The A&R Awards 2022: The finalists revealed! – Music Business Worldwide

We’re less than two months away from the UK music industry’s most enjoyable night: The A&R Awards, presented by MBW in association with Abbey Road Studios.

Taking place on the evening of Tuesday, November 8, the A&R Awards 2022 will be held in Central London. Platinum tables for the show have already sold out, with just five Gold tables remaining. (To book yours, please contact [email protected].)

Today (September 22), we announce the finalists for this year’s event, which covers industry activity from October 2021 through to September 2022.

Before we do, let’s remind ourselves of the categories on the big event… including one new addition.

2022’s UK-focused A&R Awards will once again see awards that recognise those working in both independent and major sectors across record labels, publishing and management.

Categories once again include Songwriter Of The Year and Producer Of The Year, in addition to Song Of The Year, which celebrates some of the best hits majority-written by British (or UK-based) writers during the period.

In addition, our individual A&R awards – also counting A&R duos – are once again segmented by genre: Adult Contemporary; Alternative/Rock; Contemporary Black Music; Electronic/Dance; and Pop/R&B, plus the ever-popular A&R Administrator Award, which from this year will also be known as ‘The Forbsie’.

There’ll also be team awards, including two Publisher Of The Year gongs (for UK pubs above and below a certain size threshold), plus Major Label Of The Year, Independent Label Of The Year and Management Company (aka The David Enthoven Award).

And there’s one new category for 2022: Manager of the Year, supported by YouTube Shorts, recognising the efforts and success of an individual talent manager (or duo) who has gone the extra mile for their client/s – and reaped the rewards.

Most importantly, there are two special awards: Our A&R Icon award, plus the Sir George Martin Award.

Winners will be determined via the confidential votes of a select cast of global music business experts in the coming weeks.

In addition to our returning headline partner, Abbey Road Studios, supporters of this year’s A&R Awards include Centtrip, Concord Music Publishing, Hipgnosis, Milk & Honey, PPL, Session, Spotify, Vevo, Voly Music, YouTube Shorts and YouTube Music.

Here are this year’s finalists…

PRODUCER OF THE YEAR – SUPPORTED BY ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS

• Camille Purcell
• Dan Carey
• Fred Gibson (FRED AGAIN)
• Inflo
• LostBoy
• Mark Ralph
• P2J
• Stuart Price
• Thomas Hull (Kid Harpoon)
• Tre Jean Marie

SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR – SUPPORTED BY HIPGNOSIS

• Amy Wadge
• Camille Purcell
• Fred Gibson (FRED AGAIN)
• Inflo
• Lauren Aquilina
• Pablo Bowman
• Phil Plested
• Thomas Hull (Kid Harpoon)
• Tre Jean Marie
• Uzoechi Emenike (MNEK)

SONG OF THE YEAR – SUPPORTED BY HIPGNOSis

• Afraid To Feel – performed by LF System (Simmons/Jefferson/Roebuck)
• As It Was – performed by Harry Styles (Styles/Hull/Johnson)
• Forget Me – performed by Lewis Capaldi (Capaldi/Pollack/Plested/TMS)
• Go – performed by Cat Burns (Burns/Morgan)
• Green Green Grass – performed by George Ezra (Ezra/Pott/Price)
• Peru – performed by Fireboy DML & Ed Sheeran (Fireboy DML/Scott IV/Sheeran/Perine)
• Remind Me – performed by Tom Grennan (Rycroft/Bell/Grennan)
• Seventeen Going Under – performed by Sam Fender (Fender)
• Space Man  – performed by Sam Ryder (Wadge/Ryder/Wolfgang)
• Starlight – performed by Dave (Omoregie)

A&R OF THE YEAR: ADULT CONTEMPORARY

• Chris Briggs – Sony Music
• Jamie Nelson – BMG
• Julian Palmer – Columbia
• Louis Bloom – Island
• Sam Mumford – Decca

A&R OF THE YEAR: CONTEMPORARY BLACK MUSIC – SUPPORTED BY SPOTIFY

• Amber Davis & Darryl Parkinson – Warner Chappell
• Benny Scarrs & Jack Foster – Neighbourhood
• Carl Samuel – Columbia
• Colin Batsa – EGA/Virgin Music/Capitol
• Glyn Aikins & Riki Bleau – Since ’93
• Joe Gossa – Black Butter
• Michael Adex – NQ
• Rich Castillo – EMI Records (previously Atlantic)
• Samuel Adebayo – Island
• Sarah Lockhart – Sony Music Publishing
• Shabs Jobanputra – Relentless
• Trenton Harrison-Lewis – Warner Music UK

A&R OF THE YEAR: ELECTRONIC/DANCE

• Anton Powers – Warner Music UK
• Briony Turner – Atlantic
• Dipesh Parmar – Ministry Of Sound
• Harri Davies – Concord
• Jack Duckworth – Polydor
• Jon Barlow – 3Beat
• Kevin Christian Blair – Atlantic
• Mike Pickering – Columbia
• Nick Burgess & Andy Daniell – Parlophone
• Pete Simmons – Universal Music Publishing

A&R OF THE YEAR: POP/R&B

• Alastair Kinross & Chris Briggs – Insanity / Sony Music UK
• Amber Davis – Warner Chappell
• Ed Howard – Atlantic
• Glyn Aikins and David Dollimore – Since ’93 / RCA
• Hugo Turquet – BMG
• Jo Charrington – EMI Records
• Kenny McGoff – Kobalt
• Martin Dell – Columbia
• Nick Burgess – Parlophone
• Richard O’Donovan – Polydor

A&R OF THE YEAR: ALTERNATIVE/ROCK – Supported by Session

A&R ADMINISTRATOR (‘The Forbsie’) – Supported by PPL

• Conor O’Mahony – Warner Music
• James Bullock & Matt Prior – Sony Music Publishing
• Jazz Horrocks – BMG
• Karyn Hughes – Decca
• Mark Stemp – Island
• Sarah Vaughan – Sony Music
• Susie Woodbridge – Warner Chappel Music

MANAGEMENT COMPANY (THE DAVID ENTHOVEN AWARD) – SUPPORTED BY CENTTRIP

• Closer Management
• Grumpy Old Management
• Milk & Honey UK
• Neighbourhood
• NQ
• September Management
• SJM Management
• TaP Management
• Three Six Zero
• UROK

MANAGER OF THE YEAR – SUPPORTED BY YOUTUBE MUSIC

• Alex Martin – AM Music
• Benny Scarrs & Jack Foster – Neighbourhood
• Bello
• Jazz Sherman – Hunger Management
• Jonathan Dickins & Rose Moon – September Management
• Michael Adex – NQ
• Owain Davies – OD Management
• Radha Medar
• Stuart Camp & Gabby Cawthorne – Grumpy Old Management
• Terry Appiasei – Golden Boy Entertainment

PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR (1) – SUPPORTED BY MILK & HONEY

PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR (2)

• Blue Raincoat Music
• Concord Music Publishing
• Downtown
• Peermusic
• Promised Land Music
• Reservoir
• Stellar Songs
• Wise Music Group

INDEPENDENT LABEL

MAJOR LABEL – SUPPORTED BY VOLY MUSIC

Music Business Worldwide