​We are calling out to everyone in Aotearoa and around the world to join us for the 2021 Pacific Music Awards.  Gather your favourite people together and come celebrate Pacific music with us.  We had to adapt and delay our plans, but the music hasn’t changed and our artists are still awesome and amazing! 
Here are the details for the 2021 Pacific Music Awards online presentation:
 
2021 Pacific Music Awards
Celebrating Pacific Music
Saturday 11 December, 7pm
screened by Tagata Pasifika on TP+ (tpplus.co.nz)
Featuring performances by 2021 PMA Finalists
#PMA2021
 
Please share the love – and share this far and wide so we can build an amazing audience for the awards night. 

For Saturday 11 December, all you need to do is choose the screen works for you, your phone, TV, your home projector or a big screen somewhere – and find some awesome people to share the celebration with.  We want to connect our celebrations and are asking everyone to post and share your watching party with us.  Post and tag us in - to share the love for the Pacific music.   As a little incentive, we have a prize package, for the best photo, which includes an Apple iPhone (SE64GB Black) thanks to our Associate Sponsor and Media Partner, SunPix.  We look forward to seeing your photos!
Check our website and Facebook page for further updates:
 
https://www.pacificmusicawards.org.nz/
https://www.facebook.com/pacificmusicawards 
 
If you have any questions or need more information, please contact us
 Pacific Music Awards Trust

Hawaiian music legend Fiji to receive Lifetime Achievement Award  
Genre pioneer George ‘Fiji’ Veikoso to be celebrated at the 2021 Pacific Music Awards  
With more than four decades of music under his belt, George ‘Fiji’ Veikoso will be recognised as the recipient of the 2021 Manukau Institute of Technology Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Pacific Music Awards Trust is proud to celebrate Fiji’s contribution to Pacific music at the 2021 Pacific Music Awards on 11 December.
As an eight-year-old with a love of singing in church, Fiji’s first professional performance earned him $5 from the audience. It also earned him the disappointment of his mother who didn't want her son singing "worldly" music.
Since leaving his Fijian island homeland and settling in Hawai’i at 14-years-old, Fiji has become a legend in the Pacific music scene.
His 1994 debut album Evolution encapsulates the hip hop sound coming out of the islands in the 90s. It was followed three years later by Born & Raised in 1997, which catapulted Fiji into the spotlight and is now considered one of the most influential albums in Pacific music.
With his melodious voice and wonderful blend of music - which includes a fusion of classic reggae, hip hop, RnB and jazz - he is a pioneer in the Fiji and Pacific music field. He is also renowned and respected for recording songs in multiple Pacific languages.
More than just a singer, his prowess as a song writer, composer and producer has set him apart from the rest and led to international acclaim and fame.
Fiji’s popularity and presence in the local music industry was made clear to all when he won the Hawai’i Academy of Record Arts' Na Hoku Hanohano Award for Male Vocalist of the Year and the public balloting for Favourite Entertainer of the Year in 1998.  Fiji also won the first Best Pacific International Artist Award at the 2014 Pacific Music Awards.
Since the release of Born & Raised, Fiji has dropped nine diverse albums showcasing his abilities to stretch Polynesian music as far as he can take it – from smooth soul music on projects like Born & Raised II: The Rebirth to straight hip hop tracks on projects like Indigenous Life.
Throughout his career, Fiji has collaborated and performed with many legends of the genre including Gladys Knight, Aaron Neville, Beres Hammond, Damian Jr. Gong Marley, Ziggy Marley, Ky-mani Marley, Steel Pulse, Maxi Priest and Inner Circle.
Now as an elder in the scene, he’s shown his devotion by helping bring up other artists and encouraging Polynesian unity through the TokoUso movement by promoting consciousness against gang violence for Pacific Islanders across the globe.
There will be a special tribute performance by Wellington artists Brownhill (Fiji’s live band when he performs in New Zealand), Wayno and Tomorrow People.
Pacific Music Awards show postponed to December
Due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions in Auckland, the Pacific Music Awards Trust has decided to postpone the date for the online presentation of the 2021 awards ceremony.
The winners will instead be celebrated in an online awards ceremony on Saturday 11 December at 7pm, screened by Tagata Pasifika on TP+ (tpplus.co.nz). This will be pre-recorded in line with Alert Level restrictions and include performances from the 2021 finalists.
Rev Mua Strickson-Pua says: “With this announcement we continue our thoughts of the saogalemu (safety) and manuia (wellbeing) of our communities and share our support during this time.  We acknowledge the historic moment, the hard work of everyone involved and this opportunity to comfort, empower, and affirm our communities.
“Our Trust and event team are motivated to managing the challenges that Covid-19 brings and committed to producing the Pacific Music Awards event, to celebrate the Pacific music community.  We hope everyone will join our online event and continue to take care and keep safe at this time.  Be kind to each other.  Together we are keeping to our tikanga and fa'avae, with wairua and alofa.”
ENDS

Issued for the Pacific Music Awards by Pead
Contact:
Adam Warin, Pead | 021 029 01388 | adam.warin@pead.co.nz
 

Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, Carmel Sepuloni recently announced a further targeted support package of reprioritised funding to protect jobs and incomes in the arts and culture sector as it faces the ongoing challenges of COVID-19. This COVID-19 Delta Relief Package, managed by Manatū Taonga, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, included funding for cultural agencies to support at risk organisations, key infrastructure, artists, and projects.

In association with the New Zealand Music Commission, MusicHelps can announce the details of an emergency hardship fund grant in response to this continuing crisis, which has impacted the livelihoods of artists, and music workers across Aotearoa.

“People are at the heart of our music community and it is critical we do everything we can to support them right now when the need is so great” says MusicHelps Chair, Anthony Healey.
“We need to navigate through this current difficult period in the hope that there is a busy summer of music ahead. This support should help those who we will rely on to make that summer happen” he says.

The MusicHelps COVID-19 DELTA HARDSHIP GRANT will be making a $1000 rapid response grant available to people that are New Zealand citizens; who reside in New Zealand; who have been in paid work in the music industry for at least the last 2 years; and have experienced loss of income as a result of COVID-19 restrictions and cancellations. To assist MusicHelps with the assessment and review of the submissions, it will be useful if applicants can provide their confirmation of accessing the COVID-19 Wage Subsidy scheme.

The charity will be making 250 grants available initially, after which it will review the outcomes of the Fund to date.

MusicHelps is encouraging applications from the full range of music industry workers. Artists, roadies, riggers, technicians, crew, performers, songwriters, managers and anyone who has lost income from their work in the production or performance of live or recorded music in Aotearoa are invited to apply.

Applications for the grant can be made online from 9am Monday 1st November through the Music Commission application portal website. More information on the grant is available at this address and the MusicHelps website MusicHelps Covid-19 Emergency Grant
 
For further information please contact:
Carmel Bennett, MusicHelps
Phone: (021) 664857
Email: carmelb@musichelps.org.nz