Sunday, Jan. 5, at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET on CBS and stream on Paramount+ in the U.S. The show will be held at its usual home, the Grand Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.
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The Golden Globes also announced a new partnership with entertainment data and analytics partner Luminate. The company will provide the Golden Globes team with streaming viewership data for all submitted film titles in the Cinematic and Box Office Achievement category, helping to inform consumption trends and amplify viewership insights beyond box office performance. Analysis will be done via Luminate’s Streaming Viewership product, which measures viewership of originally produced and library content across all major streaming platforms, including Netflix, Max, Hulu, Prime Video, Apple TV+, Paramount+, Disney+, AMC+ and Peacock. The product fuels Variety’s recently launched Streaming Original Charts.
This will be the second year the Globes have presented the Cinematic and Box Office Achievement category. In its first year, it went to Barbie over such rivals as Oppenheimer and Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour.
Votes will be tabulated by KPMG, the U.S. audit, tax and advisory firm.
The Golden Globe Awards, which likes to call itself Hollywood’s Party of the Year, is the first major awards show of the season. It’s also the world’s largest awards show to celebrate the best of both film and television.
Nikki Glaser is set to host the show for the first time. Glaser was nominated for her first Primetime Emmy this year for outstanding variety special (pre-recorded) as executive producer and performer on the HBO special Someday You’ll Die. She is currently nominated for her first Grammy Award for best comedy album for that same title.
Viola Davis and Ted Danson have been named as recipients of the Cecil B. DeMille Award and the Carol Burnett Award, respectively. They will be recognized on the Golden Globes telecast. In addition, they will be feted at a separate gala dinner on Friday, Jan. 3, also at the Beverly Hilton. This marks the first time that the Golden Globes will host a special evening dedicated to the recipients of these two honorary awards. The DeMille Award dates to 1952; the Burnett Award originated in 2019.
Multi-Emmy Award-winning producing duo Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner of White Cherry Entertainment will return as executive producing showrunners for the 82nd Golden Globes. Dick Clark Productions will produce the show.
The Golden Globes will air on Sunday, Jan. 5 (8-11 p.m. ET/5-8 p.m. PT) on CBS, and stream on Paramount+ in the U.S. (live and on-demand for Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers, or on-demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the special airs).
Penske Media Eldridge — a joint venture between Billboard’s parent company Penske Media Corporation and Eldridge — owns Dick Clark Productions, the producer of the Golden Globe Awards.
35 years after Indigo Girls won a Grammy for best contemporary folk recording for their eponymous debut album, the duo will receive a lifetime achievement award at The International Folk Music Awards. The awards show will take place in Montreal on Feb. 19, the first night of the Folk Alliance International (FAI) Conference.
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The duo, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, received a second Grammy nod 35 years ago – best new artist. They lost to a flashier duo, Milli Vanilli, whose award was later revoked on the grounds that they didn’t perform on their album, a charge never leveled against Indigo Girls, who went on to receive five more nods for best contemporary folk recording.
Lifetime achievement awards will also be granted to Lesley Riddle, the African-American musician who gathered songs for the Carter Family with patriarch A.P. Carter and taught Mother Maybelle Carter guitar techniques; and Songlines magazine which is celebrating 25 years of covering global roots music.
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Flamy Grant, Sarah Jarosz, Kaïa Kater, Nick Lowe, Crys Matthews and Allison Russell are competing for artist of the year. Kater is also in the running for album of the year for Strange Medicine, which features guest spots by Allison Russell, Aoife O’Donovan, and Taj Mahal.
Two of the other album of the year nominees, Aoife O’Donovan’s All My Friends and Sierra Ferrell’s Trail of Flowers, are current Grammy nominees. All My Friends is nominated for best folk album; Trail of Flowers for best Americana album. All My Friends was inspired by the passage of the 19th amendment and the evolving landscape of women’s rights in America over the past century.
New recordings released between Oct. 1, 2023 and Sept. 30, 2024 were eligible in the best-of-the-year categories (song, album, and artist).
The People’s Voice Award, which is presented to an individual who unabashedly embraces social and political commentary in their creative work and public careers, will be presented to Gina Chavez.
OKAN, the women-led, Afro-Cuban roots and jazz duo, will be honored with The Rising Tide Award.
The Spirit of Folk Awards will be presented to: Tom Power, Canadian musician and broadcaster, best known as the host of *Q* on CBC Radio One and a member of the folk band, The Dardanelles; Alice Randall, a songwriter whose songs have been recorded by Johnny Cash (among others) and founder of production company Midsummer Music; longtime Folk Alliance Region Midwest pillar Annie Capps; and Quebec’s Innu Nikamu festival, which has exemplified commitment to the promotion and preservation of Indigenous culture for more than 30 years.
The Clearwater Award is presented to a festival that prioritizes environmental stewardship and demonstrates public leadership in sustainable event production. This year’s award will go to the River Roads Festival in Easthampton, MA.
The Awards take place on the first night of FAI’s 37th annual conference, which takes place February 19-23, 2025. The conference will be held at Montreal’s Queen Elizabeth Hotel, site of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s famous 1969 Bed-In for Peace. All conference attendees will have access to attend the IFMAs.
Here are the nominations in the three “Best of 2024” categories plus this year’s special award winners.
Artist of the Year
Flamy GrantSarah JaroszKaïa KaterNick LoweCrys MatthewsAllison Russell
Album of the Year
Sierra Ferrell, Trail of Flowers (Rounder Records)The Heart Collectors, The Space Between (Spins the Gold Records)Kaïa Kater, Strange Medicine (Free Dirt Records)Aoife O’Donovan, All My Friends (Yep Roc Records)Ordinary Elephant – Ordinary Elephant (Berkalin Records)Susan Werner, Halfway to Houston (self-released)
Song of the Year
“Tenzin Sings with Nightingales,” written by Tenzin Choegyal, performed by Tenzin Choegyal and Michael Askill“How I Long for Peace,” written by Abena Koomson-Davis, Peggy Seeger, Rhiannon Giddens, performed by Rhiannon Giddens, Crys Matthews, and the Resistance Revival Chorus“Woman Who Pays,” written and performed Connie Kaldor“$20 Bill (for George Floyd),” written by Tom Prasada-Rao, performed by Dan Navarro & Janiva Magness“Ukrainian Now,” written and performed by Tom Paxton & John McCutcheon“Love Letters,” written by Julian Taylor, Tyler James Ellis, performed by Julian Taylor
Lifetime Achievement Award – Living: Indigo Girls
Lifetime Achievement Award – Legacy: Leslie Riddle
Lifetime Achievement Award – Business: Songlines Magazine
People’s Voice: Gina Chavez
Rising Tide: OKAN
Clearwater Award: River Roads Festival (Easthampton, Mass.)
Spirit of Folk: Tom Powers, Alice Randall, Annie Capps, Innu Nikamu festival
Folk Radio DJ Hall of Fame Inductees: Archie Fisher (BBC Scotland), Mary Sue Twohy (SIRIUS XM), Taylor Caffrey (WRKF-FM, Baton Rouge, La.), Matthew Finch (posthumous, KUNM-FM, Albuquerque, N.M.), Chuck Wentworth (posthumous, WRIU-FM, Rhode Island)