Apple Music Awards Recognizes Regional Artists In 2021

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Outside of Coca-Cola and McDonalds, Apple is probably the most recognized brand around the world. Their iphones, ipods, ipads and computers are used by everyone on the planet. Their reach into the daily lives of global citizens has really been unprecedented in history. Because of their impact on a global basis, it makes complete sense that their Awards presentations would take handing out the trophies a step further than most traditional award shows. Every country pretty much has their own awards shows. In the United States we have the Grammy Awards. In the United Kingdom there is the Brit Awards. Of course dating back to the Beatles and beyond there have always been artists who have swept awards shows across the globe.

Popular music is an international art to a certain extent. Elton John, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin Adele, and so forth are all musical acts that are big around the world. Yet there are also huge stars that are very much just local heroes. Bands that are usually only popular in their native countries. For whatever reasons, these groups have just not reached out across the globe. The United Kingdom has had tons of bands that were huge in the UK but never made it that big in the U.S. Robbie Williams is one of the biggest stars to ever grace the stage in the UK, but in the U.S. he was not that big of a deal. That’s just looking at two English speaking countries. In regions that speak different languages the gap is even bigger. If you’re living in the United States, chances are that you don’t have an X-Japan CD in your collection much so ever even heard of them. However, in Japan, X-Japan is one of the biggest and most famous rock bands of the past thirty years.

As a huge global company, Apple recognizes the impact of locals heroes. As so many people now get their new releases and older catalog hits on Apple music, Spotify, youTube and all the other streaming services, Apple recognizes these stats better than anyone else in the world. They see the impact of regional bands in their popularity and cultural impact on specific countries around the work. At this years’ Apple Music Awards, the company implemented that recognition into a new Award Category that has not been done before on any major Awards show.

This year at Apple Music’s Awards celebration of artists, the company introduced a new category entitled Regional Artist of the Year. The category looks ta the impact of artists in specific regions around the globe. While the Grammy Awards and other Awards shows have International music awards, none of them have utilized a regional category that hands out awards across multiple regions. This year, Apple Music chose the regions and countries of France, Germany, Japan, Russia and Africa to hand out Artist Of The Year Awards in those specific global spots. The Artists of The Year Awards were handed out to Artists who according to Apple Music had the greatest impact on a cultural and commercial level in their own countries and regions.

In Africa, the Artist of The Year Award was given to hip hop artist Wizkid who is the most streamed artist in Africa. In Japan, the Artist of The Year Award was taken by the pop rock band OFFICIAL HIGE DANDISM who have only been around since 2014. In Russia, the Artist of The Year Award was give to hip hop artist Scriptonite. The Russian hip hop artist also known as Adil Zhalelov is originally from Kazakhstan and is huge in Russia. In France, another hip hop artist was given the Artist of The Year Award in the name of rapper Aya Nakamura. Rounding out the Artist of The Year Award regional awards by Apple Music was Germany’s Artist of The Year RIN.

This years Apple Music Wards also looked at the impact of artists on an overall global basis. The Global Artist of the Year Award was given out to last year’s Super Bowl entertainer The Weeknd. Other big awards from this year’s Apple Music Awards were given out to Olivia Rodrigo for Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year. A pretty good year for Olivia Rodrigo who earlier in the year was also invited to the White House to meet the President of the United States.

Apple has always been a leader in terms of technology with everyone always following behind. It will be interesting to see if there progressive moves in their Awards ceremony will also inspire other awards shows to also follow their lead.

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