Malaysia's top indie ban Pop Shuvit was among the big winners at the inaugural Independent Asian Music Awards (AVIMA) 2009 which was announced via a unique global web telecast yesterday.
Pop Shuvit was part of a group collaboration entitled Project E.A.R and walked away with the prestigious Song of The Year and Best Rock Song categories for the remixed version of their song ‘Marabahaya'.
Project E.A.R consists of indie acts from five countries - Saint Loco (Indonesia), Thaitanium and Silksounds (Thailand), Slapshock (Philippines), Ahli Fiqir (Singapore) and Pop Shuvit.
Thailand's biggest hip-hop act, Thaitanium tied with Philippines Dice & K9 (Mobbstar) for Best Hip-Hop Group while Sanjay Divecha from India sprang a huge surprise by nabbing the Best Pop Song.
Funky Wah-Wah from Thailand walked away with the Best Dance/Electronica Song, Japan's Jojouka took the Best Dance Act, Armi Millare of Up Dharma Down won best overall female act while Malaysia's rising stars, Jeevz & Kraft took the Best Hip-Hop song honours.
"It was such an open field, and in the end, there was really no clear cut winner of the night. It was amazing to witness indie acts like Motherjane from India take Best Rock act, yet, the Best Rock Vocalist went to Dia Hassan from UAE.
"And not surprisingly indie acts from Indonesia and the Philippines landed the highest number of AVIMAs, which we believe, boiled down to the fact that these are artistes who continue to evolve and innovate in the way that they approach and express their music." said Siva Chandran, founder of AVIMA 2009 and Managing Editor of Voize.my, the organizers of the award show.
In the true spirit of indie, the informal and zany awards show was showcased like no other, combining the reality TV show style of the Amazing Race and the countdown clock ala "24".
A huge global audience
The awards show was beamed "live" via a studio from an undisclosed location and viewers from all over the world were able to watch the show via two live-stream sites courtesy of Pop Teevee and CGYnet from the Voize.my website.
"We wanted to do away with the formality of awards shows and decided to pit two adventure teams, using two cameras that captured their chase scenes through the streets of Kuala Lumpur, unearthing clues via celebrities who announced the winners while a clock challenges them to accomplish their task within 60 minutes.
"It was a mammoth task coordinating and pulling this off in such a short time frame" said AVIMA co-founder M Tevan.
"We had audiences from more than 30 countries logged on to the awards show from all over Asia, Europe, Australia and USA and this clearly showed the interest that has been generated by this amazing awards platform.
"We have already been approached by parties in Europe and other Asian countries to help organize more independent music awards show of this nature." said the director of the awards show and AVIMA co-founder Premo
The main judges for AVIMA were Denis Curman (Croatia), Takeshi Ohyashiki (Japan), Anna Kaster (USA), Marcel Santiago (Brazil),Cristin Tomeci (Romania/Belgium), Joshua Ninan (Australia), Emanuel Tomeci (Romania/Belgium), Anna Lindgren (Sweden), Seretse Small (Jamaica) , Fernando Casale (Argentina) and Vanessa Moses (Australia).
AVIMA 2009,organized by Voize.my, an Asian lifestyle & entertainment site has been dubbed the world's biggest indie music awards due to its support of 3000 indie acts from 16 Asian countries.
The event was supported by Pop Teevee, CGYnet, Hitz.fm, XFM, The Malay Mail, Star Online, Malaysiakini, auspOp.blogspot.com (Australia), Indiecision.com (India) and Earth247.tv
Full AVIMA Winners List
Song Of The Year
Marabahaya (E.A.R version) - Pop Shuvit & Project EA.R (Thailand/Malaysia/Philippines/Singapore/Indonesia)
'Thank You For Existing Becoz Your Music Makes Each Day Worth Waking Up To', (Most Innovative and Inventive Indie Act)
Agrikulture (Indonesia) & Out Of Body Special (Philippines)
Best Rock Song
1. Marabahaya (E.A.R version) - Pop Shuvit & Project EA.R (Thailand/Malaysia/Philippines/Singapore/Indonesia) (Gold)
2. Archipelago-MRI (Philippines) (Silver)
3. Save our souls-Electrico (Singapore) (Bronze)
Best Rock Act (Group/duo)
1. Motherjane (India) - Gold
2. Pop Shuvit (Malaysia) - Silver
3. Ritmic-Traumatic (Indonesia) - Bronze
Best Rock Vocalist
1. Dia Hassan-Juliana down, (UAE) - Gold
2. Rithan - Deja Voodoo Spells (Malaysia) - Silver
3. Dave Tan - Electrico (Singapore) - Bronze
Best Pop/R&B Song
Naino sey - Sanjay Divecha (India)
Best Pop Act (solo or group)
Overload Romance (Indonesia)
Best Dance/Electronica Song
Funky Wah-Wah-Walking In The Moonlight (Thailand)
Best Dance Act (Group, duo)
Jojouka (Japan)
Best Dance Act (Solo)
CC Sound factory (Singapore)
Best Hip Hop Song
Poppin - Kraft & Jeevz (Malaysia)
Best Hip Hop Solo Act
Krishnan (Sri Lanka)
Best Hip Hop Group
Thaitanium (Thailand) & Dice & K9 (Mobbstarr) (Philippines) (TIE)
Best Instrumental
One day on moon - Jang seiyong (Korea)
Best Song To Play At Camp Fire and To Do Away With Monday Morning Blues (for all songs acoustic, folk or mellow)
Movie song - Sandra (Indonesia)
Best College Act
Bunk Face (Malaysia)
Best Guitar "Goreng" Riff
Funk - Phoeny X (Malaysia)
Most Mind Blowing Music Video
Vivek Rajagopalan - Snake in the city (India)
Best Overall Female Vocalist
Armi Millare - Up dharma down (Philippines)
Sunshiny-Feelgood song of the year
Chantek - Altimet (Malaysia)
Moody-melancholic masterpiece
Love is So Strange- Everybody loves Irene (Indonesia)
Genre Bending-Mindboggling-Out of this world Track!
Together again - Shaair and Func (India)
Best Album/EP Cover of The Year
Ports of Lima - Sore (Indonesia)
