GIMA AWARDS VOTING STARTED

Call for entries announced for the 3^rd edition of

the chevrolet Global Indian Music Academy (GiMA) AWARDS

~ Includes new additions in categories of POP, ROCK, DANCE and GHAZAL~

The Chevrolet Global Indian Music Academy (GiMA) Awards, the most definitive recognition platform of the Indian Music industry,is all set to kick offits 3^rdeditionby inviting entries. GiMA provides a unified platform to celebrate and recognise those who push the boundaries of Indian Music, across a wide range of film and non-film music genres. This year, for the first time, GiMA has included new categories in POP, ROCK, DANCEand GHAZAL, making it a total of 13 awards in the Non-Film music categories and 10 awards for Film music.With greater representation of Indie artistes, GiMA has incorporated more contemporary music this year.

Speaking on the occasion, GiMA Advisory Board member and eminent singer-music director Shankar Mahadevan said, “GiMA has been a pioneering effort to bring together the entire music industry on one illustrious platform to honor artists & musicians in front of their peers. I am personally very excited about the new categories being introduced this year. With the emergence of digital platforms and new channels for music discovery, exposure to newer genres of music is also picking up. GiMA is an excellent platform to encourage new-age talent; it is a great way of nurturing music and talent across traditional and contemporary genres

Music Labels, Film Producers and Independent artistes are now invited to enter music released between 1^st April 2011 and 31^st March 2012. The GiMA entry process is completely online wherein participants can fill and submit their forms at www.gima.co.in.

Entries for this year’s GiMA Awards will close on April 25^th, 2012.

GiMA is the ONLY Music Awardsplatform with a voting process based on peer-to-peer recognition. Nominees are selected by aneminent Jury panel of over 30 members. The GiMA Academy, comprising over 300 members from the music & film industry encompassing industry stalwarts, music directors, producers, lyricists, singers, technicians, composers and leaders of the music industry, then votes for the final winners in a secret ballot process. Some of the eminent names from the Academy includeJaved Akhtar, Dr. L. Subramanium, Pt. Shivkumar Sharma, Shubha Mudgal, Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani, Loy Mendonsa, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Shaan, Sonu Nigam, Mukesh Bhatt, Kailash Kher, Lesle Lewis, Salim Merchant, Sulaiman Merchant to name a few. The Academy’s votes are then tabulated by KPMG, who are the process auditors for GiMA.

Looking back, GiMA has staged some of the most memorable acts by bringing great artistes & musicians together at this very prestigious award ceremony. Year 2011 saw music maestro A.R.Rahman being felicitated with the ‘Global Musician Honour’while India’s young music icon Sonu Nigam bagged the ‘Youth Music Icon’title. Other key highlights of 2011 included the LIVE orchestra duo-performance act by none other than legendary music composer Pyarelalji along with Sonu Nigam on some of the most unforgettable Laxmikant-Pyarelal hits from the golden era. Also, one cannot forget the beautiful Priyanka Chopra’s tribute to the industry’s talented female playback singers where Kavita Krishnamurthy, Rekha Bhardwaj, Usha Uthup and Sunidhi Chauhan sang LIVE to her spectacular performance.