Female artists rule at awards gala
HALIFAX — Female singersongwriters reigned at this year’s East Coast Music Awards gala, including a P.E.I. artist rewarded for an intimate music video detailing her heartbreaking story of adolescent rape.
KINLEY picked up the Rising Star Recording of the Year for her debut solo album Letters Never Sent, and also took home the Fan Choice Video of the Year for her song Microphone.
Island-born, Halifax-based artist Rose Cousins captured the coveted Album of the Year for her melancholic heartbreak record Natural Conclusion, and also won Song of the Year for Grace.
Meanwhile, Halifax’s Jenn Grant nabbed Pop Recording of the Year for her album Paradise, which weaves folk music with ambient pop.
The ever-popular, hat-donning rocker Matt Minglewood of Cape Breton won the Fans’ Choice Entertainer of the Year, while Halifax rapper Quake Matthews took home Rap/Hip Hop Recording of the Year for his album Celebrate the Struggle.
Sloan, one of Halifax’s most acclaimed alternative rock exports, received an honorary award and performed at the gala event in Halifax on Thursday.
As well, New Brunswick soprano Measha Brueggergosman — a Juno-winning and Grammynominated opera singer — received an honorary trophy: the Bucky Adams Memorial Award.
Hosted by actor Jonathan Torrens, the 30th annual East Coast Music Awards show featured performances from Cape Breton’s Port Cities, rapper Classified of Enfield, N.S., Halifax electronic pop group Neon Dreams and Cape Breton darlings The Barra MacNeils.
KINLEY’s song Microphone — which she performed on Thursday wearing a flowing, colourful dress — paints a picture of a boy taking the hand of a girl and leading her to a field, where she was sexually assaulted despite repeatedly saying no.
“That guy that I wrote the song about, I hope you’re watching,” KINLEY, whose full name is Kinley Dowling, told an enthusiastic crowd in accepting the award for Fan Choice Video of the Year.
KINLEY said she’s honoured to be a voice of the #MeToo movement. “This conversation is so important right now, and I’m so happy to be a tiny part of it … and make a little bit of a difference,” said Dowling backstage.
Work is underway to include the music video for Microphone in P.E.I.’s Grade 9 health curriculum about sexual assault.
KINLEY released Letters Never Sent after spending nine years playing violin for Newfoundland indie ensemble Hey Rosetta!.