There’s been some excellent music this year, and as Belwood Music is rapidly approaching it’s first birthday it seems like a perfect time to hold the first ever annual awards. There are dozens of artists that are thoroughly deserving of praise, but I’ve chosen to narrow down the awards to 8 categories. Continue reading
awards
Top ten albums of 2015
It’s been an amazing year, and it’s time to look back on the best of what 2015 has had to offer. It’s been a particularly good year for new artists as debut albums take up half of my top ten, beating some bigger acts such as Tame Impala and Foals who deserve an honourable mention. So without any further ado, here are the best albums of the year based on Belwood Music’s ratings. Continue reading
Mercury Prize nominations announced
The nominations for this year’s Mercury Prize, one of the most prestigious awards in British music, have been announced. A panel of music critics will select their choice of album of the year from the twelve albums in the shortlist, with the winner to be announced on the 20th November. The shortlist is as follows:
- Aphex Twin – Syro
- Benjamin Clementine – At Least For Now
- Gaz Coombes – Matador
- C Duncan – Architect
- Eska – Eska
- Florence + the Machine – How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
- Ghostpoet – Shedding Skin
- Roisin Murphy – Hairless Toys
- Slaves – Are You Satisfied?
- SOAK – Before We Forgot How To Dream
- Wolf Alice – My Love Is Cool
- Jamie XX – In Colour
The Brit Awards 2015
The biggest music awards in Britain (the clue is in the name) have delivered a memorable evening of thrills and spills. The big winner of the night was Ed Sheeran picking up best album and best male. Sam Smith, who cleaned up at the Grammys, walked away with the award for best breakthrough act. Paloma Faith won best female, Royal Blood won best group and Mark Ronson won the award for best single for ‘Uptown Funk’. The international categories for best male, female and group were won by Pharrell Williams, Taylor Swift and Foo Fighters respectively. Many of the night’s winners also performed as well as George Ezra and Take That. One of the big talking points of the evening though was Madonna’s big fall after she was blown offstage by a wind machine thanks to her large cape.
What are your thoughts on the awards? Personally I think the results were hardly surprising, that generally the right people won and the ceremony featured some good performances.
The Grammy Awards 2015
The 57th Grammy awards have now drawn to a close, after a few surprises and some astonishing performances. ACDC opened proceedings with their first public appearance in 4 years. The evening’s performances included various duets including Sam Smith & Mary J Blige, Lady Gaga & Tony Bennett, Hozier & Annie Lennox and Ed Sheeran & Jeff Lynne. Rihanna, Kanye West and Paul McCartney premiered their collaborative song ‘FourFiveSeconds’. Sam Smith was the standout winner of the evening taking away 4 awards including Song of the Year and Best New Artist. Beck was the surprise of the evening after winning the awards for both Album of the Year and Best Rock Album for ‘Morning Phase’, beating Beyoncé, Sheeran and Smith himself. St. Vincent won the award for Best Alternative Album for her eponymous release and Jack White won Best Rock Performance. Tenacious D shockingly won the award for Best Metal Performance; the biggest upset in the category since Jethro Tull beat Metallica in 1989. Speaking of ‘1989’, Taylor Swift was notably quiet as she neither won or performed at the ceremony. A full list of categories and their various winners can be found on the Grammys website.
Bob Dylan honoured at tribute concert
The legendary songwriter and musician Bob Dylan was awarded the MusiCare Person of the Year award in association with the Grammys. The event featured performances from an all-star line-up featuring Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Crosby Stills & Nash, Tom Jones, Alanis Morissette, Bonnie Raitt and Jack White. Dylan himself didn’t perform, however he gave a speech thanking, among others, Jimi Hendrix, Nina Simone and Johnny Cash.
Brit Awards 2015: The Nominations
The nominations for the 2015 Brit Awards have been revealed. The ceremony itself takes place on the 25th of February. The list of acts is a lot more varied than I anticipated and there’s a lot of musical talent being praised. As is always the case with these kind of awards you can never be too sure whether it’s about musical talent or just popularity, especially with the international categories, either way I think it would be a safe bet to say that a fair share of the awards will go to Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith. Congratulations to James Bay for winning the Critic’s Choice award. Here are the nominations in full: Continue reading
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