New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ AVIMA
Music Awards) - What do top mainstream acts like Mariah Carey, Samantha Mumba, A.R Rahman,Dr. Alban, Rick Ross,
Chingy and
Black Dada have to do with Asian indie music? Welcome dudes and dudettes to the AVIMA 2010
Music Awards. The connection to all possibilities begin here.
Now in its 2nd year, AVIMA, the World's Biggest Independent Music awards (20 countries), kicks into the next gear with a slew of exciting music talents. Leading the charge are acts from Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Brunei and Philippines predominantly clocking up nominations in the hip-hop and rock categories. But it was Inch Chua, the petite electro-acoustic singer from Singapore that stunned everyone with her 6 nominations, icnluding Best Pop Song (Rule The World), Best Pop act and Most Mindblowing Music Video.
Trailing real close with 5 nominations are two famous acts from the shores of Malaysia, electro-pop darling, Melissa Indot and Nigerian born hip-hopper, Young Stunna. The acts with 4 nominations each included Philippines rockers, Wolgang, Malaysian R&B act, James Baum, genre-bending popsters from Philippines Up Dharma Down and Sanjeev T & Rainbow Bridge from India (Sanjeev is the main guitarist for Grammy winner, A.R.Rahman).
The country with the highest number of award wins last year, Indonesia, were well represented this year, with The Aftermiles grabbing top categories with Best Rock Song (False Alarm), Best Rock Vocals and Feelgood Song of The Year.
"I wont lie. It was sheer hell going through almost 1500 songs from across Asia, and I think my dreams will be coloured psychedelic-indie for the next few weeks. But it was well worth the effort, when we see talents from Iran such as TarantisT and Maral, and adrenaline-pumped acts such as Go Chic from Taiwan, Galaxy 7 and Funky Gong from Japan, make the cut. And we were pleasantly surprised by the sheer brit-pop exuberance of acts like The Standards from Thailand and Indonesia's The Aftermiles. It proves that there are plenty of indie acts bubbling under the layer of mainstream music, and AVIMA 2010 is the perfect launch platform for many. Scanning through the nominee list, India have really dominated the rock categories and Malaysia with the hip-hop ones, but AVIMA has been known to pull out a few" rabbit in the hat" sort of winners. So stay tuned! ", said Chief Judge and founder of AVIMA, Siva Chandran.
This year AVIMA is supported and sponsored by ruumz.com, Tunetalk and Popfolio.
The main media partners for AVIMA 2010 kokoasia.com (Asia/UK) and indiecision.com (India)
That leads us back to the question of the mainstream acts:
a) Mariah carey makes a cameo in the music video "Stay in the Middle" of Bruneian artiste, Hill Zaini featuring Samantha Mumba. Samantha as most know was a top 5 artiste on the US and UK Charts and also acted beside Guy Pearce in the movie Time Machine.The video is nominated for an AVIMA for Most Mindblowing Music Video.
b) Rick Ross is the famous rapper who had two No.1 Billboard albums, Port of Miami (2006) and Trilla (2008). He appears together with rising hip-hopper Black Dada and Young Stunna in Stunna's remix of the song, Rags 2 Riches. Its been nominated for an AVIMA for Best remix.
c) Chingy is the American rapper who scored a monster No.2 hit in the US with "Right Thurr". He teams up with Philippines hip-hop act, (Dice&K9)Mobbstarr for the song, Another One (remix) and they get nominated for an AVIMA in the best collaboration category.
d) Dr. Alban probably need no introduction. His global smashing No.1 hits with "No Coke" and "Its My Life" still booms from most clubs and parties across the world. He has teamed up with Sasi The Don on the dance track, "Music In me". The song won Sasi the Don a VIMA (Malaysian Indie music award) for Best Dance Song , and is nominated in the same category for an AVIMA.
The online polls begin on April 8th and the link can be found at https://voize.my/category/music/avima/ from that day onwards. The AVIMA scoring is unique and drives home the philosophy of "band talent-fans power". As such, the winners are determined via an online polls that makes up 30% of the overall scores and the remaining 70% to be determined by global judges.
