Edmonton acts nominated in numerous categories
Several Edmonton-based musicians are among the nominees for the 2020 Western Canadian Music Awards.
The Western Canadian Music Awards, celebrating their 18th year in 2020, are held in a different western Canadian city on a rotating basis. Voting for this year’s winners will conclude on July 6 and the award ceremony will be held virtually from Winnipeg on Sept. 25.
The Western Canadian Music Alliance (WCMA) — created by the music industry associations of B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Northwest Territories and Yukon Territory — presents the awards to promote and celebrate western Canadian music.
The WCMA works with government, FACTOR and assorted private radio broadcasters to host Breakout West, an annual conference and music festival. Breakout West 2020 is currently scheduled for Sept. 30-Oct. 4. Details of the format for this year’s celebration will be announced in the coming weeks.
This year’s nominee list sees Edmonton-based artists Harpdog Brown and Kat Danser & The Tall Tales nominated for Blues Artist of the Year. Edmontonians make up three of the five nominees for Jazz Artist of the Year, with trombonist Audrey Ochoa, Kent Sangster’s Obsessions Octect and drummer Sandro Dominelli earning acclaim.
Two Edmonton acts, Dan Davidson and The Dungarees, were recognized in the Country Artist of the Year category, while RIELL received a nomination for Electronic and Dance Artist of the Year. Stephanie Nahn (a.k.a. Beppie) was nominated for Children’s Artist of the Year.
Celeigh Cardinal was nominated for Indigenous Artist of the Year, with 2019 Edmonton Music Award winners Martin Kerr and Nuela Charles receiving recognition in the Pop Artist of the Year category. Cardinal and Charles are also nominees for Songwriter of the Year.
One Edmonton-based music festival — Winterruption YEG, held from Jan. 23-26 across multiple downtown venues — also earned a nomination in the Impact in Live Music category.
Nominees are selected by an impartial jury from across Canada who select the final five in each category. Voting is open to all current Western Canadian Music Association members and the impartial jury. Equal weight is given to votes from both groups in selecting the winners.
Only prizes for audio engineer, jazz, francophone, classical, producer, children and excellence in visual design are selected and voted on solely by jurors.
The full list of 2020 WCMA nominees is available at edmontonjournal.com.
With files from Stuart Derdeyn rgarner@postmedia.com