Inaugural Global APRA Music Awards Coming To Nashville In March

APRA AMCOS has announced the nominees and event details for the inaugural Global APRA Music Awards. Ceremonies will take place in Los Angeles (Feb. 26, at the GRAMMY Museum, Clive Davis Theater, hosted by Maya Jupiter), Nashville (March 1, at Clementine Hall, hosted by O’Shea) and London (March 6, at Ham Yard Hotel Soho, hosted by Georgia Mooney).

APRA AMCOS includes the Australasian Performing Right Association and the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society, both not-for-profit copyright collectives which jointly represent over 47,000 composers, lyricists and music publishers in Australia and New Zealand. APRA AMCOS opened a Nashville office in 2017.

Awards will be presented to Australasian songwriters, composers and music publishers achieving artistic excellence and commercial success in international markets. Global APRA Music Awards will be handed out in each city for the following categories: Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year, Overseas Recognition Award, Songwriter of the Year, and Distinguished Services Award.

In the Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year Nashville category are nominees Mitchell Thompson and Thomas Jordan (of Seaforth) who released their debut EP Love That on Sony Nashville in 2019 and have been touring in the States. Also in the running is songwriter/musician Paul Mabury, who won a Grammy this year for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance as a co-writer on Lauren Daigle’s “You Say,” which spent a record 65 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Christian Songs chart. Rebecca Chilcott – known as Americana singer-songwriter Ruby Boots – made the move to Nashville a few years back, signed a record deal with Bloodshot Records, and released her acclaimed album Don’t Talk About It. And Nashville-via-Sydney singer-songwriter Sinead Burgess is a rising star on the back of her album Damaged Goods and her latest single “Reno.”

Nominees for Overseas Recognition Award Nashville include Seaforth, Paul Mabury, Mia Fieldes, and Rick Price. 

“The launch of the Global APRA Music Awards is a reflection of the incredible success that Australian and New Zealand songwriters and composers are achieving internationally. APRA AMCOS strives to be there for our members in their creative and professional endeavours every step of the way, wherever they are, and I so look forward to celebrating their talent, ambition and all that they have accomplished at these special events,” said APRA Chair Jenny Morris.