Edison Award

Edison Award
Edison awards 1961
Awarded for	Outstanding achievements in the music industry
Country	Netherlands
Presented by	NVPI
First awarded	1960
Official website	http://www.edisons.nl/

The Edison music award is an annual Dutch music prize, awarded for outstanding achievements in the music industry. It is one of the oldest music awards in the world, having been presented since 1960.

The first Edisons — named after the inventor of the phonograph, Thomas Alva Edison — were awarded in October 1960 at the inaugural Grand Gala du Disque, held at the Kurhaus hall in the coastal resort of Scheveningen. The broadcast, which was a joint venture of TV broadcaster AVRO and the Netherlands' major record companies, featured dozens of acts and went on for hours. In the years that followed, the Grand Gala du Disque became an annual event with legendary status. The 1963 event, which overran by almost two hours, saw Marlene Dietrich, Sarah Vaughan and Charles Aznavour accepting an Edison.

Each year, Edisons were awarded in two main categories: International artists and domestic (Dutch) artists, in various musical styles such as pop, vocal, jazz, instrumental, children and (in the early years) a separate award for French-language music.

Through the years, the format for the Edison ceremony has changed several times. The grand old style of the Grand Gala du Disque was deemed old fashioned by the end of the 1960s, as the emphasis in the music business shifted from classical/vocal music to pop and rock. The Grand Galas in the early 1970s featured more pop/rock artists in a more informal setting (although most of them still accompanied by an orchestra).

The final Grand Gala du Disque was televised in 1974, after which the awards ceremonies became a much more intimate affair. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the ceremonies were not even televised. During the 1980s, several attempts were made to revive the old Grand Gala format (or a format similar to that of the Oscar and Grammy Award ceremonies), but due to lack of interest from record companies, artists, the media and broadcasters, none of these initiatives proved successful and long-lasting. The 2011 ceremony, held on 2 October and which featured eight categories, was not televised.