Each year, this exciting awards show celebrates the year’s best music videos and features show-stopping live performances, networking opportunities, awards, and more. Don’t miss the pre-party and your chance to share the red carpet with some of Michigan’s most talented performing artists!
FEATURING LIVE PERFORMANCES BY…
Performing LIve – mainstage 8pm
Jack Droppers & the Best Intentions
Jack Droppers & the Best Intentions have released 3 albums, 2 EP’s, 1 live EP, and a dozen singles over the past 7 years. Their third album, “Dad Rock” received the WYCE Jammie Award for “Best Rock/Pop Album” of 2021-2022 and the single “Welcome to the Party” received praise worldwide while being called “The Song of the Year” by Paul Gallagher (brother of Noel & Liam Gallagher and former A&R for Creation Records). They have toured across the eastern side of the United States and have opened up for many bands including Michigander, Gable Price and Friends, Brother Elsey, and many more. The band consists of Laura Hobson (vocals and some percussion), Devin Sullivan (guitar and vocals), James Kessel (keys and vocals), Garrett Stier (bass and vocals) and Josh Holicki (drums and vocals).
Performing Live – mainstage 8pm
Louie Lee
Louie Lee’s breaks lyrical boundaries in country with thought-provoking ballads and high-energy anthems infused with hip-hop flair.
Raised in a Detroit trailer park, he draws from diverse influences, creating a unique “Country Hop & Roll” sound. Louie’s intimate, honest voice and visually captivating live shows push the boundaries of country, hip-hop, and rock, attracting both new and long-time fans.
Performing live – 7pm in the Franke’s downstage club
Michelle Held
Tom Paxton says, “Two years ago, I told Michelle that I thought she had the gift. I am changing ‘thought’ to ‘know.’”
Michelle Held is a contemporary folk musician based out of Detroit, Michigan. Held has been performing and writing songs for better than a decade. Her path began as a stage actor in small professional Midwestern theatres, when she was gifted an acoustic guitar. While her live performance and lyrical talent has been an open secret over the years and has earned her Honorable Mentions in the past three Telluride Troubadour Contests, she only recently released her debut single in November of 2023. “This song presents a few opportunities for Michelle to share her memorably one-of-a-kind warble, a vocal texture that helps secure a spot in the listener’s memory and sets her apart from other singer-songwriters in and beyond the folk genre,” writes Geoff Wilbur’s Music Blog. “The World Moves On” is not just a song, but also a hand-drawn animated video. The piece is a beautiful marriage of music and visuals, putting words and heart-opening sounds to that strange feeling of loss and impermanence central to humanity. A true song of the times that has been brilliantly illustrated by Cara Dunning and invites the viewer and the listener to reflect on life’s fleeting magic.
Performing live – Mainstage 8m
Nadim Azzam
You’ve got to hurt to heal. Through painfully honest self-reflection, Nadim Azzam addresses depression, addiction, and the dysfunctional realities of our times with his songs rooted in hope and connectivity. A Jewish Egyptian-Palestinian American born in Vermont, raised in Southeast Michigan and sent off to the Arizona desert, Nadim’s life is as hard to pin down as his music. A singer, rapper, and songwriter who makes his own beats and plays multiple instruments on his tracks, Nadim is a rising star on the Michigan music scene.
In 2023, Nadim was voted a Detroit finalist in NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest by WDET, performing at the Concert of Colors, opening for The Kid LAROI at Eastern Michigan University, and Raheem DeVaughn and Bilal at the Aretha Franklin Amphitheater. Nadim’s music video “The Come Up” is nominated for a 2024 Michigan Music Video Award and his new album “Dreams For The Future” is available now. In 2016, Nadim toured university campuses with Matisyahu across the United States to promote unity and dialogue between pro-Palestine and pro-Israel students on campus.
Making songs for the deep-thinkers, the over-drinkers, and other sensitive souls, Nadim faces his own struggles head-on in hopes of offering some sense of solace to anyone else walking similar valleys of their own. These songs seek to remind that there’s more to life, and that the pain any given individual feels can be transformed from a solitary torment into a vessel of connection.
