The A&R Awards in association with Abbey Road Studios return to London on the evening of Wednesday, November 1 – and today we can reveal who’ll be battling it out to win one of the UK-focused ceremony’s coveted trophies.
A wide range of individual and team awards will be handed out on the night to those working in both independent and major sectors across record labels, publishing and management – as well as standout artistic talent.
The ‘Breaking Artist’ Award will recognize an emerging British (or British-signed) artist – either on their first album or pre-their first album – who shows real promise for a sustainable future career and that’s where Kojo Funds finds himself.
The Songwriter Of The Year and Producer Of The Year awards will recognise the finest behind-the-scenes UK musical creatives, voted on by a worldwide panel of expert and experienced A&R figures.
To be clear: the nominees and winners of these categories have done great things within these genres over the past year, but are certainly not exclusively defined by them.
The categories are: Adult Contemporary, Electronic/Dance, Hip-Hop/Grime, Rock/Alternative and Pop/R&B.
In addition, an A&R Administrator Award will be collected by an individual without whom a record company simply couldn’t operate.
And then there are the team awards.
These will include two Publisher Of The Year gongs (for UK pubs above and below a certain size threshold), Major Label Of The Year, Independent Label Of The Year and Management Company of The Year (The David Enthoven Award).
All of these categories will be voted on by a select cast of global music business experts in the coming weeks.
In addition, three very special awards will be handed out on the night: The Sir George Martin Award, The A&R Loyalty Award and The A&R Icon Award.
Presented by MBW, The A&R Awards 2017 take place at the Sheraton Grand Park Lane in Mayfair.
THE BREAKING ARTIST AWARD LONGLIST (LABEL):
- Declan McKenna (Columbia)
- Jorja Smith (Famm)
- Kojo Funds (Atlantic Records)
- Loyle Carner (AMF/Virgin EMI)
- MIST (Sickmade)
- MoStack (MizerMillion Ent)
- Mura Masa (Polydor)
- Rationale (Best Laid Plans/Warner Music)
- Rex Orange County (Independent)
- Sigrid (Island Records)
- Stefflon Don (V-IV London/Polydor)
- Yungen (Sony Music UK)
[To be clear: This award considers ‘breaking’ acts only. Any act with a Silver-selling UK album (60k+) or a Gold-selling UK single as a lead artist (300k+) is considered exempt.]
PRODUCER OF THE YEAR – SUPPORTED BY ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS
- Ben Ash (Two Inch Punch)
- Fraser T Smith
- Jonathan Mensah (Jae5)
- Jake Gosling
- Mark Ralph
- Rodaidh McDonald
- Steve Mac
SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR – SUPPORTED BY DOWNTOWN
- Camille Purcell
- Jamie Hartman
- Jamie Scott
- Janée Bennett
- Johnny McDaid
- Jonny Coffer
- Steve Mac
A&R OF THE YEAR: ADULT CONTEMPORARY
- Chris Briggs – Sony Music UK
- Nick Patrick and Don Reedman – Independent
- Rob Dickins – Independent / East West
- Thomas Haimovici – BMG
- Tom Lewis – Decca
- Steve Sidwell – Independent
A&R OF THE YEAR: ELECTRONIC/DANCE
- Daniel Miller – Mute
- Darryl Watts & Colette Goodfellow – UMPG
- Dipesh Parmar – Ministry Of Sound
- Jason Ellis – Positiva/Virgin EMI
- Jon Barlow – 3 Beat
- Miles Leonard – Parlophone
- Mike Pickering – Columbia
A&R OF THE YEAR: HIP-HOP/GRIME
- Adele White – Relentless
- Alec Boateng – Atlantic
- Amber Davis – Warner/Chappell
- Barry Burt – Lost Ones
- Dumi Oburota – Disturbing London
- Joe Gossa – Black Butter
- Shane MizerMilli – MizerMilli Ent
- Tobe Onwuka & Stormzy – #Merky
A&R OF THE YEAR: POP/R&B – SUPPORTED BY MUSIC + SPORT
- Anya Jones & Guy Langley – Syco
- Ben Cook & Ed Howard – Atlantic
- Briony Turner – Atlantic
- Jamie Spinks – Polydor
- Julian Palmer – Columbia
- Joe Kentish – Warner Bros
- Louis Bloom – Island
A&R OF THE YEAR: ROCK/ALTERNATIVE
- Ben Durling – Warner Bros
- Caius Pawson – Young Turks
- Jamie Oborne – Dirty Hit
- Jim Chancellor – Fiction/Caroline
- Nick Burgess – Virgin EMI
- Korda Marshall – BMG
- Simon Raymonde – Bella Union
A&R ADMINISTRATOR
- Ashley Forbes – Virgin EMI
- Rebecca La Porta – Polydor
- Mark Stemp – Sony Music UK
- Matt Gibbon – Sony Music UK
- Grace Goddard – Warner Music UK
PUBLISHER (1)
- BMG
- Imagem Music
- Kobalt
- Sony/ATV
- Universal Music Publishing
- Warner/Chappell
PUBLISHER (2)
- Bucks Music
- Downtown
- Phrased Differently
- SONGS
- Spirit B-Unique
- Reservoir Media
INDEPENDENT LABEL
- 4AD
- Bella Union
- Dirty Hit
- Glassnote
- Ninja Tune
- Transgressive
- Young Turks
MANAGEMENT COMPANY (THE DAVID ENTHOVEN AWARD) – SUPPORTED BY CENTTRIP MUSIC
- Black Fox
- Disturbing London
- Machine Management
- Modest! Management
- Rocket Music
- TAP Management
- Various Artists Management
MAJOR LABEL OF THE YEAR
- Atlantic
- Black Butter
- Columbia
- Decca
- Polydor
- Virgin EMI
- Warner Bros
