Welcome to the official website of the Native American Music Awards, NAMA, or home of “The Nammys” - an ultimate celebration of music honoring the outstanding achievements of today’s leading Native American artists.
NAMA: The Native American Music Awards was created as a method to provide Native Music its proper due and respect on a national level and to prove that there is a viable and professional industry. It was created not as a competition, but to give Native Youth on reservations the needed inspiration and opportunities to pursue a professional career in music and to garner greater exposure. We'd still like to see more Native American artists on major record labels. Buffy in the 60s (EMI), Redbone (SONY) & XIT (Motown) in the 70s, to Jesse Ed Davis (Capital) in the 80s, Indigenous & Walela (Mercury) in the 90s to Chrystal Shawanda (BMG) today. This needs to occur more than once a decade with a talent pool that is abundant and healthy.
The Native American Music Awards ceremony honors Indigenous people north and south of the US and Canadian borders. Our logo is a satellite picture of all of North America and the tip of South America, therefore we honor Indigenous artists from those territories.
NAMA began in 1998 as a grass roots initiative among industry professionals and record labels such as; Canyon, SOAR, Silverwave, Machoche', Turtle Island, Sweetgrass, Sunshine and others to prove that there was a viable music industry. We launched our Awards show with 56 annual recordings. Today we receive over 200 each year. Members from various communities and tribal radio stations served as our first Advisory Board membership. The biggest complaint then was that those remote communities we involved couldn't find a way to vote. We have since resolved that and have expanded our membership.
As the first of its kind, our awards ceremony was styled from other national music awards shows. In fact we created the first written proposal for the Native category in the Grammys and were invited to do so by its Vice President. Unlike the Grammys, we do open our voting to the general public and not a "private industry" board. All artists are treated with respect and fairness. Most all of the Grammy Award recipients for the Native category have previously won a NAMMY.
We are a music industry organization first and foremost. We are all volunteers. No one receives payment for their services. Our membership fees pay for the administration of our submissions, digitizing the music for the website, hosting our website, printing and mailing voting ballots and having them tabulated. We are not government funded as a Native American organization. Our national membership and media coverage allows us to maintain a high level of credibility as a professional music industry organization.
Without NAMA there would be no recognition of Indian music initiatives on a national and professional level. The artists and their record companies enter their music recordings to receive greater exposure and awareness. After ten years, we are turning a new corner to continue the growth and our ever expanding international audience. We remain open to everyone's comments and suggestions. We welcome anyone interested in volunteering.
If we are to further embrace Native American music makers from the ground level up- they must exemplify a level of professionalism and understanding of the music business while contributing their cultural distinctions. They are the ones that enter; its the public and Advisory board voters who chose the nominees and winners, and ultimately, they represent the Native American Music Awards. We don't release the voting percentages or response rates.
All of us work purely from the heart for positive change. As any true artists knows, this is not a financially profitable business to be in, but one day we hope it will be able to sustain each and every artist out there. We do it for the belief in continuing Indian Country's oral traditions, and as something to be proud of. This show was launched from the Black Elk prophecy and a band from the Rosebud Reservation called 7th Generation. Its founder was a mainstream music industry executive with over 20 years of experience and one who was previously involved with the MTV Music Video Awards and New York Music Awards. Before NAMA was launched, it was sparked as an inside joke, became a vision, and then a realized dream. It embraced and required the support of music industry peers and Native community members who all gave it its blessings and approval and remain involved to date.
THE SHOW:
· Each year the annual Awards show program features over one dozen mesmerizing and dynamic performances by some of today’s leading Native American artists along with awards presentations in over 30 categories including; Lifetime Achievement and Hall of Fame.
· The Awards show is an extraordinary and unprecedented celebration of today’s best contemporary and traditional musical performances and recordings by Native American artists.
· The Awards program is an innovative, visually advanced production using prerecorded music of the nominees, voice over, live presentations and performances, and IMAG and large screen imaging. This critically acclaimed Music Awards show and its high production values have been featured in Billboard Magazine, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, NY Times, Boston Globe, and CNN.
HISTORY:
· The highly anticipated annual awards show program debuted in 1998 at Foxwoods in Conneticut and drew its first audience of 1500 people in the Northeast. It has since been held throughout the country in cities such as; Albuquerque, Milwaukee, Ft Lauderdale and has drawn its largest audiences in the Southwest and most recently in the Northeast
· Based on ticket sales, an estimated 43 % of our audience travel from all across the country to attend our shows.
- The Native American Music Awards logo features an emblemed music note with an Eagle Feather as the cleff and Mother Earth's Turtle Island as the base of the note.
-A Record Number of recordings were submitted for Nomination Consideration in the Ninth Annual Native American Music Awards - Over 200 Recordings. The first annual awards show featured 56 national recordings with a mission and obligation to showcase and bring music from the reservations to larger audiences.
NOMINATION & VOTING PROCESS:
· The Awards show honors national recordings that have been released in the previous calendar year. Nominees are submitted and selected by our national Advisory membership consisting of individuals directly involved in recording, manufacturing, distributing and promoting Native American music nationally.
· Winners are selected by a combined vote by our national membership and the general public who can listen and vote to the tracks of our nominees on our website
Native American Music Awards Inc.
