Aotearoa Music Awards - Best Māori Artist & Mana Reo Award Finalists Announced

The freshly rebranded Aotearoa Music Awards have revealed the first round of finalists for Recorded Music New Zealand’s annual industry celebration, formerly know as the New Zealand Music Awards, happening on Sunday 15th November and live on The Edge TV, Three and ThreeNow. Alongside those in the running for Tuis for the 2020 Artisan Awards, two categories to be awarded at the AMA's main presentation have been revealed thus far — Te Māngai Pāho Te Kaipuoro Māori Toa | Best Māori Artist and the return of the Mana Reo Award, "recognising albums or singles (of studio or live performances) with at least 50% te reo Māori content."

RMNZ CEO Damian Vaughan spoke about the importance of reintroducing the Mana Reo Award: “Acknowledging the importance of te reo as a cornerstone of our culture, our heritage and identity, we were very pleased to note that we received a massive amount of entries in this first year which shows the number of our artists recording their waiata in te reo Maori... We should be proud of all these finalists and the many other artists and initiatives bringing te reo Māori and Te Ao Māori to the forefront of our national identity.”

Te Māngai Pāho Te Kaipuoro Māori Toa | Best Māori Artist Finalists

Maimoa
Ria Hall
Stan Walker

Mana Reo Award Finalists

Maimoa - Rongomaiwhiti
Mōhau - s/t
SIX60 - 'Kia Mau Ki Tō Ūkaipō’' featured on Waiata / Anthems

Experience RNZ's superb footage of Ria Hall and band (featuring fellow Tui nominee Troy Kingi on backing vocals and guitar) performing 'Owner' from her latest album Manawa Wera live at The Surgery...