Broadcast live from the Seneca Niagara Hotel & Casino in Niagara Falls, New York, the Fourteenth Annual Native American Music Awards will feature a host of performances and special appearances by Native American and mainstream artists; Blackfoot with founding member Rickey Medlocke, Tony Duncan and Estun Bah, Grammy nominee Radmilla Cody, Pop artist Jana Mashonee, CC Murdock, Indian Elvis, Fawn Wood, Edmund Bull, drum group Big River Cree, Grammy Award winner Joseph Firecrow along with other special guests plus a special Living Legend Award to international superstar Nelly Furtado and a Hall of Fame tribute performance for the late Russell Means (Lakota).
The live streaming and broadcast of this Awards program is made possible by Mike Johnson and www.Singlefeathermedia.com.
Visit the Native American Music Awards Website, www.nativeamericanmusicawards.
This will be the sixth consecutive time the Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel proudly hosts the Native American Music Awards and sets the stage for some serious star power. The 14th annual awards show that was nearly cancelled due to Superstorm Sandy last fall.
The Native American Music Awards honors North American’s top native musicians in 30 distinct categories and will feature more than a dozen live performances and collaborations. Canadian comic Don Kelly will emcee the event.
Nelly Furtado will receive the Living Legend Award during the event for her leadership and contributions toward the advancement of Native American culture. For her single “Big Hoops” from her current album “The Spirit Indestructible,” she featured Native American hoop dancer Tony Duncan in the music video, and the two have performed together throughout the past year for MTV’s Video Music Awards, the Billboard Music Awards, The Tonight Show and more. Furtado has sold 20 million albums worldwide, won two Grammy Awards and 10 Juno Awards, and has a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame.
Rickey Medlocke, the founder of Southern rock group Blackfoot and current guitarist for legendary rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd, will be joined by Grammy Award–winning singer-songwriter Joanne Shenandoah on stage to induct the late Russell Means into the Native American Music Awards Hall of Fame. Means, a Native American activist, musician and actor in The Last of the Mohicans, passed away in October 2012. Medlocke himself is a member the Hall of Fame, is nominated for two awards this year and will perform on stage with Blackfoot.
As a musician, Means released two national recordings, the 16 track Electric Warrior, on Warrior Records in 1993, and The Radical, released on the American Indian Music Company, Inc., in 1995. He described his music as a Tribal Experience that included all genres of music; Classical, Country & Western Rock-n-Roll, Hard Rock, Hip-Hop, R&B, Jazz and the Blues. He called his own music and words, Rap-ajo because he said, “It’s my version of Rap”.
Ayi Jihu, dubbed “China’s Madonna” in an article by the BBC, will join top Native American fashion designer Angela DeMontigny and musician Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson to present an award. Jihu has purportedly sold more than 100 million albums in China and is currently working with DeMontigny to promote the FearChaser® anti-bullying campaign. Williams-Davidson is nominated for two categories at this year’s event.
Limited tickets for Friday’s event are available at Seneca Casino box offices, Ticketmaster.com, all Ticketmaster locations or by phone at 800-745-3000. To learn more about the Native American Music Awards, please visit www.NAMAlive.com.