Some of the biggest names of the music industry turned out for the May 12th
taping of the 1993 World Music Awards in
Millions of music lovers all over the country tuned in to watch the star-studded TV spectacular, hosted by Michael Douglas. Michael Jackson dominated the proceedings, taking away the three most important awards: best selling American artist of the year, world’s best-selling recording artist of the year and world’s best-selling recording artist of the era. The latter award has never before been presented in the history of music award shows.
The World Music Awards show is still in the process of being broadcast to
more than 70 other territories around the world, including all of North and
South America, Japan and most of Asia, Australia, New Zealand, several countries
in the Middle East, Africa and all of Europe. Whereas other American music-award
shows with huge audiences don’t air in certain major territories like the
The Independent Television network in
The World Music Awards is the only truly international music ceremony in the
world today, honoring the world’s best-selling artists in various categories and
the best-selling national artists from the major record-buying countries around
the world. The awards are supported by the International Federation of the
Phonographic Industry (IFPI), whose national member associations provide the
organization with the names of their overall best-selling artists and groups. In
The winners of the special awards presented to the world’s best-selling artists in the various categories are determined after thorough research conducted by the Media Research Information Bureau and the Music Industry Research organization on IFPI sales figures, platinum/gold record certifications for the past year and record company royalty statistics.
Garth Brooks, the world’s best-selling country artist of the year, thanked his music fans in a satellite link-up from the U.S. Eric Clapton was also honored, as the best-selling British recording artist of the year and the world’s best-selling rock artist of the year. Sir John Morgan, president of IFPI, presented a very special award to the world’s overall best-selling artists of the year, Michael Jackson, for having sold 17 million units of Bad worldwide. Morgan took the opportunity to make an appeal for continued support from the public to assist IFPI in its battle to destroy piracy, which is still the biggest problem in the music industry today.
The close link with record sales has meant that the World Music Awards have
become a standard-bearer in the fight against record piracy. Pirate recordings
stand at around 500 million units a year. This major erosion of the industry’s
market is now costing in excess of $1.5 billion a year. Morgan defined piracy as
“a global problem, from Latin America to Africa to
The countries from which the award winners come are certainly wide-ranging.
Some of these artists are huge in their own territories but not necessarily
famous internationally. The World Music Awards give these artists a chance to
introduce themselves to other major record-buying territories. For example,
Japanese superstars Chage & Aska sell nearly 5 million albums a year in
Laime, the Russian wonder who has just been signed to GRP, sold 1.8 million
albums in the former
Belgian multi-platinum group Vaya Con Dios sold well over a million copies of
their new album, Time Flies, all over
Europe, and
Apart from the world’s best-selling artists in the various categories and the national best-selling artist award-winners, five artists were honored with special panel awards. Country act Billy Ray Cyrus accepted his award by satellite as international new artist of the year. He is the best-selling international newcomer of the past year, having sold over 6 million albums worldwide. Multi-platinum act Boyz II Men took a bow as international new group of the year after performing their worldwide hit End Of The Road. Rod Stewart, Tina Turner and Luciano Pavarotti were presented with “legend” awards for their lifelong contributions to the music industry.
The royal patronage of the show has been a tradition since the World Music
Awards started in 1989.
* ABBA – Best-Selling Swedish Recording Artists Of The year: The best-selling Swedish act of all time, ABBA dominated the world charts from 1974 to 1982. Last year ABBA Gold was remastered and re-released; it features all nine of the group’s singles that topped the charts worldwide in the 1970s. The new package has sold over 3 million units in the past year. Though the story of ABBA the performing group is over, the popularity of their hits endures.
* A-HA – Best-Selling Norwegian
Recording Artists Of The Year: A-HA really, put
* U2 – Best-Selling Irish Recording Artists Of The Year; World’s Best-Selling Concert Act Of The Year: U2 was formed in 1978, when its members were pupils at Dublin’s Mount Temple school. They’ve since stormed the international charts and won numerous awards. The Joshua Tree sold more than 14 million copies worldwide and was followed by the multi-platinum Rattle And Hum (1988) and Achtung Baby (late 1991). U2 is also the world’s leading ticket-seller, playing live to more than 2.5 million.
* Bryan Adams – Best-Selling Canadian Recording Artist Of The Year: Bryan Adams is one of the few Canadian artists to burst on to the international rock scene and stay there. Waking Up The Neighbours, with more than 10 million unit sales worldwide, has been the best-selling Canadian album for two successive years. The single Everything I Do, I Do It For You was the world’s best-selling single in 1991 and the biggest-selling single in A&M Records’ history.
* Tina Turner – Lifelong Contribution
To The Music Industry: For the past decade, Tina Turner has generated more
excitement onstage than has any other female rock star. An international
phenomenon, she has electrified the great rock arenas of the world, drawing more
than 3 million fans to her most recent European concerts – the most successful
tour yet on the continent. She has sold over 30 million records worldwide in her
solo career. Born Anna Mae Bullock in
* Michael Jackson – Best-Selling American Recording Artist Of The Year;
World’s Best-Selling Recording Artist Of The Year & World’s Best-Selling
Recording Artist Of The Era.
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