The finalists for this year’s Australian Women in Music Awards (AWMA) have been announced, with big names including Kasey Chambers, Katie Noonan and Deborah Conway receiving nominations for their achievements in music.
Now in its fifth year, the awards aim to highlight the talent and contribution made by women, non-binary, gender nonconforming and LGBTQI+ people working across all genres and disciplines in the Australian music industry.
This year’s awards drew a record number of finalists across nineteen award categories spanning music genres and practices, including studio production, creative leadership and impact, excellence in classical music and music journalism.
AWMA Founding Executive Producer and Program Director Vicki Gordon said this year’s awards attracted over four hundred nominations from women across Australia.
“A hallmark of AWMA is our capacity to reach women and disadvantaged communities from diverse backgrounds whilst raising the collective voice to promote the importance of gender equality in the music industry,” Gordon said.
According to Gordon, one in five nominations were of women living in regional areas, while a similar proportion of nominees were from culturally diverse and First Nations backgrounds.
A 48-member Juror Council of artists and music professionals selected the nominees, including artists Christine Anu, Emmy Mack, John Collins and journalist Jane Gazzo.
The selection process was not easy, according to its lead judge, Queensland musician and educator Dr Diana Tolmie.
“The jurors had their work cut out for them,” she said. “Jurors commented how impressed they were with the inspiring stories of the nominees, and felt privileged to help celebrate the diversity and tenacity of such music professionals.”
This year also marks the introduction of a new prize — the Opera Australia Impact Award, which recognises an individual’s efforts in expanding and improving the field of opera.
Nominees include musical composer and vocalist Andrée Greenwell, soprano, producer and stage director Linda Thompson, and Queensland singer and composer Jessica O’Donoghue.
One of the country’s finest performers, Kasey Chambers, has been nominated for two awards, including Artistic Excellence Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Multiple ARIA-nominated musician and songwriter Mo’Ju has also been nominated for two awards — Artistic Excellence Award and the award for songwriting. Other artists who have received two nods include Izzie Austin, a Melbourne based music photographer and filmmaker who is nominated for best music photographer and filmmaker awards.
Live music photographer and accessibility advocate Brittany Long has been nominated for the Music Photographer Award. Long, a wheelchair user, is the creator of the ‘Stairing Through the Lens‘ portrait project, which documents musicians on stairs at music venues and festivals “to initiate the conversation around accessibility and to raise awareness surrounding making music venues more accessible and inclusive,” she describes on her website.
This year’s award will be held at The Fortitude Music Hall in Brisbane on October 2 in conjunction with a one-day conference that aims to bring together industry and community leaders looking to improve the conditions of the industry for women and non-binary practitioners.
Queensland Minister for Health, Mental Health and Ambulance Services and Minister for Women Shannon Fentiman said this year’s awards will demonstrate “…the amazing talents of women in this industry who still do not receive enough recognition in mainstream awards.”
“These awards are an important way to promote gender equality and diversity and the Miles Government is a proud supporting partner,” she said.
The announcement of the finalists comes months after the controversy at this year’s APRA Music Awards, where only two women received prizes.
At the time, Gordon said: “It’s basically impossible for Australian women to win because it’s almost impossible to get the airplay and streaming stats needed to qualify.”
“This combined with the staggering gender statistics coming to light for music festival line ups dominated, sometimes, entirely by male artists, male musicians, male techs and male lead bands have placed the industry at a critical juncture.”
Last month, Gordon spoke to The Music Network about what she called the “very alarming” state of inequality in the music industry.
The “playing field for women and creative minorities remains vastly inequitable, little change has occurred and we now find ourselves at a critical juncture,” Gordon explained.
“[This] is reflected in the absence of women performing on stage, working as operators and designers in front of house audio and lighting, as mixing engineers and in other technical areas, back stage as stage managers, roadies, behind the scenes and more.”