The Voice International Music Awards (VIMA) returns for another year and while the spotlight remains strained on Indonesia – the country with the highest number of submissions – the VIMA Southeast Asia nominations show that Singapore is working hard at catching up.
We bagged a total of 12 nominations in various categories with multiple noms in the major categories of Best Pop Song and Genre Bender. Singaporean artiste Masia One, a veteran of the VIMA by now, leads the overall scoreboard with 5 nominations alongside Nick from Indonesia and Southeast Asian collaborative, Project E. A. R.
Other artists nominated from Singapore include Dropbeat Heartbeat for Best Rock Song and Best Pop Song, Trick for Best Pop Song and Genre Bender and Jonathan Meur for Best Pop Song. The Genre Bender category is given to nominees who incorporate two or more genres into their music.
But Singapore is not the only country soaking up the limelight. Myanmar celebrates its first foray into VIMA with the nominations of girl group, Me N Ma Girls and rock band, Side Effect. Founder of VIMA, Siva Chandran, applauds this trend and projects increasing submissions in future VIMAs from these newcomers as well as from the bourgeoning music industries of Singapore and the Philippines.
He also said that a major point of future game plans will include the specific engagement of artists of the aforementioned countries to encourage and support their increasing participation and that this will a great step toward connecting the industries of the whole region on one platform.
Southeast Asian VIMA nominees will join forces with the winners of VIMA India and VIMA Malaysia in a VIMA Asia battle from January 15th to February 8th. This period will see public voting and global judging and the winner will be crowned on the penultimate awards night in Malaysia in March.
The Singapore nominations in the respective award categories, below:
Best Rock Song
Gettin’ Outta Here – Dropbeat Heartbeat
Starz – Project E.A.R
I Don’t Care – Project E.A.R feat Dave Kennedy
Best Dance Song
Make Up (Dance Remix) – Masia One feat Isis Salam & Black Molly produced by Sir Giant
Workflow – Perk Pietrek
Best Hip-Hop Song
Space Invaders – Masia One produced by Musicano
Best Pop Song
Ex Boyfriend – Masia One & Dubtonic Kru
#Issues – Mark Bonafide feat Kim Olsen & Zahidah
Finally – Mark Bonafide
December By The Isle Of You – Jonathan Meur
The Life – Trick
Can’t Get Enough – Project E.A.R
Genre Bender
Freedom – Masia One ft. Sizzla Kalonji
Fly Away – Project E.A.R
Junction – DJ Reiki
Daydream – TAJ feat Kaye
Up All Night – Trick
Waiting – Perk Pietrek
Best Music Video
Fly Away – Project E.A.R
Check out the full nominations list here.
All images courtesy of Bite Media and bitemymusic.com
