Music award for Ngaiire

Lae-born rhythm and blues singer Ngaiire has won the Artistic Excellence Award at the inaugural Australian Women in Music Awards. The 14 award categories acknowledge and celebrate first nations and multicultural performers, excellence in artistry, technical and production skills, cross-cultural development, song-writing, music education, music photography, and management.

“The excellence category recognises exceptional creative achievement from a female artist or musician across any genre,” Vicki Gordon, the founding director and executive producer of AWMA, told Paradise.

“This award is totally appropriate to honour Ngaiire’s remarkable creative talent as a potent artist succeeding on her own terms in her own unique way.

“The first time I heard Ngaiire sing and saw her perform I was speechless. She still takes my breath away. I know I am in the presence of something deeply profound and very special whenever I witness Ngaiire in performance.”

Ngaiire studied jazz at Central Queensland University, and has won numerous awards, including Best R&B or Soul Live Act and the NSW Voice of the Year at the Australian Live Music Awards in 2015. She has played at Glastonbury Festival and sang at the opening ceremony for the 2015 Pacific Games.

She’s produced two albums, Lamentations (2013) and Blastoma (2016). ■