Fortunate Ones lead list of N.L. nominees for 2019 ECMAs

Newfoundland and Labrador musicians and industry professionals have earned 33 nominations for the 2019 East Coast Music Awards as the list of nominees was released Monday.

St. John's duo Fortunate Ones top the list of the province's nominees with four, including Album of the Year, Group Recording of the Year and Songwriter of the Year.

The province also made strong showings in country and electronic genres.

Mallory Johnson and Carolina East are both in the running for Country Recording of the Year, while Alex Byrne and Rozalind MacPhail are nominated in the Electronic Recording of the Year category.

The Once, The Ennis Sisters, Blues group Earle & Coffin and metal band The Combine also earned nominations.

It's a great representation of the diversity of the music that was made here.- Rebekah Robbins

MusicNL's Program, Marketing and Communications Director Rebekah Robbins says the nominations shows the range of talent in the province.

"I think that it's a great representation of the diversity of the music that was made here in the 2017-2018 eligibility period," she said.

"We have nominations for Album [of the Year], those big overall categories, and also nominations in Country [Recording of the Year] … two nominations in Electronic Recording of the Year. That's really exciting for us."

Graphic designer Krista Power and manager Nigel Jenkins also earned nominations in the industry categories, while The Ship Pub is up for Venue of the Year.

'Really good slate' of talent

Newfoundland and Labrador's 33 noms put the province ahead of New Brunswick and P.E.I., but well behind mainland Nova Scotia's 106.

Robbins said the numbers ebb and flow from year to year, but the 2019 awards reflect a good crop of recordings.

"It's always a little bit of a pendulum, it really depends on who's in an album cycle and what has been released,"

"This year, we knew that we had a really good slate going up for nominations."

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Nova Scotia rapper Classified leads the way in total nominations with seven, followed by Ben Caplan's six.

2018 Polaris Music Prize winner Jeremy Dutcher garnered five nominations.

The ECMAs will be held in Charlottetown, P.E.I. this year, May 1 to May 5.

The full list of nominees is available here.

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