URBAN MUSIC AWARDS 08 NOMINATIONS

Estelle, Bashy, Adele, Leona Lewis, Dizzee Rascal, Jay Sean, the Streets, Basement Jaxx, Craig David, Taio Cruz, Duffy & Natasha Beddingfield make list.The music awards ceremony will be held on the 15th of November 2008 at the prestigious IndigO2 (at the O2 ) in London and will be attended by more than 5,000 artists, DJs, producers, promoters, record labels executives, celebrities from the world of music, radio, TV, sports and urban music fans from across the country. True to tradition, the public will rule and stars will rejoice with them.

Taio Cruz grabs four nominations & Booty Luv grab triple nominations this year whilst Leona Lewis, Adele, Bashy, Duffy, Sway and previous UMA winner Dizzee Rascal bag double nominations.

28-year-old, Estelle leads the pack. The Shine singer is up for five awards – Best Album 2008, Best Collaboration, Best Crossover Chart Act, Best R&B Act and Most Inspiring Act 2008.

The Urban Music Awards was born out of the need to build a worldwide and independent awards ceremony to recognize the achievement of 100% British based artists, producers, club nights, dj’s , radio stations, record labels and artist within British urban music scene.

Since its inception in 2003, the Urban Music Awards has set itself apart from other awards ceremony by giving YOU the public full deciding power on who gets nominated and who ends up winning the prestigious awards. The Urban Music Awards has gone on to fly the flag for the British music industry internationally as one of the only awards show to be held in 6 countries annually. 7th of July 2007 saw the launch of the Urban Music Awards USA in New York hoste€d by Foxy Brown & Spragga Benz whilst April 2008 saw the launch of the Caribbean Urban Music Awards in the beautiful island of Jamaica.

In 2007 the UMA’s was syndicated and broadcast on 12 channels across the USA, the Caribbean and Europe as well and reached a total television audience of over 10 million people. Additionally dedicated

UMA’s official website www.urbanmusicawards.net saw a 50% increase year on year to two million unique visitors with total visits on show day increasing by 65% compared to 2006. Over 2.8 million votes were cast from the UK and around the world.

The 2008 awards show sees the UMA collaborating with leading international sports retailer Foot Locker and Sky channel, Flava TV to bring you a brand new reality TV show called Britain’s Next Urban

Superstar which has been airing throughout the summer weekly drawing millions of viewers and thousands of auditionees nationwide. The show is filmed throughout 22 cities nationwide with the UMA judges auditioning thousands of contestant with 18 contestants selected to perform at the semi-finals in London and 10 finalists chosen to enter the UMA Academy with the winner to be announced live at the Urban Music Awards on the 15th of November 2008.

Natasja Jennings, Manager of Media Strategy at Foot Locker is excited to sponsor such a pioneering project, giving support to Urban talent in the UK. “At Foot Locker we are constantly looking to support new and exciting ways to interact and support our consumers. Music is especially a big part of Foot Locker and a great way to express yourself. We are therefore thrilled to be part of the UMA’s and offer our consumers the chance to become Britain’s Next Urban Superstar”

The 6th annual Urban Music Awards is set to become the hottest event in 2008 calendar with some of he UK’s crème de la crème of artists, comedians, musicians and celebrities taking the forefront in support of a truly British institution. The televised show will be broadcast on Flava TV (Sky channel 367) giving viewers an opportunity to watch the full exclusive performances and interviews with winners on and off the stage. A 30 minute highlight feature on the UMA’s will also be syndicated for broadcast to 10 countries by Invincible TV.

CEO & Founder of the UMA’s, Jordan Kensington said “It’s good to see other awards ceremonies, celebrate British urban music at its finest. The UMA’s have fought long and hard internationally from it’s inception to make sure our home-grown artist get all the recognition they deserved because we have always strongly believed in the British music scene which is why we invested millions in creating an outlet that was both credible and respected worldwide and it’s now great to see the achievements of our artists internationally and hope that the new found support from other institutions is long term rather than a quick jump on the bandwagon of what could seem to be a new trend. We are happy to celebrate our 6th anniversary as always by putting together a show that is second to none with a mixture of comedy, fashion, business and most importantly good music under one roof.”

The Urban Music Awards has also been known to use music as a vehicle to pioneer our humanitarian causes which are fundamental to the growth of our community. Our previous partners have included UNICEF, Oxfam, War Child and we are proud to officially launch the UMA Academy in 2008 a media, performing arts, and business academy using celebrities, experienced journalists and entrepreneurs as role models to inspire our young people to one day become successful role models themselves.

UMA 2008 nominees include:

Best Album 2008
Craig David ‘Trust me’
Estelle ‘Shine’
Jay Sean ‘My own way’
Leona Lewis ‘Spirit’
The Streets ‘Everything is borrowed’

Best Collaboration
Cheryl Cole ft Will. I.Am ‘Heartbreaker’
Dizzee Rascal ft Calvin Harris ‘Dance with me’
Estelle ft Kanye West ‘American Boy’
Sway ft Stush ‘F ur Ex’
Taio Cruz ft.Busta Rhymes ‘Like a star’

Best Crossover Chart Act
Booty Luv
Dizzee Rascal ‘Dance with me’
Estelle ‘American Boy’
Taio Cruz ‘Like a Star’
Wiley ‘Wearing my Rolex’

Best Dance Act
Basement Jaxx
Booty Luv
Donaeo
DJ Q and MC Bonez
Wideboys

Best DJ
Big Ted
Mista Jam
Ronnie Herrell
Scottie B
Shortee Blitz

Best Entrepreneur 2008
Jonathan Strickland (Tunetribe.com
Lethal Bizzle (Lethal Bizzle Records)
Levi Roots (Reggae Reggae Sauce)
Mike Skinner (The Streets)
Sam Conniff (Livity)

Best Gospel Act
29th Chapter
Blessed Voice
Freddie Kofi
GK Real
Siani

Best Group
Addictive
Booty Luv
N-Dubz
Roll Dee

Best HipHop Act
Akala
Blak Twang
Kano
Roots Manuva
Sway

Best Independent Label
2NV Records
679 Recordings
Big Dada Recordings
Boy Better Know
Dirtee Stank

Best Jazz Act
Adele
Dennis Rollins
Jamie Callum
Yolanda Brown

Best Neo Soul Act
Adele
Amy Winehouse
Corrine Bailey Rae
Duffy
Vula

Best Newcomer
Chipmunk
DJ Ironik
T2
Taio Cruz
Tinchy Stryder

Best Magazine
D101
Flavour Magazine
HipHop Connection
RWD
Young Voices

Best Music Video
Bashy ‘Black Boys’
DJ Ironik ‘Stay with me’
N-Dubz ‘Ouch’
Skepta ‘Rolex Sweep’
Tinchy Stryder ‘Stryderman’

Best Producer sponsored by Access to Music
Burga Boy
Dexplicit
Fraser T Smith
Mark Ronson
T2

Best R&B Act
Craig David
Estelle
Jay Sean
Leona Lewis
Taio Cruz

Best Radio Station sponsored by Amarula
BBC 1Xtra
Capital FM
Choice FM
Galaxy fm
Kiss fm

and more nominees. Vote for all your favourites by clicking the Vote Now button on the UK section.

To get your hands on VIP or Balcony tickets. Please, e-mail: charlie@urbanmusicawards.net