20 MAY 2024: CUBADISCO WINNERS ANNOUNCED AT GALA IN HAVANA

The Cubadisco 2024 Awards Gala was held at the Teatro Marti in Havana, Cuba on May 15, 2024.  The Grand Prize was awarded to a classical music recording, Beethoven, Conciertos para piano, by pianist Frank Fernández and the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Cuba on the Colibrí label;  Omara Portuondo was awarded a special prize, Premio a la obra de toda la vida, a lifetime acheivement award.  The invited country of honor this year was Colombia, and five Colombian recordings received international prizes in recognition of that. 
Not counting the international prizes and certain special awards, 46 Cubadiscos were awarded to specific albums.  Not counting coproductions, EGREM and Bis tied with the most awards at 9 each; Colibrí took home 8, Abdala one. Four albums with coproductions between major labels and other entities; five were sponsored by cultural centers or institutions such as CNMP or AHS.  One of the most unusual coproductions to this observer's eye was the Hip-Hop winner Coge el hilo by Adverzario & La Eimi,a coproduction between Colibrí and ACRAP, a Cuban rap agency.  
Alexander Abreu y Havana d'Primera won Musica Bailable Actual and Diseño de Sonido Controlado with Pueblo Griffo (Pafata Records). 
I am still listening to this year's output, but two albums that have already caught my attention are Tony Avila's Universos (Bis), which won Nueva Trova and Notas Discográficas, and Toques del Río's No me formes crisis (EGREM),  which won Fusión Alternativa.  
You can download the complete winners booklet here
You can download the complete program schedule here
(Thanks to the Cubadisco Periodicals Department). 
Two recommended primary resources for video are the Evento Cubadisco Facebook Page and the CREART YouTube channel

28 APRIL 2024: CUBADISCO NOMINATIONS RELEASED

At a gala in Havana, Cuba, on Friday, April 26, the nominees for Cubadisco 2024 were announced. Thanks to the editorial team at Cubadisco, you can download the official nominees booklet in .pdf format HERE.
Note that the website mentioned at the top of that booklet is still underconstruction at press time.  
Not counting the special prizes, 134 nominations were announced.  I will do more analysis in the coming months of things that look new and/or interesting, but a couple of things caught my attention immediately:
1.  The traditional "Big 3 " labels - EGREM, BIS, and Colibrí - only account for 85 of the nominations (not counting coproductions of multiple labels including one surprising foray into the world of rap by Colibrí which to the untrained eye might evoke an image of Deutsche Grammophon signing Public Enemy.)  
2. Notwithstanding my previous remark about Colibrí, they brought home the second-largest number of nominations (not counting coproductions) with Bis at 35, Colibrí at 28, EGREM at 22 and Abdala at 5. This was a relatively fruitful year for academic and concert music. 
3. Several of the independent producers are new names in Cubadisco, and we are starting to see an uptick in involvment by the various Centros in album productions. 

More in the near future.

7 November 2023:  Cubadisco 2024 (May 11-19 2024)  is convoked 
(Source: Cubadisco Facebook page) 

CUBADISCO AWARDS 2024

Announcement

The Cuban Institute of Music and the Cubadisco Academic Committee convene the Cubadisco 2024 awards..

Bases.

Phonographic or audiovisual musical productions published by Cuban record companies, by Cuban and foreign institutions related to the musical work of our country, and independent phonographic or audiovisual musical productions may participate, as long as they are endorsed by an institution linked to our cultural field. Independent is understood to be a work that has been produced without the sponsorship of a record label or institution linked to our cultural field.

The registered productions must have been edited between January 1 and December 31, 2023. Exceptionally, some production will be admitted that, having been made in previous years (never before 2017), has not been able to be edited previously. It cannot have been submitted in whole or in part to any previous edition of this event.

The Cubadisco Award will consider the quality of the productions that are submitted to the contest, and not the work, career or relevance within music and national culture, nor any other virtues of the artists whose works are contained in such productions, including its popularity and the sales levels of the productions presented.

The deadline for registration of works expires on December 31, 2023.

The registration of the works in the contest will take place on the dates agreed upon by the Awards Committee and the Executive Group, at the Cubadisco Award offices:

E Street no. 356, between 15 and 17, Vedado, Plaza de la Revolución, Havana, Cuba. CP 10400.

Telephone: (537) 7837 5722. Email: cubadisco@icm.cu and cubadisco.cac@gmail.com

There will also be a Cubadisco Computer Platform where the works and all the necessary information must be entered. Through it, voting members will cast their vote to define nominations and awards through the corresponding voting form. The institutions that present the works must enter them into said platform, while the Award Committee will be in charge of certifying them for their participation and, consequently, officially validating them in the contest. In territories and contexts where there is no possibility of voting digitally, the conditions for direct voting will be created.

For the purposes of registration, the work must be delivered in digital format (mp3, in the case of music, mp4 in the case of audiovisuals, jpg for graphic design and photography and pdf for text files) with all the necessary data that complement the production: designs, record notes, track lists, fundamental credits, etc. Everything will have to be accompanied by the official digital template designed for these purposes. This cannot be replaced by any other type of information.

The institutions that present works in the competition will be responsible for the registration of their productions before the competition and for the artists they represent. Once registered, the works cannot be withdrawn from the competition under any circumstances.

The representatives of the record companies and institutions that register the works will propose in the registration forms the area(s) and categories in which each production may compete. In consultation with them, the members of the Advisory Group of the Awards Committee designated for this purpose will proceed to its final placement in the corresponding category. Any claim or disagreement with the classification by artists and/or producers of the works must be aired with the institution that represents them.

The nomination and award process will be carried out by the voting members in each area and category, and supervised by the Advisory Group.

The nominated works will be announced publicly at a press conference convened solely for that purpose in the first week of April. The awards will be held in a ceremony organized for this purpose within the calendar of the Cubadisco 2024 International Fair, which will be held between May 11 and 19.

The institution that enters the production in the contest must certify the editorial rights they have over each work, so that:

In the event that the work is awarded, it may issue the release of a song selected for the purposes of the edition, for a compilation album with the award-winning albums upon completion of the Awards delivery process,

In the case of audiovisual works, it is clear which works may be used in the multiplicity of television media that accompany the event at the national level, and their presence on the digital platforms that the event has for its promotion and propaganda.

In each category, a Prize will be awarded, which will be indivisible.

The Awards Committee together with its advisory group will be in charge of selecting and awarding the Special Awards.

When the opinion of any actor involved in the production or execution of works in competition publicly calls into question the honesty of the event and or threatens the dignity and morality of any of its members or entities, the Awards Committee reserves the right to take appropriate measures. The official way to interact with the Organizing Committee or the Awards Committee will be through the email cubadisco@icm.cu and cubadisco.cac@gmail.com

Registration in the contest implies acceptance of its rules.

The Nominations and Awards granted will be unappealable.

Areas

The categories to be awarded in the contest will be grouped in the following areas:

AREA 1. HERITAGE

AREA 2. ACADEMIC

AREA 3. JAZZ and INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

AREA 4. SONG

AREA 5. FUSION

AREA 6. CURRENT DANCE MUSIC

AREA 7. URBAN MUSIC

AREA 8. ELECTRONICA AND ELECTROACOUSTICA

AREA 9. AUDIOVISUALS

AREA 10. SPECIALTIES

International award

It will be awarded to phonograms by foreign authors and performers that creatively reflect the most authentic musical values and the commitment to the defense and promotion of cultural diversity, in correspondence with the aesthetic assumptions advocated by Cubadisco. The proposals for this award will be made by Cuban and foreign artists and experts linked to the recording industry of our country and the history of this contest.

Collateral awards

The Cubadisco International Fair offers its space so that various Institutions not directly linked to them, but related to the Cuban cultural, communication and social organization systems can present their own awards to the nominated works, always with the appropriate foundation and approval. of the Organizing Committee.

Audience Award

The Cubadisco 2024 Prize Committee will facilitate the reach of the nominated works to the general public, and will also establish various ways of popular voting so that the public can decide the award for the recording work of their preference. This award will also be announced in the ceremony organized for this purpose within the calendar of the Cubadisco 2024 International Fair, which will be held between May 11 and 19.

Note: Once the process of reception and admission of the works is completed, the Awards Committee, together with the Executive Group (record companies and institutions that support the competition), will finish adjusting the categorization, taking into account the quantity and characteristics of the productions presented at the contest.

#CubanInstitutoDeLaMúsica #CubadiscoEvent

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