Artists are still clamouring to join Dame Hinewehi Mohi, one of the country’s most respected women in music, when she hits the stage at the Viaduct Events Centre in Auckland to sing her widely recognised hit Kotahitanga.
After a few uncertain years due to Covid and restructuring, this year will see the return of the AMAs in all their glory, celebrating the nation’s very best artists and closing out New Zealand Music Month.
Spy understandsthat 99 per cent of this year’s nominees are attending the newly invigorated celebrations, and they’ll be mixing it up with nearly 1000 guests.
The evening will kick off with more than 50 nominees strutting the red carpet, juggling a media scrum of over 80 giving interviews and posing up against the photo wall.
Stan Walker is a finalist in five categories at this year's Aotearoa Music Awards.
Walker is up for five awards, including Best Solo Artist, Best Māori Artist, and the Te Māngai Pāho Mana Reo award. He is also nominated for the Album of the Year and Single of the Year awards alongside Scott, who is a finalist in eight categories.
Both the Album and Single categories are hotly contested with 12 nominees in both.
Scott’s nominations are evenly split between his work on Avantdale Bowling Club’s TREES and Homebrew’s album Run It Back. Three of these nominations are in the same categories, including Best Hip Hop Artist.
Indie rock favourites The Beths are finalists in three categories this year, including the coveted Best Group Award in which they are up against Homebrew, LEISURE, Mermaidens, Tiny Ruins and Unknown Mortal Orchestra.
The Beths are nominated for three awards. Photo / Frances Carter
Scott and Walker have stiff competition in the Best Solo Performance category which sees them being up against Fazerdaze, Princess Chelsea, Kaylee Bell and Marlon Williams, all of whom are also up for multiple awards.
Insiders say The Viaduct Events Centre is the perfect new home for artists to perform, collect their Tūī awards, and celebrate.
Once the nominees are through the press gauntlet a pre-party is being held where they will mix with the industry greats attending, including Moana Maniapoto, Joel Little, Hollie Smith, Chaii, and artist and activist Tāme Iti.
Moana Maniapoto is understood to be attending the Aotearoa Music Awards.
Once the mingling and imbibing is done, guests will take their seats in a triangular-shaped, theatre-style auditorium with both the performance stage and acceptance stage running the entire length of the space.
This year the AMAs are split into two parts, kicking off with hosts Jesse Mulligan and Kara Rickard starting the opening ceremony, where in the first half the genre and artisan Tūī will be presented with live performances from Georgia Lines, Jordyn with a Why and MOHI.
After intermission, the AMA Showcase will see remaining Tūī presentations, mixed up with an extravaganza of live performances from Stan Walker, Corrella, Kaylee Bell, Princess Chelsea, Coterie and Dame Hinewehi Mohi’s Hall of Fame.
Afterwards the official Radio BurgerFuel and the AMA afterparty are onsite with 3style DJ champion Elton James aka DJ Scizzorhands providing the tunes.
The infamous afterparties are being kept on the downlow with artists and media said to be still guessing right up till the last minute, but we can confirm artists and guests will head to the Universal and Sony parties till the early hours of Friday morning.
The whole event can be live streamed on the Radio NZ Facebook / YouTube channels (and on TVNZ+ from the following day) and the Herald.
