YYC Music Awards celebrates the best in Calgary’s music community

By Thomas Johnson, September 22 2018 —

“I think it’s a very exciting time for Calgary right now,” says YYC Music Awards public relations and media director Shannon Ambrose. “We’ve got some very unique performances planned for this year’s awards.”

The YYC Music Awards will celebrate the best of Calgary’s music community this Sunday, Sept. 23 at the Palace Theatre. The third-annual awards show shines a spotlight on a scene that continues to develop year after year.

“There is a little bit more electricity in the air because Calgary’s music scene is growing. There might be some — I don’t want to say negative, but unfortunate things — making the news, such as venues closing,” Ambrose says. “But it seems when those types of things happen, the community as a whole rallies. Like anything, when something unfortunate happens, we rally together.”

Changes from last year’s awards include splitting the Recording and Artistic/Industry award into two separate categories, as well as the introduction of two new genre categories: Urban/EDM and World Music.

“Every single year we see artists we are not familiar with. That’s extremely encouraging, showing the growth and versatility in our scene,” Ambrose says. “There’s always someone new coming along and the talent is phenomenal.”

I Am The Mountain leads the pack with four total nominations, including Alternative Recording Of The Year, Group of the Year, Music Video of the Year and Songwriter of the Year.

A full list of categories and nominees can be found at yycmusicawards.com/categories/.