ECMA Celebrates 25 Years of Music Excellence
The East Coast Music Awards is celebrating its 25th anniversary this week with a star-studded five-day event in Halifax, Nova Scotia, honoring the outstanding musicians who have made, and continue to make, Atlantic Canada’s music scene world-class. The East Coast Music Awards started in 1989 as the Maritime Music Awards with five categories – Female Artist of the Year, Male Artist of the Year, Video of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year. Today, the ECMA honors achievers in 25 music categories, as well as a number of awards for the music industry.
It was in 1991 that the founder of the Maritime Music Awards, Rob Cohn, teamed up with Karen Byers, Lee Stanley, Sheri Jones, Peter Hendrickson, Mike Barkhouse and Tony Kelly to form the East Coast Music Association, with the annual award ceremony changing its name to the East Coast Music Awards and including all the Atlantic provinces. The ECMA has developed into the one of Canada’s premier music award events, attended by influential personalities of the international music industry.
Nominees for Album of the Year 2013 are:
• Gypsophilia – Constellation
• Jenn Grant – The Beautiful Wild
• Matt Mays – Coyote
• Radio Radio – Havre de Grâce
• Wintersleep – Hello Hum
Nominees for Song of the Year 2013 are:
• Dave Gunning – These Hands
• Ria Mae – Leaving Today
• Rich Aucoin – It
• Rose Cousins – We Have Made A Spark
• Tim Chaisson – Beat This Heart
Nominations for Songwriter of the Year 2013 are:
Bruce Guthro – Stan’s Tune (Composer: Bruce Guthro)
• Christina Martin – Marina (Composer: Christina Martin)
• Matt Mays – Take It On Faith (Composer: Matt Mays)
• Rose Cousins – Go First (Composer: Rose Cousins)
• Wintersleep – In Came The Flood (Composer: Paul Murphy/ Tim D’eon/ Loel Campbell)
Nominations for Rising Star Recording of the Year are:
• Ben Caplan – In the Time of the Great Remembering
• Breagh Mackinnon – Where The Days Went
• Heather Green – Your Last War
• Mo Kenney – Mo Kenney
• Repartee – Repartee
Other categories in the ECMA include Aboriginal Recording of the Year, African-Canadian Recording of the Year, Blues Recording of the Year, Children’s Recording of the Year, Classical Composition of the Year, Classical Recording of the Year, Country Recording of the Year, Electronic Recording of the Year, Folk Recording of the Year, Francophone Recording of the Year, Gospel Recording of the Year, Group Recording of the Year, Jazz Recording of the Year and Pop Recording of the Year.
