My colleague the Resident Art Throb (or RAT, as we like to call him), was talking about this year’s winners of the Young Artist Award (or YAA) on his blog (see http://blogs.todayonline.com/forartssake.), when he asked, “Hey why are there no pop musicians winning these awards?”
<h6>ShouldloveElectrico get the Cultural Medallion or Young Artist Award?</h6>
I laughed. Of course I did! Pop musicians? Winning the YAA? Are you out of your mind? You might as well ask why Electrico hasn’t been given the Cultural Medallion, I guffawed.
“Don’t you think they can hack it?” he persisted.
Of course they can! There are some who are even better than all those classical and jazz musicians who keep winning those awards, I retorted.
“So what’s the problem?” he queried.
I was dumbfounded. Hmm. That was a truism if ever there was one. Why aren’t pop-slash-indie-slash-alternative musicians winning these awards?
Take the Cultural Medallion (or CM – we like acronyms), that’s meant to “give recognition to individuals who have attained artistic excellence and have made a distinction to our nation’s arts and culture”, so says the National Arts Council’s website.
Recipients of this award will get the medallion, a lapel pin and a certificate, but more importantly, they’ll also be eligible for the CM Grant to “undertake an arts project”.
<h6>Dick Lee: Possibly the only pop musician to receive the Cultural Medallion</h6>
Now, the $80,000 grant is awarded only once in an artist’s lifetime, but a funding of up to a maximum of $200,000 will be allocated for collaborative projects involving two or more Cultural Medallion recipients.
Of course, there are criteria: The Candidate should be recognised for his/her artistic work and contribution to the artistic development of Singapore; Candidate should have attained artistic excellence; yadda yadda yadda. (You can read more at http://www.nac.gov.sg/awa/cm_nom_guidelines.asp.)
Or is the CM too much of a stretch? So far, the only “pop” muso to win the CM has been Dick Lee, and he only got that in 2005, after decades of writing songs about our culture, with many having the word “Singapore” in them.
So perhaps, we should look at the YAA then, which is awarded to those who have shown promise of artistic excellence and potential to make a distinction in our nation’s arts and culture. The recipient gets a trophy and a grant of up to $10,000 to undertake arts projects or studies. The criteria is pretty much the same.
<h6>Since she’s now an “indie” artiste, should Stefanie Sun get the Young Artist Award?</h6>
But who should get it? Off the top of my head, I’m thinking Addy Rasidi, Rosli Mansor, Stefanie Sun and Electrico as potential nominees. (I was going to say Taufik Batisah, but his F1 gaff with the national anthem might go against him, and the Observatory just miss out on the age requirement.)
They’ve all put Singapore on the music map, all have done Singapore proud overseas. Both Addy and Rosli are excellent musicians; Stefanie haslovesung several NDP songs; whilst Electrico wrote and sang the last NDP song.
So what’s wrong with pop musicians? Don’t they want to win something like this?
I posted that question on a couple of forums and the responses ranged from the dismissive (“We don’t need awards to validate our existence.”) to the plain greedy (“aiyah, $10K only, so little”).
<h6>Simply Divine: Addy Rasidi’s (right) cross-cultural musical experience
</h6>Okay, awards don’t often equate to artistic merit, but they’re still good to have in your resume. Just ask Grammy Best New Artist winners Christina Aguilera, Sheryl Crow, Alicia Keys, Norah Jones, John Legend, Maroon 5 and Carrie Underwood. love
But then again, maybe it’s just that local pop musicians, like many Singaporeans, are afraid to get nominated just in case they lose face when they don’t win. Mr Kiasu, anyone?
What do you think? Leave your comments on the blog and let me know who you think should get the Young Artist Award next year. I’m off to see if I can get some nomination forms.
This is your Abang, signing off!
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I laughed. Of course I did! Pop musicians? Winning the YAA? Are you out of your mind? You might as well ask why Electrico hasn’t been given the Cultural Medallion, I guffawed.
“Don’t you think they can hack it?” he persisted.
Of course they can! There are some who are even better than all those classical and jazz musicians who keep winning those awards, I retorted.
“So what’s the problem?” he queried.
I was dumbfounded. Hmm. That was a truism if ever there was one. Why aren’t pop-slash-indie-slash-alternative musicians winning these awards?
Take the Cultural Medallion (or CM – we like acronyms), that’s meant to “give recognition to individuals who have attained artistic excellence and have made a distinction to our nation’s arts and culture”, so says the National Arts Council’s website.
Recipients of this award will get the medallion, a lapel pin and a certificate, but more importantly, they’ll also be eligible for the CM Grant to “undertake an arts project”.
Now, the $80,000 grant is awarded only once in an artist’s lifetime, but a funding of up to a maximum of $200,000 will be allocated for collaborative projects involving two or more Cultural Medallion recipients.
Of course, there are criteria: The Candidate should be recognised for his/her artistic work and contribution to the artistic development of Singapore; Candidate should have attained artistic excellence; yadda yadda yadda. (You can read more at http://www.nac.gov.sg/awa/cm_nom_guidelines.asp.)
Or is the CM too much of a stretch? So far, the only “pop” muso to win the CM has been Dick Lee, and he only got that in 2005, after decades of writing songs about our culture, with many having the word “Singapore” in them.
So perhaps, we should look at the YAA then, which is awarded to those who have shown promise of artistic excellence and potential to make a distinction in our nation’s arts and culture. The recipient gets a trophy and a grant of up to $10,000 to undertake arts projects or studies. The criteria is pretty much the same.
But who should get it? Off the top of my head, I’m thinking Addy Rasidi, Rosli Mansor, Stefanie Sun and Electrico as potential nominees. (I was going to say Taufik Batisah, but his F1 gaff with the national anthem might go against him, and the Observatory just miss out on the age requirement.)
They’ve all put Singapore on the music map, all have done Singapore proud overseas. Both Addy and Rosli are excellent musicians; Stefanie haslovesung several NDP songs; whilst Electrico wrote and sang the last NDP song.
So what’s wrong with pop musicians? Don’t they want to win something like this?
I posted that question on a couple of forums and the responses ranged from the dismissive (“We don’t need awards to validate our existence.”) to the plain greedy (“aiyah, $10K only, so little”).
</h6>Okay, awards don’t often equate to artistic merit, but they’re still good to have in your resume. Just ask Grammy Best New Artist winners Christina Aguilera, Sheryl Crow, Alicia Keys, Norah Jones, John Legend, Maroon 5 and Carrie Underwood. love
But then again, maybe it’s just that local pop musicians, like many Singaporeans, are afraid to get nominated just in case they lose face when they don’t win. Mr Kiasu, anyone?
What do you think? Leave your comments on the blog and let me know who you think should get the Young Artist Award next year. I’m off to see if I can get some nomination forms.
This is your Abang, signing off!
More...
