10 and counting

IN 2008, three friends – former music critic Siva Chandran, frontman of prog-rock band The Poseidon Connection Tevan Manickam, and hip-hop producer Merp Premo – got together to launch Vima, Asia’s first independent music awards show, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.
The trio saw the awards as a means to champion and highlight indie musicians in Malaysia and Singapore, which later evolved to encompass musicians throughout Asia.
Vima, which initially stood for Voice Independent Music Awards, was later re-branded as Voice International Music Awards in 2013.
“When we started Vima, the whole idea was actually to give back to the industry,” explains Siva, who admits that he came onboard initially to help Tevan.
At the time, indie musicians, who made up around 80% of musicians in the local scene, were getting no love, especially from the local media.
Siva thought his connections in the media as a music critic could help.
“We were only supposed to do it for the first year, and then pass it back to the industry,” says Siva, referring to music industry players.
But it didn’t pan out that way. There were some years during which the awards show did not take place, but the founders soldiered on nonetheless.
“I noticed every time there is a Vima awards, there will be a sudden music explosion in the industry,” says Siva. “Every time we pull back, everything quietens down.
We are like this big hailer because we are very, very vocal on social media. That creates a lot of buzz.
“Music is very definitive of what is the buzz on the streets. You need something like Vima to bring this music to the forefront.”
Since its inception, the Vima awards show has helped bring into the spotlight such artistes as Yuna, Altimet, The Great Spy Experiment (Singapore), Joe Flizzow, Prema Yin, K-Town Clan, Sasi the Don, Pop Shuvit and Melissa Indot, who are all past winners.
The awards show has also evolved with the digital age.
Drawing inspiration from artistes who use social media to interact with fans, the 2016 Vima saw the organisers heading out to present the awards to the winning artistes (instead of holding a formal award ceremony), with the whole proceedings streamed live on the internet.
Last year, Vima partnered with Skowt (a free-to-use platform which is open to all independent artistes or unsigned bands, regardless of their genre, language or location) to fund three artistes in their musical endeavours.
Ten per cent of any profits made by these artistes will then go back to funding another deserving artiste.
This year, Siva says Vima and Skowt intend to launch a new project that is targeted at college and university students, and is searching for nominees to compete in two new categories.
“We are looking for the best new college/university act, and song of the year.”
The winners of these two categories will be announced during the Vima 2018 awards show, which will be held in September.
Other categories include best pop song, best hip hop song, best rock song, best dance/electronica song, best genre bender, and best collaboration.
Nominations for these categories are open to songs of any language released between August 2016 and September this year.
For more, visit the Vima Music Awards Facebook page.