NASHVILLE, TN. (CMA) - Nominees have been selected and ballots have been distributed to a panel of International music industry leaders to determine the recipient of this year's CMA Global Country Artist Award. Initiated by CMA's Global Markets Task Force in 2002, the award recognizes outstanding achievement by a Country
Music artist who has furthered the popularity of Country Music, and brought attention to the genre, in their foreign-based territory.
"With this award, CMA recognizes international Country
Music artists who are achieving their main success in their own countries," said CMA Board Member Jeff Walker, who heads the CMA Global Markets Task Force. "The award has become highly sought after since it was created three years ago. I know these worthy candidates will be excited to learn who will receive this year's award."
The eight nominees designated from territories worldwide include:
Paul Brandt (Canada) began entering talent competitions while in high school. In college he devoted all his time and money to music, performing and recording in and around Calgary. In 1992, Brandt won first prize at the Calgary Stampede, as well as the Most Promising New Artist Award at the Alberta Country
Music Awards. The following year, his song "Calm Before the Storm" won the SOCAN Award for best original Canadian Country
Music Song and, subsequently, Brandt was signed to Warner Reprise Records. His debut album Calm Before the
Storm was released in 1996, which soon started Brandt's flood of awards and successful singles. Brandt has received 12 Canadian Country
Music Association Awards, 3 SOCAN Awards and 6 JUNO Awards to name a few while selling more than one million albums. In 2004, Brandt was chosen to host the Canadian Country
Music Association Awards for the fifth year in a row.
Bobby Cash (India) was first exposed to Country
Music in his home in Clement Town, (near Dehradun), NE India, through tapes his aunt in Nashville sent to his mother. After briefly dabbling in "Hindi Pop" he returned to his first true love - Country Music. Cash is now signed to Universal
Music in
India and is building a big profile in Australia, having been featured in a television documentary that has been broadcast three times nationally in the country. In 2004, it was broadcast on the Discovery Channel in
India in both English and Hindi. In September, after the release of the album Cowboy at Heart, he toured for several weeks selling out shows in Bangalore, Colombo, Emakulam, Hyderbad, Mumbai and Pune in Sri Lanka. In 2005, Cash will be returning to the Tamworth
Music Festival for the third year and, following the festival, will be touring Australia.
Mick Flavin (Ireland), who comes from the midland county of Longford performed at the Peterborough Festival in the UK in 1988. Two years later, Flavin was signed to the Ritz Record label - becoming an established performer in Ireland and the United Kingdom for more than a decade. Through his personal appearances and successive hit collections, Flavin has advanced the cause of Country
Music in Ireland.
Adam Gregory (Canada) released his debut album The Way I'm Made in 2000 when he was only 14-years-old. Since then, Gregory has toured with The Wilkinsons, opened for both
Paul Brandt and Lonestar, and has performed at key Canadian events such as The Calgary Stampede,
Hanna Rodeo, Williams Lake Stampede, Big Valley Jamboree, Merritt Mountain Festival and the Havelock Country Jamboree. The album earned Gregory the Prairie
Music Award for Outstanding Country
Music Recording in 2001. Gregory also won the Canadian
Radio Music Award for Best New Country Artist for "Horseshoes," the first single from the album in March 2001. The album was also nominated for two Juno Awards and four Canadian Country
Music Association Awards.
Adam
Harvey (Australia) has had a career of many defining moments, including achieving Gold status for his debut album Workin' Overtime in 2002. In 2004, he was named the Country
Music Association of Australia's Male Vocalist of the Year. Harvey, tours extensively and has also performed at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and during the Canadian Country
Music Association's Country
Music Week in Edmonton, touring with Jason McCoy.
Harvey will be returning to Canada for performances at major outdoor festivals, including The Calgary Stampede and Big Valley Jamboree, and he will embark on the "Can't Settle for Less" tour, a 100-date trek across Australia and internationally during 2005.
Ruud Hermans (The Netherlands) has been writing, recording and performing Country
Music for more than 35 years, starting out with a band called The Tumbleweeds and later renamed Tulsa. Hermans has taken his music all over the world while continuing to play concerts in Europe, whether with his band, solo or in collaboration with other performers. He also takes part in various singer/songwriter sessions with Dutch and international artists, such as Dick van Altena, Rob Crosby, Frank Jansen and
Victoria Shaw. As co-founder of the Dutch Country
Music Association, Hermans has hosted and been a driving force behind the Dutch Country
Music Association's Award Gala, winning several awards himself. Hermans was inducted into the Dutch Country
Music Hall of Fame and was named the
Millennium Country Singer in The Netherlands. In 2004, Hermans participated in the first Global Artist Party in Nashville at the start of the CMA
Music Festival week.
Charlie Nagatani (Japan) started singing Country
Music in Japan in 1956 when he was only 20 years old. Nagatani and his band, The Western Cannonballs, began performing at U.S. Military Clubs in Japan, Okinawa, Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines and Thailand until the Vietnam War ended. After touring the U.S., he returned to Kumamoto and opened a Country
Music saloon named Good Time Charlie's. He continues to perform in the club throughout seven nights a week. In 1989, Nagatani organized the first Country Gold festival; and in 1994, he started the Country
Sunshine festival. Nagatani traveled to Nashville to record his first album in 1992. He has performed on the "Grand Ole Opry" as well as making appearances on "Entertainment Tonight," "Crook & Chase," "Talk of the Town," "Nashville Now" and "The Ernest Tubb Midnight Jamboree." Although Nagatani has never been signed to a record label, he is known throughout Japan and the world as an "ambassador" for Country Music. In 2001, an independent filmmaker produced a documentary of his life.
Daniel O'Donnell (Ireland) has been described as Ireland's most popular "easy listening" entertainer. His rise to the top began in earnest when he signed his first record contract in 1986. The following year his second album, I Need You, appeared in the UK Country Album Charts, setting a precedent which every subsequent album has followed. He has charted 19 singles and 19 albums on the UK pop charts. O'Donnell has written two autobiographies. He was awarded an Honorary MBE in the Queen's New Year's Honors List in 2002 for his services to the music industry.
Candidates for the CMA Global Country Artist Award are chosen from artists nominated by CMA's international membership. The winner will be invited to accept the honor at the 2005 CMA
Music Festival in June and perform on the Greased Lightning Riverfront Park Stages. In 2004, the Award was presented to Australia's Kasey
Chambers and posthumously to legend Slim Dusty.
Lee Kernaghan of Australia received the award in 2003.
