Moving our spotlight away from home grown talent, we focus our attentions to the Best International Act Nominees for 2020.
Despite some artists unable to record and release music in a studio environment many were able to. There have been so many great artists we could have included but there can unfortunately only be five! Check them out below.
WALLOWS (USA)
California indie rock trio Wallows have hit worldwide acclaim in recent months. April’s single ‘OK’ was a big hitter racking up over 37 million streams on Spotify alone and they also dropped an EP titled Remote.
13 Reasons Why star Dylan Minnette is their frontman and has undoubtedly pushed the band’s presence further but their brilliant power-pop anthems do a lot of the talking. They’ve progress od a lot since 2019 album Nothing Happens, but will they come out on top?
BENEE (New Zealand)
TikTok sensation BENEE has been one huge breakthrough act this year. The indie pop artist from down under has had a whale of a time in 2020. Her hit ‘Supalonley’ with Gus Dapperton has been played over 9.7 million times on the social media platform and the 20-year-old from Auckland released her new album ‘Hey u xx’. (Read our review here) Her groove drenched sound, sweet vocals and even quirky music videos have reached new heights for the young artist. Will she be this year’s winner?
DMA’s (Australia)
The Australian Brit-pop trio are nominated for their second ICM Award following yesterday’s Best Lockdown Cover announcement (For this award only, you can vote for the winner here) after their incredible year. The band released their third album The Glow and were in their element. The Sydney band went all guns blazing to try something new but keep it truly DMA’s. Could they be victorious this year?
Hazel English (USA)
California singer-songwriter Hazel English went out on a limb to release an album during a pandemic stating “It felt crazy to put out an album during a pandemic but I’m so glad I did”. We are so glad she did too! Wake Up! (See our review here) was a bigger, lusher and more live-sounding album that was met with widespread acclaim. Hazel smashed 2020 with her defined indie pop, but will she be our Best International Act?
The Academic (Ireland)
Irish stars The Academic may not have released as much as their counterparts on our list, but they did show their dominance and prowess this year. Singles ‘Anything could Happen’, ‘Acting My Age’ and their EP of the same name. The four pieces’ jangly guitar melodies, twinkly synths and infectious songwriting never fails to hook you in and get bopping along to their bouncy indie pop. Are they this year’s winners?
The best International Act winner and all other categories will be announced on Saturday, December 19th from 7pm. Follow us on social media to see the results!
You can also get involved too! Our Best Lockdown Cover is open to voting, which you can do below.
