The Awit Awards are music awards in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

given annually by the Philippine Association of the Record Industry (PARI) to recognize the outstanding achievements in the

music industry The music industry are individuals and organizations that earn money by Songwriter, writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music and sheet music, presenting live music, concerts, ...

. The word "Awit" means "song" literally in Filipino. The first awards were given in 1969 at a ceremony in

Makati Makati ( ; ), officially the City of Makati (), is a highly urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines, known for being one of the leading financial centers in the country. As of 2013, the city has the highest concent ...

. After three awards ceremonies were held, the Awit Awards were discontinued in 1972. In 1988, PARI brought back the awards and today, the organization still handles these awards.

History

The idea for Awit Awards was conceived by Oskar "Oskee" Salazar, the

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correspondent for the Philippines at that time, in late 1968. The first awards ceremony was held on March 23, 1969, that took place in

. It was organized by the Awit Awards Executive Committee, which composed of representatives from different record companies, with Salazar as their chairman. Winners were voted by a jury composed of 15 people which were selected by the Awit Awards Executive Committee. The jurors were chosen by their jobs in the music industry such as a record retailer,

jukebox A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that plays a user-selected song from a self-contained media library. Traditional jukeboxes contain records, compact discs, or digital files, and allow user ...

operator, entertainment/music writer or a radio station program director. Days before the second awards, they decided to create a formal academy called the Philippine Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (PARAS), replacing the Awit Awards Executive Committee. The academy was headed by Danny Villanueva, the outgoing president of the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS), as the chairman alongside Salazar as the co-chairman. It was composed of 75 members. The second awards was held in July 1970 while the third happened in June 1971. These two ceremonies were administered by the academy. From 1972 until 1987, no Awit Awards ceremonies were held. In 1988, the Philippine Association of the Record Industry resurrected the Awit Awards. Instead of following the previous numbering pattern, they decided to call the 1988 awards as the 1st Awit Awards. This pattern continued until now.

Nomination process

Any recording company which is a member of the PARI can submit entries for Awit Awards. A non-member recording company can qualify if it has a business arrangement with a PARI member such as licensing, distributing and marketing. The entries that could be submitted are based on the eligibility period when the music was released. The eligibility period is always from January 1 to December 31 of the previous year. Nominations may only be awarded to any person with Filipino heritage, resident or non-resident of the Philippines. Foreigners must show documents certifying their Filipino heritage. All entries would be then screened by judges. The jury comprises radio personnel, entertainment journalists, television personalities, composers, brand/marketing professionals and musicians. For the technical achievement categories, judges could either be a sound/vocal/musical engineer, television commercial producer, film director or someone from the media. The judges would vote on all entries and the five highest scoring entries would become the nominees for each category. A category could have more than 5 nominees if there's a tie. Nominees in each category would go through another voting round with the highest scoring finalists would be then declare as the winners in the awards night. Currently, the ballots are audited by the Isla Lipana & Co., a Philippine member firm of the

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Ceremonies

Presented by the ''Awit Awards Executive Committee'' and the ''Philippine Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences'' Presented by the '' Philippine Association of the Record Industry''

References

External links

Official Website of the Awit Awards
{{Music of the Philippines Philippine music awards Awards established in 1969 1969 establishments in the Philippines Award ceremonies in the Philippines

History

Nomination process

Ceremonies

Categories

Performance Awards

Creativity Awards

Technical Achievement Awards

Digital Awards

People's Choice Awards

Special Awards

See also

References

External links