Election 2020 – Vote Now For Upstate Music Awards

Upstate Music Awards Celebrates Original, Local Talent

By: Julie S.

With an explosive music scene celebrating all genres and styles, Greenville, South Carolina, is a thriving city with incredible talent that deserves recognition. The inaugural Upstate Music Awards was formed out of a collaboration of those closes to the scene and was a way to celebrate all that our many venues and artists have to offer. 

Wes Gilliam, co-owner of The Radio Room, says they are blown away by the response. With almost 4,000 registered users on the UMA website, the idea has taken off and has been quickly embraced by fans and musicians. Stemming from an idea pitched to Gilliam by Jeremy Theall around 9 months ago, the concept has successfully been pulled together with heavy praise and anticipation. Combining forces with Greenville Journal Music writer Vincent Harris was the next step in bringing the concept to reality. 

Driven by nominations from fans and bands, a voting system is used to choose a winner in each of 14 categories. Music genres were purposely not indicated – artists are nominated based on local, original talent by the bands and fans that love them.  

Categories for Upstate Music Awards:

–Best Album – Eligible to artists that released a new album in 2019. For our purposes, an “Album” is at least eight tracks OR longer than twenty-five minutes.

–Best EP – Eligible to artists that released a new EP in 2019. For our purposes, an “EP” cannot be more than seven tracks OR longer than twenty-five minutes.

–Best Single – Eligible to artists that released a new single in 2019.

–Best Music Video – Eligible to artists that released a music video — either performance or scripted — in 2019. This award will recognize the artist, director, and/or production company. —-

–Best Live Act – Eligible to acts that have performed locally at least once in 2019. For our purposes, “locally” refers to shows within the 864 area code.

–Artist of the Year – The committee will select the Artist of the Year based on both fan response and the artist’s overall musical contributions in 2019. This category is closed during the nomination and voting period.

–Best New Artist – Eligible to new artists that began recording or performing original music in 2019.

–Best Collaboration – Eligible to artists that released a collaboration in 2019. For our purposes, a ”Collaboration” refers to a recording by two or more local artists that don’t frequently work together.

–Best Studio Producer/Engineer – Eligible to studio producers and engineers that worked on a local release in 2019. For our purposes, a “local release” refers to music from an artist based in the 864 area code.

–Best Solo Artist – Eligible to recording or performing solo artists. For our purposes, a “Solo Artist” is defined as one person.

–Best Album Art/Visual Design – Eligible to artists credited with single/EP/album artwork, show promo, stage design, or any other visually creative pieces for music in 2019.

–Best Music Photographer – Eligible to photographers who captured footage in 2019 of a local artist for their press kit or on stage.

–Write-In Vote – Eligible to artists who didn’t meet the criteria for any of the other categories (maybe they didn’t release anything new in 2019?) but you still feel deserves to be recognized.

–864 Award – Eligible to Upstate artists, residents, and local music supporters that demonstrate outstanding character, philanthropy, and compassion for our music scene.

For the purposes of defining “local” music, only artists in the 864 area code will be considered. This includes Abbeville, Anderson, Cherokee, Greenville, Greenwood, Laurens, McCormick, Oconee, Pickens, Spartanburg and Union Counties. 

Consisting of 7 members, UMA is led by a committee of industry veterans from various aspects of music. Venue owners, radio hosts, music writers, and booking agents are just some of the backgrounds represented on the UMA committee. For more information on each member, click on their name to read their bio. 

Vincent Harris – https://upstatemusicawards.com/vincent-harris/
Jeremy Theall – https://upstatemusicawards.com/jeremy-hunter-theall/
Wes Gilliam – https://upstatemusicawards.com/wes-gilliam/
Renee Denton – https://upstatemusicawards.com/renee-denton/
Sheila Merck – https://upstatemusicawards.com/sheila-merck/
Pauley Francisco – https://upstatemusicawards.com/pauley-francisco/
Josh McGee – https://upstatemusicawards.com/josh-mcgee/

Voting closes on Thursday, January 23, and the ticketed awards ceremony will be held in early March at Zen-An Elegant Space for Hire. 

For more information, please visit https://upstatemusicawards.com/.