NME Awards

I was just reading about the British NME [[New Musical Express) Awards.

The magazine had it's [[voted) awards each year [[from 1953) and the poll-winners often performed at a live concert to mark the event. These were especially popular [[some have been released on DVD) when artists like the Beatles or Rolling Stones were award-winners and performers.

The award categories often changed and in the case of male & female vocalists, these were sometimes split into 'Best British' and 'Best World' although some like Dusty Springfield or David Bowie could win both of these awards in the same year.

What I didn't realise was that Diana Ross won the 'Best World Female Vocalist' for five years in a row [[1970-74) a record unmatched by any other female singer and only beaten by Elvis Presley.

Shows how popular she was with the Brits in the early 70s.

No question, in the UK in the early 70s Diana would have been regarded as the world's leading female singer - right up to the 90s she would have appeared high in any such poll.

The NME was the biggest musical selling paper in the country, the vote was by the public and in those days you had to go the trouble of writing out a form and posting it in.

She was an instantly recognisable face throughout the country.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by florence

The NME was the biggest musical selling paper in the country, the vote was by the public and in those days you had to go the trouble of writing out a form and posting it in.

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Yeah - in the [[late) 70s Teenage Me used to buy NME & Melody Maker and some other UK 'pop rags'. Though they used to take a few months [[sea mail) to get to Aussie stores they were always a good read. They did go more 'indie/punk/alternative' around then but they were usually pretty respectful of great music.

Was looking to see if she scored high around Chain Reaction times in 86 but, by then, the 'world singer' category had been removed.

And now - in this futuristic covid era - music magazines like 'Classic Pop' take 2-3 months to arrive downunder due to Sea-Mail lol ;)