Supergroup Mōhau at the 2020 Aotearoa Music Awards. Photo / File
This year's 2023 Aotearoa Music Awards are off, as organisers look to revamp the show following feedback from the music community - including calls for more diversity in the judging panels - an RNZ report says.
That "allows us some time to make sure that we're covering off all the things that were brought up in the review," Sarah Owen, the head of Recorded Music NZ, which produces the awards ceremony, told RNZ's Music 101 this week.
"[T]hose things do take a little bit of time, such as the judging process and making sure that the categories are as they should be."
Owens said a researcher talked with hundreds of people from the music community and strong themes came out of the feedback.
The message was overwhelming that the awards are widely valued, she said, and that wins or performances at the ceremony were seen as "high value" achievements.
The research did, however, identify several concerns or things the music community wanted changed or clarified, the RNZ report said, including the judging process, the categories and the importance of diversity in the judging panels.
One of the big changes to emerge from the process is that the ceremony will shift to earlier in the year - April or May - closer to Music Month.
And while the 2023 ceremony is on hold, the awards will definitely be back, Owens said.
"It was never the plan to stop, but we just wanted to be sure that we were doing it right ... and were giving us enough time to do that."