Armenian band Ladaniva received the Public Choice at Music Moves Europe Awards, the EU prize for popular and contemporary music.
The aim of the awards is to celebrate upcoming European artists and support them in developing their international careers.
The awards, co-funded by the European Union, were judged by a panel including Mad Cool Festival booker Cindy Castillo Núñez, BBC Radio 1 presenter Gemma Bradley and Spotify head of artist & industry partnerships Bryan Johnson.
The acts to win awards were Denise Chaila from Ireland, Hungary’s ДEVA, Mezerg from France, Blanks from The Netherlands and Alina Pash from Ukrania. The Grand Jury Prize was awarded to Belgium’s Meskerem Mees, while the Public Choice award was given to Ladaniva from Armenia.
Previous winners include Adele, Mumford & Sons and Dua Lipa.
The Music Moves Europe Award winners receive € 10.000,- each. The winner of the Grand Jury Award wins an additional green touring voucher worth € 5.000. The winner of the Public Choice Award receives € 5.000. Each nominee is also offered the opportunity to attend a training day at Eurosonic Noorderslag (ESNS) to further their skills in internationalizing their careers, representing a value of € 1.250 per artist. The Business Education Training day includes keynotes, expert meetings and training sessions.
Ladaniva is a multicultural band creating world music with a fresh touch of Armenian folk and other traditional forms, including maloya, Balkanbeat, reggae, Arabic, and African influences. The group was founded in October 2019 by Armenian singer Jacqueline Baghdasaryan and French multi-instrumentalist Louis Thomas. Ladaniva immediately became famous with the song ‘Vay Aman’, which presented a fresh style and a new approach to world music.
