COTT celebrates 30 years with Music Awards

COTT will also partner with Blink bmobile to debut a brand new People’s Choice category, which will allow fans to vote for their favourite artistes using text voting for the first time in the history of the awards ceremony.

One of the four categories within People’s Choice is the Best Collaboration category which will include hits from Machel and Destra, Angela Hunt and Machel Montano, Bunji and Ataklan, Rikki Jai and Ravi B, and Mark Hardy and Yung Rudd featuring Jimmy October.

The ceremony will be hosted at Queens’s Hall, Port-of-Spain on November 4, while a specially edited television production of the show will be broadcast on November 12 on TV6.

Nominated artistes will compete in 18 traditional royalty-based categories including the wildly popular Song of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, Chutney of the Year and Gospel of the Year categories.

Josh Rudder, COTT’s Chief Executive Officer said that the COTT Music Awards are “An excellent opportunity to highlight our 30 yrs of recognising the rights of music creators and raise awareness of what COTT does and who COTT is.” In addition to celebrating the history of COTT, the Blink bmobile sponsored People’s Choice category promises to add an entirely new dimension to the awards as well which is in keeping with this year’s theme of ‘Transformation’.

Rudder explained, “The best part of People’s Choice award is that it recognises the performers and allows the public to participate and contribute to who they believe should receive the award.” Fans will have the opportunity to vote for their favourite artistes for awards in the categories of Best Collaboration, Most Popular Song, Best Music Video and Best Break Out Artiste.

Voters will have the convenience of voting from their mobile phones from 12 noon today to 12 noon on November 4, using text codes which will be published on COTT’s website and Facebook page. Graeme Suite, TSTT Senior Manager Brand, Public Relations and External Affairs (Ag.) said, “TSTT has an excellent relationship with COTT and we are proud to play a pioneering role in introducing this new category of awards to highlight the talent and creativity of our local artistes.” Rudder also expressed hopes that this partnership will encourage the public, corporate Trinidad and Tobago and other stakeholders to recognise that investment and development of the culture sector is critical to the diversification of the local economy and the future of Trinidad and Tobago as a developing country.

He added, “We are elated that Blink bmobile has chosen to partner with us as a sponsor. For them to recognise the awards in such a way has added a whole new dynamic to the industry which I am sure many other stakeholders will take note of. Even as the sector evolves, we look forward to further growth in our relationship.”