The 50th annual New Zealand Music Awards are just around the corner. With that, the official list of finalists have just been announced and should hold few surprises for home-grown music fans.

Dominating the field this year is Canterbury’s star soloist Marlon Williams, nominated for a staggering 5 awards including Album of the Year, Vodafone Single of the Year, Best Male Solo Artist, Breakthrough Artist of the Year and Best Alternative album for his captivating debut self-titled album

Joining Williams as this year’s front runners with multiple finalist nods are previous Tui winners Six60 and Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Both are finalists in four categories.

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The nominees for the 2015 Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards were just announced, recognising the best work of those who engineer, produce, and design the covers for homegrown albums.

The finalists in the best producer category are Sean Donnelly for his own album Saint John Divine, Joel Little for his work on Evergreen by Broods, and Clint Murphy for his work on We Rise by Devilskin.

Murphy is also a finalist in the best engineer category for We Rise, along with Evan Short for his work on FVEY by Shihad, and Lee Prebble for his work on Drylands by Mel Parsons. Shihad get another nod in the best album cover category, with Alt Group the finalists for their FVEY cover, and so do Broods, with Kelvin Soh with finalist for his Evergreen cover.

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