Youth Music Awards 2021 goes digital

This year, the long-awaited Youth Music Awards (YMA) organised by *SCAPE will return with its third edition.

Inspired by the tenacity of young musicians who continued making music despite facing challenges during the pandemic, the theme of this year’s YMA is “Check-in to the future of music”, a play on words for the frequent safe check-ins that Singaporeans do. 

Launched in 2019, the YMA is an annual awards ceremony that aims to celebrate the extraordinary achievements and contributions of local musicians under the age of 35. In order to recognise rising talents in the local music scene, a total of 80 musicians have been nominated across 16 award categories this year.

Similar to the year before, YMA 2021 will be held digitally in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Viewers can look forward to the upcoming awards ceremony, which will take place at *SCAPE from 7pm to 9pm on Mar 31. The live stream of the ceremony will be available via Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. 

This year’s ceremony introduces a new genre-based voting system to provide more opportunities to represent all artists across the board. A new “Non-English” category for awards, such as Artist of The Year and Single of The Year, has also been introduced to represent artists who make music in other languages. 

Voting for all 16 award categories opened on Mar 10 and will close at 11.59pm on Mar 22. Fans may visit yma.bandwagon.asia to view the complete list of nominees and cast their votes. Winners of the awards will be revealed at YMA on Mar 31 from 7pm onwards.  

Notable nominees for ‘Album of The Year’ are 18-year-old pop sensation Shye, singer-songwriter Annette Lee, as well as .gif, BRB., and MYRNE. 

In addition, viewers can anticipate an exciting line-up of performances from various artists including RRILEY from The Sam Willows, emo rock band Forests, rising R&B star KEYANA, and more.

Ms Ivy Lim, executive director of *SCAPE, said in a statement that last year was indeed a challenging year especially for young musicians in Singapore.

She said: “The fact that we are still able to enjoy new local music last year despite the pandemic and social distancing restrictions is a testament to the resilience, innovation and excellence of our musicians.”

“Against all odds, they have continued to pursue their passions and emerged stronger. This is what YMA 2021 aims to celebrate!”