Kezia
Gill snags the prestigious Entertainer of the Year award again
Jade
Helliwell’s “Heroes & Heroines” crowned UK Single of the Year
“The awards highlighted
the best and brightest in the world of country music”
Winners were announced at the British
Country Music Association Awards Night on 12th January 2025 at The Cavern
Club, Liverpool (Cavern Club, 10 Mathew Street, Liverpool L2 6RE)
The BCMA Awards included a BCMA
Showcase (from 13:00) with acts appearing included: Dan Smalley, Wood Burnt Red
, Mim Grey, Emilia Quinn Music, Taff Rapids, The Bondurants, Tom Gibson, Nick
Edwards, Tom Hodge, Jo-Anne Lifford, Katie Rigby and Mr Paul Adams.
British Country Music Association
Awards 2024 Nominations & Winners
2024 Eligible Period 30 June 2023 -
1 July 2024
On July 9th, 2024, the nomination process
for the BCMA Awards was open to everyone allowing anyone to nominate their favourite
artists, albums, singles, and more, ensuring a diverse and inclusive
selection process via an online survey.
Member Voting Started 1 September
2024
Nominations announced September 15,
2024
The British Country Music
Association (BCMA) announced their nominations for the 2024 awards in
mid-September highlighting: “a blend of seasoned performers and
emerging artists, reflecting the genre’s rich diversity and talent”
BCMA shared “Thanks to all the
wonderful artists, industry members, sponsors and more importantly fans of
British Country Music for making this awards so special”!
WINNERS IN BOLD
ALBUM/ EP Of The Year
Emma Jane – GROW ** Winner **
Kezia Gill - MISFIT
Emilia Quinn - Wanderlust &
Breaking Rules
Megan Lee - ORIGIN
Jack Browning - Red Eye Radio
Single Of The Year
Matt Hodges - "The Truths
Behind Your Eyes"
Jade Helliwell – “Heroes &
Heroines” **
Winner **
Jake O'Neill - "Leave This
Town"
Emma Jane - "Beautiful
Chaos"
Katie Rigby - "Past Life
Cowgirl"
Male Artist Of
The Year
Matt Hodges, Jake O'Neill, Luke
Flear ** Winner **, Chris Andreucci,
Gary Quinn
Female Artist Of
The Year
Katie Rigby, Jade Helliwell, Emilia
Quinn, Kezia Gill ** Winner **,
Harleymoon Kemp
Group
Of The
Year
Wood Burnt Red, Wandering Hearts,
Laketown, Morganway ** Winner **, First
Time Flyers
Duo/ Trio Of
The Year
Gasoline & Matches, Remember
Monday ** Winner **, True Foxes, Two
Ways Home, Eric & Jenson
Entertainer Of
The Year
Jade Helliwell, Jake O'Neill,
Emilia Quinn, Laketown, Kezia Gill ** Winner **
Musician Of
The Year
Luke Thomas ** Winner **, Tyler Spicer,
Stephen Marks, Michael Clancy, Drew Palmer
Independent Radio Of
The Year
Countryline ** Winner **, UKCountryRadio.com,
Wizard, Absolute Country, Express FM
Radio Presenter Of
The Year
Hannah Roper, Harry Colley,
Madeleine Molly, Mark Dare, Matt Clewes **
Winner **
Photographer Of
The Year
Charlotte Lehman, Tamography, DC
Brown, Little Ninja, John Kennett
Festival Of
The Year
Blackdeer, Buckle & Boots
** Winner **, The Long Road, West
Country Music Festival, Country On The Coast
International Single Of The Year
Jessica Lynn "Never Said It'd
Be Easy"
Jeremy McComb "Granite
Stone"
Post Malone Ft. Morgan Wallen
"I Had Some Help"
Chris Stapleton "White
Horse"
Ella Langley ft. Riley Green
"You Look Like You Love Me"
** Winner **
International Album / EP Of
The Year
Ashley McBryde - THE DEVIL I KNOW
Luke Combs - FATHER & SONS
Dan Smalley - STATE OF COUNTRY
MUSIC
Maggie Baugh - DEAR ME
Carly Pearce – HUMMINGBIRD ** Winner **
Kezia Gill was again crowned as Entertainer
of the Year and Female Artist Of The Year and solidified
her status as the leading figure in UK country music as a solo artist. She is
the most played British Country act on the Bob Harris Country Show (who are big
fans of her) and she will appear on the Spotlight Stage in London at this
year’s C2C Festival.
Her management zimagined posted “We
are so proud of Kezia Gill for her two wins last night at the BCMA
awards. She took home "Best Female" and "Entertainer of The Year" 💚💚🏆🏆🙌🙌
On Instagram
Kezia shared with her fans: “I have been so honoured to
have won awards for the past 4 years, and with so much exciting talent emerging
on the UK Country scene, I truly thought my luck had run out….I am both shocked and grateful to
have retained my Best Female and Best Entertainer titles last night at the
British CMA Awards. It really does mean the world to me and I want to say a
huge thank you to the BCMA, to all that voted for me and to all you amazing
folks that continue to support me in my musical adventures. 💕 I’m super excited to be making my Americana Awards debut next week!!!
Not only am I nominated for ‘Live Act of the Year’, but I’ll be performing as
part of the incredible line up at the awards event at Hackney Church on the
23rd January.
Having been nominated last year for
ALBUM OF THE YEAR with LOOKS COUNTRY TO ME (released Aug 12, 2022) Male Artist Of The Year and Entertainer
Of The Year this year Luke Flear landed
the Male Artist award.
The Country/Rock Artist, Singer-Songwriter and Multi-Instrumentalist is known for his rich, raspy vocals and roaring guitar solos. Born in Leeds, Luke has performed across Europe and the US since the age of 15 and made his move into the Country Music Scene during the summer of 2022.
In 2024, Luke supported
Drake Milligan on his sold out UK tour, and made his debut at Nashville’s
Bluebird Cafe, C2C in London’s 02 Arena, Black Deer Festival in Kent and more.
His classic showmanship style has earned him spots on line ups alongside Sheryl
Crow, Brad Paisley, Joe Bonamassa and more. He has 297 Monthly Listeners
on Spotify and with 16.2K streams Looks Country To Me is his most popular
track.
On
Instagram he shared: “Wow.
I’m lost for words. I’m so humbled to have received “Male Artist Of The Year”
last night at the British Country Music Awards. All I can say is a huge thank
you to everyone who has supported me over these years, to be acknowledged like
this means so much to me. Thank you❤️
In
October 2023, Luke was named UK Male Country Singer Of The Year at The UK Country
Music Awards and also won Song Award for “Looks Country To Me” in the UKCountryRadio.com
sponsored awards,.
Morganway
were Fan-voted BCMA’s Group of The Year for the third year
running and took home the award once again. Morganway
released their second album ‘Back To Zero’ (tagged ROCK) in May 5, 2023 to
widespread acclaim and they have a new album BACK TO ZERO (tagged Americana)
dropping on January 31, 2025. Americana UK calling them a “band to watch”.
Remember Monday (Charlotte Steele, Holly-Ann Hull and Lauren Byrne) took home the
award for Best Duo or Trio trophy.
They are perhaps best known for appearing on The Voice UK 2019 when all four coaches (Olly Murs, will.i.am, Jennifer Hudson and Sir Tom Jones) turned for them and Jennifer Hudson even threw her shoe on-stage in strange tribute.
Last year they self-released a contemporary/ country song “what the
girls bathroom is for” (writers Charlotte Steele, Holly-Anne Hull, Kaity Rae,
Lauren Byrne) which debuted at #17 on the UK iTunes Country Singles Chart and
it has been streamed over 429K times on Spotify.
On October 25, 2024 the harmonious group dropped a 5 track EP Crazy
Anyway described as “Bright country pop meets biting lyricism and tight
harmonies on a polished EP”. It debuted at #30 on the UK iTunes Country
Album Chart.
Luke Thomas retained the Best Musician award which he has won multiple times since
2018. In early June 2024 he married the multi-award winning Jade Helliwell.
Jade Helliwell’s
“Heroes & Heroines” took home the UK Single of the Year.
She shared: “So pleased to have won the UK Song Of The Year award at the BCMA
British Country Music Association last night for Heroes & Heroines🌟Thanks so much to everybody who nominated & voted for the song. I’m
super proud of this one and it means the world that you guys love it. Shout out
to my Co writer Jess Thristan & producer Alyssa Bonagura for creating this
with me”.
The song, written by Jade Helliwell, Jessica Thristan produced by Alyssa
Bonagura was released on October 6, 2023
and has received 11.4K Streams on Spotify.
Produced by honourary Brit and ever-growing star in her own right Alyssa
Bonagura, this single plays to Jade's greater strengths with a stirring
bombastic chorus while keeping it restrained enough to not to go overboard
wrote Chris Farlie (W21 Music)
Emma Jane
with her 12 track Americana album GROW won BCMA Album of the
Year 2024!
It was released on 9 January 2024 and may have escaped the notice of
most UK country fans but with the album’s “exploration of personal growth
and resilience” has struck a chord with the BCMA members.
Her track "Beautiful Chaos" (Stream) was also nominated
for Single of the Year although none of
the tracks have reached 1000 streams in a calendar year on Spotify where she
has 40 Monthly Listeners on the platform.
Country Music Social Media roster artiste Emma Jane wrote her first song
at 7 years old and has continued to do this throughout her life. As an
independent artist Emma Jane has released multiple albums, E.P’s and single
some being nominated or winning awards.
The Festival of the Year trophy was again retained by Buckle & Boots Country
Festival. Artist and festival co-organiser Gary Quinn said “Big congrats to
everyone that took an award home at the @britishcma awards last night. So good
to catch up with everyone. Thrilled to pick up ‘Festival’ of the year award
🏆.
Once Chris Country, now CountryLine Radio
(“the UK radio station that’s obsessed with country music)”, landed the award
for Best Independent Radio Station.
Countrylineradio Amazing start to the year! We won! @britishcma The UKs
country station #countrylineradio
In their newsletter presenter John Collins CountryLine shared: “Well this has been a busy week! Sunday saw me hit the motorway to the historic Cavern Club in Liverpool for this year’s British Country Music Association Awards. It was great to be in the midst of so many artists I knew from Tim Prottey-Jones’ “Homegrown” and finally put names to faces. Many congratulations to all the nominees and winners. And, yes, CountryLine Radio won the prize for “Radio Station of the Year” so we had to celebrate into the small hours…”
Matt Clews
won the award for Best Radio Presenter for his show Clewes’ Country UK.
He shared “Still not over Sunday night and let’s be honest I probably
won’t be for a little while yet 🤠When I say I didn’t know what to say, I quite literally didn’t so panicked and
you can tell 👀
Matt has been on Voice FM since 2015 and has fronted other shows
on the station including Breakfast, Drive and Voice Anthems.
Matt’s love of country stems from a love of the USA, cowboy hats and fried
chicken (chicken fried). Airing every Monday night from 9pm – 11pm /
Sunday’ 12:00-13:00 | SHOWPAGE). You
can find Matt’s archive of shows on Mixcloud
West Yorkshire based photographer Tamography won
Best Photographer, specialising in portrait and music photography.
She shared “What
an amazing evening was had at britishcma awards evening! Coming away
with photographer of the year for the second year running! Huge shout out to
the UK Country Music scene! Massive thank you to everyone that voted. And an
even bigger thank you to my clients from the past year you make my job so much
fun I can’t thank any of you enough for investing in me and my business time
and time again! It blows my mind the amount of opportunities I’ve had and I’m
truly grateful!
Katie Rigby
was granted a Horizon Award which was not included in the original
nomination categories.
This award year she was nominated for two BCMA (British Country Music Association) awards - UK Best Female and UK Song.
On Instagram she shared: THANK
YOU SO MUCH! to anyone who has believed in me, supported me, shared my music,
cared enough to listen and enjoy it. This is all I’ve ever wanted to do and to
be recognised for my hard work and embraced by the uk country music family
feels pretty amazing. last night I won the British CMA horizon artist award and
played at the cavern club????? what felt so out of reach just a few years ago
happened and I am so excited and motivated to continue making art that connects
me to people!!! Last year I attended the awards not knowing anyone and last
night I saw a sea of people I consider family. Thank you for embracing me.
There is so much talent in the UK I’m so proud to be apart of it and anyone
who’s grinding and chasing the dream I hope I can be an example that you should
just keep going, always be kind and show up!
Big shout out to my husband jack, your support and belief in me spurs me
on everyday especially the tough ones ❤️
Watch her BCMA interview with 65.country HERE.
Rigby has garnered “significant traction” this last year and now
stands up “amongst household names” in the UK country scene.
Katie, a captivating up and
coming artist hailing from Manchester the Buckle and Boots sponsored artist describes her sound as 'cosmic
kinda country,' Katie's music is a blend of soulful- ear worm melodies and
heartfelt lyrics that transport listeners to another realm. Inspired by the
likes of Kacey Musgraves and Lainey Wilson, Katie’s bringing a sprinkle of
country to the UK pop scene resonating with audiences across the nation.
Her single, 'Past Life
Cowgirl' (released 26 Jan 2024; written by
Katie-Jayne Rigby, Rhys Jiang) struck a chord with audiences, amassing over 200K
views on TikTok, 88K streams on Spotify and “firmly
establish her authentic sound”. She has amassed 1,735 Monthly Listeners on Spotify.
Co-written with Brock Butler
(Heart Wreckers) at Tim McGraw’s publishing house in Nashville, her brand new
single ‘Kiss My Accent’ (released January 17, 2025) is set to be
the sister track of the heavily successful, ‘past life cowgirl’.
‘Kiss My Accent’ delves
deeper into Rigby’s perspective on being a UK country artist. Complete with her
signature sound, Rigby combines playful lyrics and a sprinkle of classic
British sarcasm with a brain itching melody that will appeal to fans of all
genres. The track is already garnering a positive response as Rigby teases the
new sound on her social media platforms.
“The song highlights an experience I had in a bar in Nashville where a Manchester accent stands out like a sore thumb. They had no pink gin and someone offered to buy me a drink, but they were a little…creepy. When Brock suggested the title, ‘Kiss My Accent’ I went straight back to that night – and all the other nights I’ve seen my friends in a million times – and thought of what I’d say in an exaggerated scenario. It’s a playful song with some British humour and a lot of fun. Think, Carrie Underwood’s ‘Before He Cheats’ meets Lainey Wilson’s ‘Country’s Cool Again ’.” - britishcma.co.uk
Influenced sonically by artists
like Kelsea Ballerini and Lainey Wilson – the backing vocals are just as catchy
as the track itself – and instrumentally influenced by the likes of Hailey
Whitters and Megan Moroney, the track is sarcastic, playful and fun. Rigby taps
into the UK country perspective like no one else, maintaining her authenticity
whilst still dreaming of that Nashville skyline.
New for 2025, a brand-new
Spotify Playlist "BCMA Artists and Airwaves", featuring the
very best of British Country and some friends from overseas has been compiled. Got
a song you want featured? Let the BCMA know! Listen HERE
ABOUT the British Country Music Association
Their Mission
- Nurture up and coming UK singer-songwriters
and support our BCMA member artists
- Fund Showcases for BCMA Artists
around the UK.
- Present BCMA events every year,
giving all Artists the experience of performing on the Main stage.
- Present the BCMA Awards every
year showcasing and rewarding the very best in UK Country music.
- Grow Country Music in the UK and
beyond because we believe we have music that deserves to be heard.
Join Us: “Join now as a member
of the BCMA and receive great discounts at all BCMA affiliated shows and
festivals, vote for your favourite artists in the BCMA Awards and see the
latest news, events and everything Country here in the Great British Isles”.
CONNECT with British Country Music Association (BCMA):
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