The NT Song of the Year Awards announces its biggest event yet for 2016!

Celebrating five years in 2016, the annual NT Song of the Year Awards is going to be bringing its biggest event yet with their ceremony in July. There’s going to be some changes to the event this year, with two new categories being introduced, while MusicNT have begun the process of engaging with over 50 industry judges in order to ultimately decide on the NT Song winners for 2016.

The ceremony, to be held at the Museum and Art Gallery of the NT on July 9th, has been bumped up earlier to coincide with Territory Day antics, while the event will be hosted by triple j’s Dom Alessio.

The new categories featured at NT Song this year include ‘Territory Song of the Year’, resultant of a partnership between MusicNT and TourismNT – recognising songs expressive of the unique character of the NT. The winner of the ‘Territory Song of the Year’ award will be linked with TourismNT in receiving promotion opportunities, not to mention a music video production prize valued at $10,000.

The second category to be introduced is the ‘Youth Award’ – expanded to include more young NT songwriters. This year, the Youth category is open to all songwriters from the Territory 25 and under.

For interested songwriters eligible in submitting entries, any song can be entered into the following genre categories of Rock, Pop, Folk, Urban/Hip Hop, Blues & Roots, Country, Dance & Electronic, Heavy, Youth and of course, for the TourismNT Territory Song Award. Returning this year to proceedings are of course, the People’s Choice award and the big one, the headliner, NT Song of the Year.

54 music industry judges from across the country have been selected and invited to be judges, with MusicNT’s Executive Director Mark Smith commenting that the growth of NT Song this year is more than reflective of the expansion and development of the NT’s music scene and industry itself.

“The Territory music community is producing more music than ever before and they’re hungry to share that music on a national level. The NT Song of the Year Awards are growing and engaging more industry judges this year to meet that demand. …We’re also really excited by the incredible list of judges for this year’s Awards – over 50 of the biggest names in Australian music. And talking of big names in Australian music, having someone with music knowledge and presence like Dom Alessio at the Awards will really help lift the profile of NT music.”

Entries for the NT Song of the Year open on April 12th, closing on May 27th. People’s Choice voting opens in mid-June once finalists have been announced. For more information, head here!

This year’s NT Song of the Year judges include…

Adam Coward [TourismNT]
Aidan McLaren [The Hills Are Alive]
Alan James [Darwin Entertainment Centre]
Anna Laverty [Producer]
Andy Mison [NT Music School]
Andy Vincent [Spotify]
Bec Young [Artist Voice]
Ben Stevenson [Hot 100 Darwin]
Bridget Hustwaite [SYN Radio, triple j]
Brooke Olsen [AMRAP]

Caroline Gates [FBi Radio]
Chris Johnson [AMRAP]
Clara Iaccarino [MAKEbeLIVE Productions]
Craig Hawker [Sony]
Dallas Frasca [Dallas Frasca]
Emma Coyle [MusicSA]
Emily Cheung [On the Map PR]
Emily Lubitz [Tinpan Orange]
Fred Leone [Fred Leone Music]
Dr Geoff Walden [Australian Institute of Country Music]
Gerry Lyons [CAAMA Radio]
Glenn Dickie [Sounds Australia]
Graham Ashton [Footstomp Music]
Graham ‘Buzz’ Bidstrup [Artist Manager & Producer]
Greg Carey [Association of Artist Management]

James Gough [Nook/Darwin Festival]
James Mangohig [Sietta]
Jenny Shepherd [Artists in Schools Co-Ordinator, NT Government]
John Wardle [Live Music Office]
Leigh Treweek [The Music]
Liz Trevaskis [ABC Darwin]
Lochlan Watt [triple j]
Markus Dixon [No Culture]
Martine Cotton [Music Industry Inside Out]
Myf Warhurst [double j]
Nico Liengme [Top End Terror]

Patrick McKenzie [Sounds of Music]
Phaedra Watts [Nannup Music Festival]
Rod Balaam [NT Music School]
Sarah Hamilton [Ditto Music]
Shellie Morris [Shellie Morris Musician]
Sosefina Fuamoli [the AU review]
Stephen Green [SGC Media]
Stephen King [INK Music Publishing]
Thomas Heymann [Pandora]
Tim Price [Collision Course]
Vanessa Hutchins [Music Mentor]
Vanessa Picken [Comes With Fries]

Photo: Paz Tassone

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