Music Week Awards 2024: Girls Aloud bring star power as the industry celebrates its trophy winners

The Music Week Awards returned with some pop star power for the 2024 edition.

The hugely prestigious awards ceremony, which sold out well in advance of its May 2 date, moved to a new venue this year – the JW Marriott Grosvenor House London, Park Lane, W1.

Uniquely, the Music Week Awards honours achievements across the music industry with 25 trophies (catch up with all the finalists here) – and it was another incredible night to celebrate executive talent.

As well as a guest list featuring top executives, broadcasters and artists, the event concluded with an appearance by guest presenters Girls Aloud, who received a rousing reception from the industry audience. The beloved group, who are playing a huge spring/summer tour including five nights at the O2 arena, attended the ceremony to present The Strat trophy to their manager Peter Loraine, who was recognised with the special Music Week industry icon honour for his services to pop over three decades.

The ceremony was hosted by Apple Music 1 radio host Dotty, who opened proceedings with a shout-out to all the major labels and her team at Apple Music (“let me hear you say ‘spatial audio provides superior sound quality!’).

The first award of the night, Grassroots Venue: Spirit Of The Scene, went to Oh Yeah Music Centre, Belfast.

At a time when there’s a strong campaign to support grassroots venues, the publicly-voted result underlined their importance to talent development.

EMI retained their title of Record Company in the face of tough competition, including from recent winners Atlantic and Polydor. EMI’s successes in 2023 (the period covering the judging for the awards) included Lewis Capaldi, Taylor Swift, Olivia Dean, Mae Stephens, Take That, and more.

The award was collected by co-president Rebecca Allen and the team, including Lucy Dann and Rich Castillo. EMI, part of Universal Music UK, also won the Promotions Team category.

Island Records, another Universal label, triumphed in the A&R category, following breakthrough success with BRITs Rising Star winners The Last Dinner Party among others. Label president Louis Bloom and the team collected the trophy. The label has seen a strong start to the year with the chart-topping band, as well as No.1 albums and singles from Noah Kahan, Ariana Grande and Hozier.

Universal Music Recordings triumphed in the highly competitive Catalogue Marketing Campaign category with The Beatles, who hit No.1 in the singles chart last year with their final song.

Warner Music UK won two awards on the night – International Marketing Team Of The Year (in recognition of global success for Ed Sheeran, Fred Again.. and PinkPantheress) and Sync Team Of The Year.

Sony Music UK won Sales Team Of The Year and Music & Brand Partnership for the 4th Floor Creative collaboration with Central Cee, Joy Crookes x JD Sports. Central Cee’s manager Bello was named Manager Of The Year.

The Orchard triumphed in Artist Marketing Campaign for Raye, while Label/Artist Services went to AWAL following their strong run with acts including Jungle, Lovejoy and CMAT.

Warner Chappell’s SVP, head of A&R, Amber Davis and the team were presented with the Publisher Of The Year trophy, following huge success with artist-writers including Dave and Raye. Young Songs won Independent Publisher Of The Year.

In the Music Consumer Innovation category, Meta won for Meta Loves Music London.

The EGA Distro team, including chairman & president Colin Batsa, general manager Ali Neale and managing director Charley Snook, took home the award for Independent Record Company Of The Year.

In the live sector, there were wins for CAA (Live Music Agency), Live Nation UK (Live Music Promoter) and Dice (Ticketing Company Of The Year). Wireless won Festival Of The Year.

BBC Radio 1’s head Aled Haydn-Jones, who was joined at the ceremony by head of music Chris Price, as well as presenters Mollie King, Jack Saunders and Rickie, Melvin and Charlie, was presented with the Radio Station prize – reclaiming the title they last won two years ago.

Lauren Laverne, another former winner in years gone by, triumphed in the Radio Show category.

Peter Loraine, CEO/founder of Fascination Management, was honoured with The Strat by Music Week for his incredible 30-year career in pop as an editor of Top of The Pops magazine, Fascination Records label head at Universal and artist manager.

At TOTP, Loraine famously gave the Spice Girls their nickname, as recalled by Melanie C and Emma Bunton on the tribute video. It also featured UMG CEO/chairman Sir Lucian Grainge, who recruited Loraine to the major, Universal Music UK CEO/chairman David Joseph and EVP Selina Webb, as well as artists he’s worked with including Take That, Goldfrapp, Kylie Minogue, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Will Young, Jessie Ware, Jake Shears, S Club 7, Bananarama, All Saints and Steps.

“It’s our honour today to be here to present The Strat Award to someone who’s not only had an impact on Girls Aloud, but to so many acts in the music industry,” Cheryl Tweedy told the audience. “Someone who has flown the flag for pop music in the UK for the last 30 years.”

Kimberley Walsh from the group described Loraine as the “ultimate pop mastermind”.

“Peter is somebody that has been consistent, and persistent, and stayed true to who he is,” added Nicola Roberts. “That’s why people stay with him. People trust him. Not only as a manager, but as a friend as well. He’s there for you, whenever, with whatever issue you have.”

“When Sarah fell sick, she went to him,” said Nadine Coyle. “He was a constant throughout Sarah's journey. She really trusted him. And she would have loved to be here tonight cheering him on. He’s a testament to the effect that one person can have on so many people's lives – not just the five of us.”

"If I think about it for any amount of time, I just think it's wild," said Peter Loraine in his acceptance speech. "I've been able to turn my childhood obsession with pop music into a 30-year occupation. As a teenager, I only wanted three things: I wanted to move to London to work for a music magazine, for a record company and to be friends with Bananarama – not much to ask for really."

Looking back on his spell at Polydor, Loraine said: "Learning from Lucian and David how to run a record label, it was just mind-blowing, and the team was just so exceptional."

Loraine also acknowledged his team at Fascination Management, including artist managers Adam Klein and Sarah Jackson.

"Tonight is proof that pop music matters," he concluded, as the audience stood to applaud the 2024 Strat winner.

BBC 1Xtra’s rising star Kaylee Golding (who presents on air weekdays from 1-4pm) was spinning the tunes as the celebrations continued into the night at the after party.

Sponsors and partners for this year's Music Week Awards include Deezer, PRS For Music, Downtown, Blinding Talent, Believe, Wise Music, PPL, SoundCloud, RadioMonitor, Music Venue Trust, Official Charts Company and charity partner Music Minds Matter.

For information about sponsorship opportunities at next year’s Music Week Awards, please contact lawrence.cooke@futurenet.com for more information.

To make sure you don’t miss out on next year’s Music Week Awards ceremony, for all table enquiries please contact: Kate.Smith@futurenet.com

PHOTOS: Will Ireland

MUSIC WEEK AWARDS 2024 WINNERS

Grassroots Venue: Spirit Of The Scene – public voted (supported by Music Venue Trust)

Oh Yeah Music Centre, Belfast

Accountancy Firm Of The Year

Gelfand Rennert & Feldman

PR Campaign

Lewis Capaldi, MBC PR/DawBell/APB PR

Music Consumer Innovation

Meta – Meta Loves Music London

International Marketing Team Of The Year (sponsored by Deezer)

Warner Music UK

Promotions Team Of The Year (Sponsored by Radiomonitor)

EMI

Festival Of The Year

Wireless

Sales Team Of The Year

Sony Music UK

Independent Publisher Of The Year (sponsored by PRS For Music)

Young Songs

Radio Show

Lauren Laverne, BBC Radio 6 Music

Sync Team Of The Year

Warner Music UK

Ticketing Company Of The Year

Dice

Label/Artist Services

AWAL

Live Music Agency

CAA

Catalogue Marketing Campaign

The Beatles – Universal Music Recordings

Music & Brand Partnership

Central Cee x Joy Crookes x JD Sports x Sony Music UK/4th Floor Creative – JD Sports Forever Forward: Christmas 2023

Live Music Promoter

Live Nation Music UK

Independent Record Company Of The Year (sponsored by Downtown)

EGA Distro

Radio Station (sponsored by PPL)

BBC Radio 1

Artist Marketing Campaign (sponsored by Official Charts Company)

Raye – The Orchard

Manager Of The Year

Bello

Publisher Of The Year (sponsored by PRS For Music)

Warner Chappell

A&R Award (sponsored by SoundCloud)

Island

Record Company

EMI

The Strat

Peter Loraine

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Music Week Awards 2024: Girls Aloud bring star power as the industry celebrates its trophy winners

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