With four awards apiece, rock group the Rasmus and teenage rapper Pikku G dominated the annual Emma Awards, held Saturday (Feb. 21) at Helsinki’s Kulttuuritalo. The Rasmus, which had its international breakthrough in 2003 with the album “Dead Letters” (Playground), took honors for band of the year, video of the year for “In My Life” and artist of the year, which was voted by the public. The band also scooped the export award.
Pikku G’s “Räjähdysvaara” won the debut album and biggest-selling album categories, to go with the artist’s hip-hop/dance debut and surprise of the year awards.
Singer-songwriter Maija Vilkkumaa received two Emmas, including album of the year for sophomore set “Ei” (Warner). The four-piece Don Johnson Big Band won song of the year with “One MC, One Delay” (Beatback/Universal) and dance/hip-hop album of the year for “Breaking Daylight.”
The event was again organized by the Finnish IFPI affiliate ÄKT. Nominees were selected by a jury set up by ÄKT; the winners were chosen by a panel of Finnish music industry executives.
Finnish music was also recognized at a separate gala the previous day (Feb. 20), the Femma Prizes. A nine-person jury picked garage rockers the Flaming Sideburns as live act of the year and the band’s vocalist Eduardo Martinez was named male singer of the year.
Finnish-language alternative rockers CMX won the Femma album of the year with “Aion” (EMI) and received the artist of the year award, which was voted by the public.
The Femma Prizes were presented by Helsinki live music organization Elmu and book publisher Johnny Kniga.
