AIM award nominees (from top to bottom): hip-hop outfit Ahli Fiqir, Adibah Noor, Rithan, and Shanon Shah.

THE countdown for the 13th edition of the Anugerah Industri Musik awards (AIM) is on as it sets out to celebrate the best of local music on April 29 at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur. But as usual the country’s longest running music awards lived up to its erratic reputation when the final nominations announced on Wednesday snubbed two of last year’s most talked about rock albums – Butterfingers’ Selamat Tinggal Dunia and Love Me Butch’s This Is The New Pop.

The rock genre, considering it has a huge local fan-base, has unfortunately always been a problematic section for the AIM awards.

The accusations of the AIM jury committee being too pop-centric couldn’t have been more pronounced than this year and the debate continues whether the AIM has the capable hands to handle the increasingly progressive side of modern Malaysian music (be it rock, singer-songwriters or hip hop).

Instead, what the final AIM nominations list delivered was a good balance in the headline-making pop categories, with contemporary pop singer Adibah Noor receiving six nominations and Malaysian Idol diva Jaclyn Victor (better known as Jac) leading the pack with seven nominations.

A total of 17 will be contested at the AIM night next month.

Both the singers will go head to head as they are nominated in the best new artiste, best pop album, best musical arrangement in a song and song of the year categories. Funnily enough, Adibah and Jac are hardly newcomers considering the session work and club stint that were a big part of their early careers respectively.

It makes for a nice story to have these “veteran newcomers” as potential AIM stars.

Legendary diva Anita Sarawak received four nominations with the release of her English album, Another Dimension and another veteran, Jamal Abdillah, received two nominations for best vocal performance in an album (male) and best pop album.

In an interesting twist, the best vocal performance in an album (male) also saw Rithan, lead singer and guitarist for rock band Deja Voodoo Spells nominated in that category, seeing him in competition with the likes of Jamal, Hazami, Mus (of May fame) and Shanon Shah.

Deja Voodoo Spells also received another nomination for best new local English artiste along with hip-hop act Mass Raw and pop singer Saer Ze.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to be part of AIM, so I’m really happy and excited to be nominated,” said Saer Ze whose real name is Sarah Zainal.

Love Me Butch managed a nod in the best music video category alongside Adibah, Lo, Ahli Fiqir and Adam.

Singaporean hip-hop outfit Ahli Fiqir received a nomination in the best new artiste category along with Sharifah Zarina. Dina (Malaysian Idol runner-up) also made this category and best vocal performance in an album (female).

The rock genre, which is divided into two categories: best pop rock album and best hard rock album saw the likes of Awie, Spider and Flop Poppy nominated in the former while the latter boasted popular local rock act Barongan, rock legends May and new kids on the block, O2 among others.

“We’re not interested in winning and losing,” said O2 lead singer and guitarist Izan, before continuing, “We want to make a contribution to the music industry and as long as we’re doing that, I think that’s the most important thing.”

The coveted song of the year category saw popular star Mawi receiving his sole nomination along with Misha Omar and Zahid.

Browse (www.aim.com.my) for the full list of nominees.

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