Following the ground-breaking success of HMA20, the Heavy Music Awards is proud to welcome back Amazon Music as headline sponsor for the fifth annual ceremony, recognising the year’s best in rock and metal.
The HMAs have flourished, in spite of the challenges of the global pandemic, with viewers tuning in for last year’s live stream from around the world to watch their favourite artists pick up the coveted awards.
For 2021, winners will be announced at London’s O2 Forum Kentish Town on Thursday 2 September to a full capacity of 2,300 fans, artists and industry, with the whole show once again live-streamed exclusively on Twitch.
An industry panel of almost 700 nominated their favourite artists, albums, artwork and videos to create the shortlists, and public voting for this year’s event has now surpassed an astonishing 1,000,000 – which is more than double the previous four years’ totals, combined. With fans’ votes the only deciding factor in who wins, this is set to be another great democratic celebration of the entire heavy music landscape.
Heavy Music Awards co-founder Dave Bradley said, “It was a great experience partnering with Amazon Music on the awards in 2020. They’ve been absolutely instrumental in pushing rock and metal artists to a huge audience, and that obviously ties in perfectly with our philosophy at the HMAs. We’re excited to expand on our work together from last year to make HMA21 the biggest and best show yet.”
Amazon Music UK’s Head of Music, Patrick Clifton, commented, “We’re excited to partner with the Heavy Music Awards again in 2021, and are looking forward to seeing the event come to life in person at London’s O2 Kentish Town Forum in September. It’s been an incredible year for heavy music, despite the continued impact of COVID on touring and festivals, with brilliant albums and new artists on the scene. We can’t wait to see who the fans have voted for this year.”.