The deadline is fast approaching for the 16th Annual IAMA (International Acoustic Music Awards). This is a great opportunity for artists everywhere. Acoustic artists in various genres can gain radio and web exposure through this competition. Participating sponsors include Acoustic Cafe and Sirius XM Satellite Radio. Music artists stand a chance to win awards in eight different categories—Best Male Artist, Best Female Artist, Best Group/Duo Folk, Americana/Roots/AAA, Instrumental, Open (any musical style or genre), Bluegrass/Country, etc. There will also be an Overall Grand Prize winner awarded to the top winner worth over US$11,000, which includes radio promotion to over 250 radio stations in US and Canada.
The deadline to enter is Nov. 8. Click here for more.
IAMA is sponsored by D'Addario Strings, New Music Weekly, Loggins Promotion, Airplay Access, Sirius XM Radio, Acoustic Café Radio Show, MixButton, MusicGateway.com, Kari Estrin Management & Consulting, etc.
In its 16th year, IAMA has a proven track record of winners going on to get signed and hit the Charts. Meghan Trainor was discovered by IAMA seven years ago and is now a global superstar with #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts "All About That Bass" (#1 for 9 weeks) and #1 on The Billboard 200 Charts with her debut album Title. She won a GRAMMY for Best New Artist in 2016. Trainor hit #46 on the Billboard Charts last year with "No Excuses" and has 9 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts so far, enough to release a Greatest Hits Album in her young career.
The 2nd annual IAMA winner Zane Williams’s winning song was recorded by country music star Jason Michael Carroll. That song hit #14 on Billboard Country Charts and #99 on Billboard Hot 100 Charts. Jeff Gutt, a finalist in the 9th Annual IAMA was a runner-up on X-Factor USA. Charlie Dore (known for her #1 hit “Pilot of the Airwaves”) was the top winner in 2008.
Singer-songwriter Jonatha Brooke won top honors at the recent 15th Annual IAMA (International Acoustic Music Awards) with her song "Put the Gun Down." For more than two decades, Jonatha Brooke has created music—combinations of poetic lyrics, complex harmonies and memorable melodies—that have earned her devoted fans. With 10 solo releases (and two from her duo The Story) to her credit, her most recent endeavor was writing and performing the one-woman musical My Mother Has 4 Noses.
She was previously signed to MCA Records and Elektra records. The project—which ran in NYC at The Duke on 42nd Street— documents the journey of caring for her mother, who was in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s-induced dementia, during the last two years of her life. Another project was 2008’s The Works, a collection of songs written after being invited into Woody Guthrie’s archives by his daughter. Brooke combed through previously unseen lyrics of Guthrie's, edited, pared, and set them to her own new music, creating a new collection of songs.
Currently, Brooke, who lives in Minneapolis, is touring her recently released CD Midnight. Hallelujah., working on two new musicals and plans on performing more dates of 4 Noses in various cities. A 5 song EP of new songs will be released soon.
