Now in it’s 11th year the Songlines Music Awards are a showcase of global artists that have been covered in the Songlines magazine. There are five geographical categories and also the Best Artist, Best Group, Newcomer and World Pioneer awards, which were announced at the awards ceremony on Saturday November 30 at London’s EartH. Hosted by Cerys Matthews, it featured performances from some of the winners and nominees including Mariza, Fatoumata Diawara, Seckou Keita, Gaye Su Akyol and Monsieur Doumani.
Middle East and Africa Winner –In 2018 Fatoumata dropped her second album seven long years after her debut album which said look at me I am the “brightest new star of African music”. The Malian singer-songwriter’s long awaited second album in 2018 was called Fenfo which means ‘Something to Say’ – it was well worth the wait. Some described as magnificent. She was also nominated in the Best Artist category.
World Pioneer Winner – The musician and composer Nitin Sawhney fuses his music with various genres from Indian forms, to flamenco, hip-hop, drum’n’bass, jazz, classical, rock and electronica. He has composed for theatre, film TV, ballet and video games. He conducted the London Symphony Orchestra and has worked as a club DJ. Nitin was part of the Goodness Gracious Me comedy team and has his own series on BBC Radio 2. High profile collaborations include Paul McCartney, Sting, AR Rahman, Brian Eno, Anoushka Shankar, Jeff Beck and Shakira, among many many more.
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