Finalists announced for the 2015 Children’s Music Awards
Aotearoa’s native dinosaur, the beauty of bugs and the difficulties of toast at sea are all thoroughly explored by this
year’s finalists for the 2015 Children’s Music Awards – an annual presentation celebrating music written for kids.
Finalists in line for the APRA Best Children’s Music Song Award are songwriter and actor Madeleine Sami for her song ‘Bugs’, written for the animated children’s series ‘Poppet Stars’; multi-award winning Levity Beet & Daniel Stryczek for their song ‘There’s One in the Bush’; and Rangi Kerswell, Maraea Davies & RJ Kerswell, for their bi-lingual educational song ‘He Aha Ai (Why?)’.
In addition to the award, this year, for the first time the winner of the best song award will also receive a $10,000
grant from NZ On Air to be used towards the recording of a new song and a music video.
Finalists for Recorded Music NZ’s coveted Tui award for Best Children’s Music Album include the self-titled ‘Poppet Stars’ album - featuring various songwriters and artists that feature in the series; children’s music main-stays fleaBITE with their album ‘The Jungle is Jumping’; and Itty Bitty Beats with their album ‘Bath Time’.
Also awarded is the What Now Best Children’s Music Video Award. Finalists this year include fleaBITE’s animated ‘Don’t Sit Under the Poo Tree’, created by Stephen Templer & Ross Payne; Little City Critters’ ‘Read a Story’, created by Raymond McGrath - the clever monster that also wrote the song; and Luna World’s ‘The Wollie Flopp’, created by Lauren Billingham & James Brookes.
The winner of the What Now Best Children’s Music Video Award is decided by those who know best – kids! The finalists are
now on the What Now website, and voting is open! Visit www.whatnow.tv to check out the videos and to vote.
The winners of all awards will be announced live on What Now on Sunday 2nd August by kiwi songstress and last year’s
winner of the best song and album award Anika Moa.
The top songs from the 2015 Children’s Music Awards will be included on MusicBox 2015 - a promotional album that will be
released in August. MusicBox 2015 will be available as a free download for a limited time from the APRA AMCOS website,
and a limited number of CDs will be made available to libraries and kid-friendly organisations.
FINALISTS
APRA Best Children’s Music Song
Bugs – written by Madeleine Sami, performed by Poppet Stars
He Aha Ai (Why?) – written by Maraea Davies & Rangi Kerswell, performed by RJ Kerswell
There’s One in the Bush – written and performed by Levity Beet & Daniel Stryczek
Recorded Music NZ Best Children’s Music Album
Bath Time by Itty Bitty Beats, written by Lucy Hiku & Jenny Payne
Poppet Stars by Poppet Stars, written by Madeleine Sami, Anna Coddington, Kath Bee & Jason Smith
The Jungle is Jumping by fleaBITE, written by Robin Nathan
What Now Best Children’s Music Video
Don’t Sit Under the Poo Tree by fleaBITE, video created by Stephen Templer & Ross Payne
Read a Story by Little City Critters, video created by Raymond McGrath
The Wollie Flopp by Luna’s World, video created by Lauren Billingham & James Brookes
ENDS