The 22nd Annual San Diego Music Awards are tonight at Humphrey's by the Bay with performances by P.O.D, Dead Feather Moon, Hills Like Elephants, The Howls, Hyena, Mattson 2 and Euphoria Brass Band.
Back in 1991, Kevin Hellman founded the San Diego Music Foundation and launched the San Diego Music Awards. The mission of the San Diego Music Foundation is to enrich San Diego's diverse and creative music community through music education for youth, professional development for current and emerging industry professionals, live performances for the San Diego public, and recognition for San Diego artists of exceptional merit or service. The San Diego Music Awards (the proceeds of which benefit the Foundation) strives to showcase and honor local talent.
Peter Holslin has written about the awards for years. In his CityBeat article about this year's awards he said:
The San Diego Music Awards are kind of like San Diego’s own Grammys. It’s inevitable that people will disagree with who gets nominated and who wins, but all the gripes and guffaws are part of the fun.
Using a complex set of calculations related to buzz, hype and musical skill, I came up with predictions for five major categories. I also offered my thoughts on who should win. (Last year, I went three for five.)
A complete list of nominees is here.
Chartered in 1991, the San Diego Music Foundation was created to make music performance accessible to children of need in San Diego County by providing them with a hands-on vehicle, the guitar, to express themselves creatively. Over its 20 year history, the organization has served over 30,000 K-8 students county-wide from Chula Vista to Fallbrook. In subsequent years the organization has broadened its focus and service areas, providing forums to increase local musicians' understanding of the music business, garner performance exposure within the local and national music communities, and to publicly recognize the breadth and diversity of the San Diego music scene.
The SDMA announced that this year's Lifetime Award will go to Mike Wofford and the Courage in Music Award will go to Candye Kane.