Apple on Tuesday celebrated the third annual Apple Music awards by celebrating the best artists of the year, including five new regional awards to recognize artists “who made the greatest impact culturally and on the charts in their respective countries and regions.”
The awards celebration will kick off Tuesday, December 7. While last year’s awards featured live performances from Lil Baby and Megan Thee Stallion and the inaugural event was headlined by a Billie Eilish concert, Apple says this year’s festivities will bring “interviews, original content, and more.” Here are the artists being honored:
Global Artist of the Year: The Weeknd
Breakthrough Artist of the Year: Olivia Rodrigo
Album of the Year: Olivia Rodrigo (“SOUR”)
Song of the Year: Olivia Rodrigo (“drivers license”)
Songwriter of the Year: H.E.R.
Artist of the Year (Africa): Wizkid
Artist of the Year (France): Aya Nakamura
Artist of the Year (Germany): RIN
Artist of the Year (Japan): Official Hige Dandism
Artist of the Year (Russia): Scriptonite
Apple Music is available for $9.99 a month for individuals and $14.99 a month for families (up to six people) or as part of the Apple One bundles. There is also an upcoming Voice plan that relies on Siri for $4.99 a month. New users can get a free trial plan for three months.
Additionally, Apple announced the best podcasts of the year, with honors going to “A Slight Change of Plans” with Maya Shankar, “Anything for Selena” with Maria Garcia, and numerous others.
Michael Simon has been covering Apple since the iPod was the iWalk. His obsession with technology goes back to his first PC—the IBM Thinkpad with the lift-up keyboard for swapping out the drive. He’s still waiting for that to come back in style tbh.
