Winners announced for The NI Music Prize 2023

Excitement, surprises, great talent and a full house at the Ulster Hall. The NI Music Prize roared out live from the Ulster Hall last night with a showcase and celebration of some of Northern Ireland’s best talent, both established and new. The event, which is now an annual sold-out show that the Oh Yeah Centre organised, also went out live on BBC Radio Ulster.

It was a special night of artists spanning 50 years right through to our fresh new talent. It was an eclectic showcase of the diversity of talent based in Northern Ireland, from Traditional Pipers to Punk rock, Soul and Pop, and it was evident that NI music is fit for a world-class stage. Industry guests, artists and fans from out of town joined in with a loud and proud local audience of shortlisted artists, friends and family. There were outstanding performances from Chalk, Problem Patterns, Conor Mallon, Ferna, Winnie Ama and last year’s ATL Artist of The Year winners, The Florentinas.

Paul Brady received the Oh Yeah Legend Award presented by IMRO by esteemed singer-songwriter and IMRO chair Eleanor McEvoy. The evening then played out with some of Paul’s most cherished works.

The evening also included the Joe Cassidy Chrysalis Award, a special award that friends and family of the Chicago-based Belfast artist created. The winning act, Chalk, received a bursary award of £3,000.

Vic Galloway of BBC Scotland and Peter Leathem, CEO of PPL, announced the album winner Arborist – an award decided by a panel earlier that evening. The public vote for Single of The Year went to Moonboot for ‘To U’, and Chalk picked up Live Act sponsored by Shine Promotions. Problem Patterns picked up Music Video Market Place sponsored Video for ‘Who Do We Not Save’ and the BBC Introducing: ATL Artist of The Year award went to Tramp.

Charlotte Dryden from Oh Yeah said, “We might be living in some of the most challenging times, but tonight was a needed moment of positivity. Recognition and acknowledgment for music creators is more important than ever and we thank our sponsors and supporters for getting behind that. Congratulations to all the acts tonight. Music moves people in many ways and tonight that was available to everyone”