Artist News Awards

The nominations for this year’s Q Awards are just so available right now

By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 13 September 2018

The nominations for this year’s Q Awards are out. Don’t sit there thinking they’re not, because they so are. If they weren’t, how would I know that no one has more than two nominations? Huh? Answer me that.

I’d never make something like that up. Because, to be honest, I wish that wasn’t even the case. Then I could do the traditional ‘so and so leads the nominations with 73 nods’ intro for this report. But I can’t. I could tell you that The 1975, Idles, Janelle Monae, Christine & The Queens, Arctic Monkeys and Goat Girl all have two nominations each, but what would be the point?

Are these shortlists any good though? Let’s ask Q Editor Tedd Kessler. “I love these shortlists and I love the Q readership even more for supplying them”, he says. “We’ve thought for a while at Q that in a digital world where streaming music is so ubiquitous, the old barriers between musical genres are meaningless. All that matters is whether a song has power or if an artist makes something to become lost within”.

He goes on: “These shortlists, where Janelle Monáe’s future-funk rubs shoulders with Goat Girl’s garage-punk in Best Track, or where Kendrick Lamar could just as easily be the Best Act In The World Today as Paul Weller, prove that. Unlike some music awards, artists are not nominated by their representatives, nor is there a fee to be paid upon entry. It’s decided by the readers and the writers of Q alone, and consequently these shortlists represent the very best of music now”.

There can only be one winner though. Of each category. There will be more than one winner overall. And that’s fine. They’ll all receive their trophies, assuming they bother to turn up, at the Roundhouse in Camden on 17 Oct. The public have until 5 Oct to vote, in the categories where public voting is allowed, and they can do that here.

But right now all the nominated acts are potential winners. And that’s nicer isn’t it? Maybe let’s just all take in the shortlists and then not bother knowing who the winners are next month, we could all do with a little less disappointment in the world. So, enjoy these lists…

Best Track: The 1975 – Love It If We Made It, Cjhildish Gambino – This Is America, Christine & The Queens – Girlfriend, Goat Girl – The Man, Janelle Monáe – Make Me Feel, Underworld & Iggy Pop – Bells & Circles

Best Album: Arctic Monkeys – Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, Anna Calvi – Hunter, Noel Gallagher – Who Built The Moon?, Idles – Joy As An Act Of Resistance, Interpol – Marauder, Let’s Eat Grandma – I’m All Ears

Best Solo Artist: Christine & The Queens, Drake, Noel Gallagher, Janelle Monáe, Ed Sheeran, Sophie

Breakthrough Act: Amyl & The Sniffers, Goat Girl, Tom Grennan, The Magic Gang, Idles, Bugzy Malone, Nakhane, Novelist, Nadine Shah, Jorja Smith, Rejjie Snow

Best Live Act: David Byrne, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Liam Gallagher, Stefflon Don, Taylor Swift, Wolf Alice

Best Act In The World Today: The 1975, Arctic Monkeys, Florence & The Machine, Kendrick Lamar, St Vincent, Paul Weller

Best Festival/Event: All Points East, British Summer Time, Isle Of Wight Festival, Latitude Festival, Rize Festival, Spotify Presents: Who We Be