The Hawaii Music Awards are a yearly contest held at the beginning of the year that recognizes artists and musicians living in Hawaii, Hawaiian and Polynesian musicians living anywhere in the world, and international artists who perform Hawaiian or Polynesian-style music. These artists are eligible to compete if they have released commercially-available music of any style the previous calendar year. Winners are determined by online voting from a public audience around the world. Anyone with an internet connection may cast a vote.

Artists: Register today for the 2009 Hawaii Music Awards!

The Board of Governors are seeking nominations for six seats on the board. The deadline for nominations is September 30, 2008, and individuals elected will serve a two year term, through Fall 2010. Membership on the Board of Governors requires regular attendance at the monthly Board meetings. In addition, board members must be willing to meet the following expectations:

• Take the leadership of one or more committees.
• Serve on at least three committees.
• Solicit contributions in fundraising campaigns to support HARA and its programs and activities.
• Participate in formulating long and short–term objectives and goals.
• Actively participate in the activities of HARA.
• Ensure that all HARA actions, activities, and programs are fair to the members the Board serves, and that no group or individual member is given preference.

If you are interested, please submit your name by calling the HARA office at phone (808) 593-9424 or by email: info (at) nahokuhanohano.org.

The Beamer ‘ohana invites everyone to a lū‘au honoring Winona Kapuailohia Beamer. Come and share in celebrating the life of one of Hawai’i’s Treasures, who touched and impacted the lives of many people throughout the world through music, dance, and the sharing of Hawaiian values. Please visit Keola Beamer’s website for details.

Robert Cazimero shares stories with PLeslie Wilcox on Tuesday evening, April 29, at 7:30 on PBS Hawaii’s LONG STORY SHORT. It’ll be Part 1 of a two-part conversation. The second part airs at 7:30 p.m. the following Tuesday, May 5.

At 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 6, Robert and his all-male hālau are the subject of an excellent national documentary on INDEPENDENT LENS, carried by BS Hawai‘i, about their 2005 return to the Merrie Monarch hula festival in Hilo. The documentary is “Na Kamalei: Men of Hula.”

The voting both will close for the 2008 Hawai‘i Music Awards on February 4 (next Monday). Remember, you can vote once a day per email address, so show your support for your favorite acts.

The ballot box is open at the Hawai‘i Music Awards website, and will remain open until February 4, 2008. I only found about 12 categories to vote in out of the plethora there. The most difficult to chose was in the Traditional Hawaiian category – several deserving releases were there. Let the ballot stuffing, er, voting begin!

P.S. “The Best New Artist Of The Year” poll for the Hawai‘i Music Awards is being conducted on the Aloha Joe website.

Johnny Kai sends a reminder to artists and labels to submit your CDs recorded in 2007 in the 11th Annual Hawai‘i Music Awards. They will be showcasing and interviewing nominees and promoting their CDs on Brown Bags To Stardom every week. Don’t forget to send in 3 CDs to validate your entry.

Check here for results.

Voting for the Hawai‘i Music Awards ends at 12 midnight on February 12, so if you haven’t cast your vote yet, please do. I’d like to ask your consideration for two releases that I had a hand in, Kenneth Makuakāne’s release “Makuakāne” (in the “Traditional Hawaiian” category) and Keali‘i Reichel’s “Maluhia” (in the “Seasonal” category). There are many worthy releases in many categories, so I’m sure you won’t have problem finding a lot of releases to cast your ballot for.

Johnny Kai would like your opinion on the following question: Would you like to see the voting stats in all the categories (for the Hawai‘i Music Awards) up on the website during the voting? His email address is on the page so you can relay your thoughts on the matter to him. I’m not in favor of it, myself. I like to be suprised, sometimes

Online voting for the Hawai‘i Music Awards began late last night after a few technical glitches were worked out. Remember, all fans of Hawaiian and Hawai‘i-released music can vote, so get out there and support your favorites. Just click on the “Hawai‘i Music Awards” graphic at the top of the right hand column on this page. Of course, I would be grateful if you’d consider voting for Makuakāne in the Traditional Hawaiian category. Kenneth’s release was mistakenly placed in the Contemporary Hawaiian category when the HMA site first went online, and JKai quickly fixed it.

The 10th Annual Hawaii Music Awards – People’s Choice voting will start on Monday, January 15 in the late evening and will run through February 12th. Log onto www.hawaiimusicawards.com to vote. Anyone in the world with Internet access can vote. Commercials promoting the Hawaii Music Awards voting can be seen tonight (Sunday ) on OC16 at 7pm, during the new Brown Bags To Stardom show. There are two 30 second commercials featuring the covers of the cds and DVDs submitted.

The Hawai‘i Music Awards website carries the announcement that HMA voting will begin on January 15, and that JKai will be starting a blog soon as well. Looking forward to it.

Just a reminder registration from JKai for the 10th Annual Hawaii Music Awards – the People’s Choice Awards is now accepting entries. Go to: www.hawaiimusicawards.com and click on “ENTER” to submit your CD for 2006.

JKai at the Hawai‘i Music Awards is definitely on the ball. I just pointed to the awards site this past Sunday, and just got an email that announced the availability of a entry form for the 2007 awards. Please read the Eligibility Rules and Requirements. Eligible releases must be released during the calendar year now, which brings it in line with the Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards.

Deadline for registration is November 30, 2006, so there is no rush, but if your release is already out, why wait?

The Honolulu Advertiser has a list of the winners of the 2006 Hawai‘i Music Awards, though the HMA website says they won’t be announced until tomorrow. Regardless, congratulations to the winners.

This is a reminder that the online voting for the Hawaii Music Awards ends on Sunday, February 12th. The winners will be posted on February 15th. All are invited to participate in the week long events. On Saturday, March 18th, Hilton Hawaiian Village Tropics Showroom is where the winners banquet will be held. Check the website for details.

DoctorTrey.com is another blog and podcast that covers the Hawai‘i music scene, albeit from a slighly different angle than I do here on Nahenahe.net. Their most recent podcast features an interview with Johnny Kai regarding the Hawai‘i Music Awards and the Hawai‘i recording industry.

Voting for the 9th Annual Hawai‘i Music Awards will begin tomorrow, January 16, 2005.