Comedy duo Jono & Ben back to host 52nd Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards

Jono Pryor and Ben Boyce will once again take to the stage as the hosts of the 52nd Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards ceremony on Thursday 16 November.

Over the last year they’ve made the move to The Edge, worked on their own television show, and somehow still found time to get up to their usual antics. 

“We have some incriminating photos of the organisers, hence the reason we are back for a second year,” said Jono. “We are excited to do our bad jokes to a room full of people who don't want to hear them.” 

“The organisers wanted Mike Hosking to host but we got a petition signed to get him removed and it worked,” said Ben.

While the hosts may remain the same, there are a number of differences to the structure of the Music Awards this year.

Replacing Best Male Solo Artist and Best Female Solo Artist will be the new category of ‘Best Solo Artist’. The award for Best Urban/Hip Hop Album has been split into two new categories – ‘Best Hip Hop Artist’ and ‘Best Soul/RnB Artist’.

Also, in recognising the many ways artists are now recording and releasing their music, all genre album categories (Best Rock, Best Pop, Best Alternative, Best Roots, Best Electronic, Best Worship, Best Classical, Best Hip Hop, Best Soul/RnB) plus Best Maori Album will be renamed ‘Best Artist’. 

This means all nominees can now be put forward if they have released an album OR a minimum of five single tracks, as long as they have not previously appeared on an album, and were released within the eligibility period (1 August 2016 - 31 July 2017).

Recorded Music NZ CEO Damian Vaughan said these changes are reflective of how the music industry is changing, and it’s an honour to be part of New Zealand’s music industry.

“It’s fantastic to see the Music Awards celebrating Kiwi musicians for the 52nd year running. We have such a unique and varied industry here and it’s important to acknowledge all the achievements that happened over the last year.”

Furthermore, for the second year running Recorded Music NZ will be celebrating those behind the scenes as well with the Artisan Awards. The finalists for Best Producer, Best Engineer, Best Music Video and Best Album Cover will be announced on 28 September, with the event hosted at the Tuning Fork on 25 October.

Nominations for the 2017 Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards opened on 21 June, and the finalists will be announced 5 October.

The Vodafone Music Awards celebration is on 16 November where the winners of each category are announced for 2017.

Key dates for 2017 Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards:

•   Thursday, 28 September

Artisan finalist announcement

•   Thursday, 5 October
Finalist announcement

•   Thursday, 12 October

Legacy recipient announcement

•   Thursday, 19 October

Māori finalist announcement

•   Wednesday, 25 October
Artisan awards 

•   Thursday, 16 November
Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards ceremony (Spark Arena) 

Tickets go on sale 5 October, $25 general admission + booking fee, available from Ticketmaster.

The Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards will be broadcast live on Three on November 16th from 8.30pm.