Voting begins for Indo-Caribbean Music Awards

The Indo-Caribbean Music Awards (ICMA) will take place on September 11 at the Southern Academy for the Performing Arts, and will celebrate the diverse and vibrant musical landscape of the Indo-Caribbean community.

The event will honour the achievements of artistes, producers, and industry professionals who have significantly contributed to the region’s music industry and is being done in partnership with the National Council of Indian Culture (NCIC).

The 2025 awards show will cover the period September 2022-August 2024 and will recognise awardees in the following 16 categories:

Best Male Artiste; Best Female Artiste; Best Original Song; Best Chutney Soca Collaboration; Song of the Year; Best New Artiste; Best Indo-Caribbean Band; Best Chutney Soca; Best Taan Singing/Baithak Gaan, Producer of the Year; Video of the Year; Emerging Indo-Caribbean Dance Group; International Breakthrough Artiste; Lifetime Achievement Award; Posthumous Award and Fans Choice Award.

Ten categories will be judged by 76 registered participants from the Indo-Caribbean music industry. A special online voting platform has been set up for the process and it will be done in two-tiers. The first tier voting began on July 11 and ends July 18.

Approximately 150 artistes/songs have been nominated for the various categories, and after the first tier voting, it is expected that this number will be reduced to a maximum of five per category. Once the first tier voting is complete, the names of the final nominees will be published. There will be a second tier voting which will decide the winners in each category.

Five of the award categories will be judged internally by the ICMA committee – musicologist Rana Mohip, music producer Rishi Gayadeen, music producer Big Rich, NCIC president Deoroop Teemal, NCIC first vice president Surujdeo Mangaroo, dance choreographer Michael Salickram, radio personality Rodney Elahie, Southex's Rajkavir Singh, Samir Singh, and George Singh.

The Fans Choice Award will be judged though a special promotion done by 103fm.

There will be a formal red carpet event by invitation only, but 200 people from the public can apply for a special gold ticket for the event.