Artists In Action - Winter Music Conference - 15th Annual International Dance Music Awards




		15th Annual International Dance Music Awards Serving as the Winter Music Conference's "closing" ceremony, the 15th Annual International Dance Music Awards was trying really hard to be a legit production, but fell short in support and technical merit.
		Starting almost 90 minutes late, the Awards show was in place of the typical dinner banquet held on the last night of the Winter Music Conference. Held at the Radisson Deauville Resort on Miami Beach, the awards show was professionally produced and video taped as a pilot to garner interest in airing the show in the future. Unfortunately the show started way beyond acceptably late (due in part to the television production) and lost it's audience half way through (literally most people walked out).
		Most notably, most of the award winners were not even present. Maybe they should have written "Must Be Present To Win" on the nomination ballets? This is probably due in part to their pop status. Come on did you really expect Jennifer Lopez, TLC, Eiffel 65, Filter, Ricky Martin or Whitney Houston to show up?


I personally don't feel that many of the above mentioned really qualify for a dance music award anyway? But these people were all voted in by the WMC delegates, which I still don't see how the DJ heavy crowd would have nominated "Britney Spears' Crazy" for Best Pop 12" Dance Record? Please! But this lack of artist support illustrates perfectly why few people take dance music seriously? If the artists themselves cannot be bothered to pick up an award, why should anyone pay attention to the artists? And if the audience cannot be bothered to stay seated and attend the entire show...they have nothing to say when it comes to lack of support.





Barbra Tucker (Emcee)	Shannon	Anglemoon
15th Annual International		Dance Music Awards
	Ann Nesby

	Fifth Dimension

Of course, beyond the campy production and technical glitches, many talented artists did show up. Barbra Tucker, Daniel Glass and June Sarpong served as hosts. Miss Jane, Jellybean Benitez, Thunderpuss 2000, Peter Rauhofer (Club 69), and Jocelyn Brown (who cancelled her performance by saying "You guy's were too hard on me this week") all delivered awards. Of course the evening would not be complete without drama! Apparently Barbra Tucker (who really did an excellent job) mispronounced Peter Rauhofer's name upon introducing him. Now granted it's not an easy name to pronounce and the show was a technical mess, but he did win the 1999 Grammy for Best remixer. I am assuming that Ms Tucker and Mr. Rauhofer exchanged words back stage because Barbra came out later and denounced the situation and said something to the effect of; Don't ever come up to me back stage and get up in my face when I'm trying to do the best I can with teleprompters saying one thing, and people handing me index cards that say something else! You GO girl! Aside from the drama, the show opened with Barbra Tucker's "Stop Playing With My Mind". The next to perform was Shannon who gave an average performance of her new remake of "Give Me Tonight". Most noticeably missing from the music track was the kick drum- so it never really got pumping. The wonderfully talented Ann Nesby landed on the stage and gave THE vocal performance of the evening with her new single "Love Is What We Need". Duane Harden's "Dance With You" followed. (Someone really needs to cut about fifty repetitions of the hook). Anglemoon performed their smash hit "All I Want" and did a really good job of it. The lead singer really has a nice folksy-like voice that sounds very much live as it does on the recording. Lastly Fifth Dimension performed their song "Someday". They did a fine job, but there really isn't anything to make us want another Backstreet Boys ala Latin influenced group? Fifth Dimension can be found opening for Christina Aguilera as well as on the Disney Channel. Need I say more? One group missing from the evening was 'Sonique"- who's name appeared on the teleprompter but never on stage. Aside from the very late start, technical glitches, artist no shows, and audience walk out, the night was perfect. See you next year... maybe?

Click HERE to Check out the Award Winners
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