Lee Kernaghan nabs eight nominations
TAMWORTH shone in the harbour city on Tuesday with the announcement of the finalists in the nation's premier country music awards.
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The 2016 Country Music Association of Australia (CMAA) Golden Guitar Awards finalists saw finalists named in 15 categories.
The top five in each category were chosen from more than 500 nominations with plenty of newcomers in the mix alongside household names.
The 2016 awards sees debut nominations for artists including 2015 Toyota Star Maker Mickey Pye, 2014 X Factor finalists Caitlyn Shadbolt and Brothers3 all vying for Qantaslink New Talent of the Year.
Leading the finalist placings with the chance to add eight Golden Guitars to his collection is Lee Kernaghan with tracks off his album Spirit of the ANZACs.
Kernaghan is nominated for Album of the Year, Male Artist of the Year, Vocal Collaboration of the Year, Toyota Heritage Song of the Year, Video Clip of the Year, Single of the Year and Sanity Top Selling Australian Album.
Up for seven Golden Guitars is Troy Cassar-Daley who will celebrate his 35th year performing in Tamworth in 2016.
Troy is nominated for Album of the Year, Male Artist of the Year, Toyota Heritage Song of the Year and APRA AMCOS Song of the Year with his album Freedom Ride. His song Two Weeks On, Two Weeks Off is up for Vocal Collaboration of the Year and Take a Walk in My Country is finalist in the Single of the Year and Video Clip of the Year categories.
Also receiving seven nominations is Shane Nicholson. The artist’s album Hell Breaks Loose is his sixth solo album and is a finalist in the categories Alternative Country Album of the Year, Male Artist of the Year and Sanity Top Selling Album of the Year. His single Secondhand Man is up for APRA AMCOS Song of the Year, Single of the Year and Video Clip of the Year, and Hermannsburg has been nominated for Toyota Heritage Song of the Year.
In addition to Nicholson’s seven individual nominations, the multi-talented artist is also the Producer of Beccy Cole’s album Sweet Rebecca which has been nominated for Album of the Year.
Cole and Catherine Britt lead the female finalists with six nods a piece and will be up against one another in a number of categories including Album of the Year, Female Artist of the Year, Vocal Collaboration of the Year and Toyota Heritage Song of the Year.
CMAA vice-president Roger Corbett said that this has been an incredible year for Australian country music.
“Finalists across all categories this year are of the highest calibre,” he said.
“Our Male Artist of the Year category was extremely strong, and we had nearly 70 nominations in Qantaslink New Talent of the Year.”
The Golden Guitar Awards is the pinnacle event of the Toyota Country Music Festival in Tamworth each year and the announcements have set up what will be a captivating evening when the winners are announced on January 23.
How the day unfolded in Sydney
From the Sydney Opera House earlier ...
12.42pm:
12.34pm:
12.08pm:
11.44am: Awwww ...
11.32am:
11.24am:
TODAY is one of the most important days on the Australian country music calendar and The Leader is there to capture every moment.
Country goes high brow this morning as the finalists in the CMAA Country Music Awards of Australia are revealed at the Sydney Opera House.
With less than two months (59 days to be exact) to go until the Tamworth Country Music Festival kicks off on January 15, this is the event that really starts the countdown for fans and artists.
Hosted by Tamworth's Felicity Urquhart, the gala event at the Opera House today will include live performances and plenty of artists in the last big country music gathering of the year.
Brothers3, Jasmine Rae and Troy Cassar-Daley will provide the live entertainment at the Opera House.
The finalists are the top five artists, groups or musicians in each category of the country music awards, with the Golden Guitars presented to winners at the Tamworth Regional Entertainment and Conference Centre on January 23.
