The Brag Media has confirmed it will hold its first-ever Rolling Stone New Zealand Awards. The event will take place at Glasshouse in Auckland on Wednesday, August 31 as a celebration of Aotearoa music, and follows the Australian expansion of the iconic music and pop culture masthead which launched locally in March.
The founding headline sponsor of the Rolling Stone New Zealand Awards is craft brewery Panhead Custom Ales, with supporting sponsors SAE and Canna also confirmed. The Awards are invitation-only for a night of live music, drinks and celebration of Kiwi music.
Acknowledging New Zealand’s musicians, the Panhead Rolling Stone New Zealand Awards will pay tribute to the year that was in music, honouring artists across five categories including Best Record, Best Single, Best New Artist and the Rolling Stone Global Award.
Rolling Stone Australia/NZ is also giving its magazine subscribers the power to determine an award winner too, with the first Rolling Stone Readers’ Award. Rolling Stone Australia/NZ subscribers can cast their vote for their favourite Kiwi artist or group by voting here. Readers who vote will also be given the chance to attend the awards ceremony in August.
Nominations in the inaugural Panhead Rolling Stone New Zealand Awards open May 16th and close Friday, June 17th via The Brag Media-owned The Industry Observer.
The awards are open to New Zealand artists or groups that have released works during the eligibility period of April 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022. The nominees will be announced on Friday, June 24.
Poppy Reid
The Brag Media’s editor in chief, Poppy Reid, told Mediaweek that even though Rolling Stone NZ is new to the market, it’s made a major impact.
“[The Brag Media CEO] Luke Girgis and I went over earlier this month, and we met with a bunch of music industry people and ad agencies – they were quite elated.
“In the same way the Australian media industry was really crippled by Covid, so was the New Zealand sector. They lost a lot of publications. They do have some really incredible music blogs there, but nothing with the iconic strength of Rolling Stone in that territory.”
Speaking about the strength of the New Zealand music scene, Reid said that the up and coming talent pool is full of brilliant artists.
“It’s very diverse, as Australia is as well. They’ve got some pretty incredible artists coming out of there – we all know Lorde, but I feel like there are a few potential Lordes happening over there. There’s just so much incredible talent.
“We’re doing a big feature in the next magazine called The Eight Kiwi Artists to Watch, and that’s a multi page feature dedicated to artists that are just coming up that we think could be the next Lorde or the next Benee.
“We’re talking to a bunch of these artists too, because we have our awards coming up and we want some of them to perform. There are just so many to choose from.”
This year Rolling Stone Australia expanded to New Zealand and last year launched the Rolling Stone Australia Awards, and, according to Roy Morgan data on the national Australian magazine market, Rolling Stone Australia reached 191,000 readers in the six months to December 31 2021, ahead of staple Australian mastheads Golf Digest, Family Circle and Who.
Among the winners at the second Rolling Stone Australia Awards in March this year were Amy Shark, Genesis Owusu, The Kid LAROI and King Stingray.
See Also: Genesis Owusu, Amy Shark, and The Kid LAROI win big at the Sailor Jerry Rolling Stone Awards
The next issue of Rolling Stone Australia/NZ arrives on newsstands on June 13 with RÜFÜS DU SOL on the cover and interviews with 5 Seconds of Summer, Jack White, Drag Race favourites, plus features on polyamory in NZ, the new internet, eight Kiwi acts primed for stardom, and a peek inside the secretive world of private gigs with hefty price tags.
RÜFÜS DU SOL on the June cover of Rolling Stone