McKenna Loren named Best Country Artist after judges revocation

For the first time in AIMA’s 3-year history, the Board of Judges revoked Calico the Band’s 2014 award for Best Country Artist on Sunday and named McKenna Loren as the recipient for the title by unanimous decision.

The Los Angeles based music awards platform took action when recording artist Calico the Band were a “no show” at the 2014 Artists In Music Awards held at Jon Lovitz Theatre on February 7. The rules state that all nominees must be present at the awards ceremony otherwise elect to have a representative appear on the artist’s behalf to collect their award.

“Out of respect of this organization and to the artists you compete with, all artists must be present to receive Nomination Certificate(s) or Award trophy(s) unless authorized with prior written approval. This is to the benefit of the artists career and to the benefit of the AIMA organization. If you cannot attend the Nomination Event or Awards Ceremony, you may elect to have a representative receive award(s) on your behalf or receive their nomination certificate(s) on the day of the Awards Ceremony. Only one artist per year is authorized to be absent from accepting an award in person during the awards ceremony, however all absentee requests must be emailed or mailed to the corporate office. As soon as possible, the artist must notify the AIMA office immediately or the artist may be subject to review for possible disqualification. If disqualified, the artist voluntarily or involuntarily forfiets the award to the runner up.” – Artists In Music Awards Rules

Calico the Band was awarded the AIMA trophy for Best Country Artist during the Awards Ceremony held at Jon Lovitz Theatre in front of a 700 plus crowd consisting of 150 Nominees, media, and various guests. After the Best Country video of nominees was played on the big screen, MC of the show, Nic Creznic opened the envelope to announce that Calico the Band had won, nearly 30 seconds past by before moving onto the next category.

“It feels like an eternity when we call out the winner’s name and no one is there to collect the award. It’s not only awkward to the host, but it’s awkward to the audience. More importantly, it’s disrespectful to the artists that travel hundreds of miles to be here, especially when everyone except the winner is there” – Mikey Jayy, executive producer.

The Artists In Music Awards Board of Judges reviewed the circumstances surrounding the event and we’re given as long as they needed to make their decision. After only three days of deliberation, all votes pointed toward revocation of the title and was decided that the 17-year-old Country Singer Songwriter McKenna Loren would receive the title of Best Country Artist for 2014.

The 2014 Board of Judges are Lea Reis (Record Producer), Dan Burns (Record Producer), Jeff Weber (Owner of Weber Works Entertainment), Guy Towe (Radio DJ), Gus Summer (Radio DJ), Fredrick Rawlins (Musician), Margaret Guiraud (Talent Agent), Walter D Hargrave (CEO/Owner of Indie Music Bus), Carol Riodan (Radio DJ), and Mark Lamdanski (Radio DJ).