Time to Exercise Your Vote - Who is Ireland's Greatest Living Musician?
Tomorrow the country will go to the ballot box to decide who will lead us in the next government. But the question on everyone’s lips should be who is Ireland’s Greatest Living Musician? From Van Morrison to Christy Moore, Ronan Keating to Enya, Ireland’s music industry has been graced with so much talent and we’re asking you, the public, to choose and cast your vote in the most important poll of the week.
Music aficionados Dave Fanning and Shay Healy joined stunning Irish model Katy French today (Wednesday, 23rd May) to launch the special one-off honour, which follow’s last year’s award to Tommy Tiernan as the Funniest Living Irish Person. The award is part of the People of the Year Awards, now in its 33rd year, which is sponsored for the first time by QUINN-healthcare, and organised by Rehab.
A top-class adjudication panel will select the winner from the 15 most popular nominees, as voted for by the public. Votes can be cast either by logging onto www.peopleoftheyear/musician or by texting ‘REHAB’ followed by the nominee’s name to 53503. (Text votes cost 30 cent including VAT. Mobile operator charges apply. Closing date for all nominations is Friday, 20th July 2007.)
Said Rehab Chief Executive, Angela Kerins: “This award is guaranteed to provoke great interest. With so many talented Irish artists we’re expecting the competition to be fierce. Ireland has an international reputation in the music industry from country to pop, rock and traditional, and every Irish person has their own favourite. With so many opinions, we’re expecting plenty of debate.”
Nominations can also be made online at www.peopleoftheyear.com for other award categories which include the Irish Person of the Year, the Young Irish Person of the Year and the International Person of the Year, along with four winners from the areas of community service, arts and culture, peace and reconciliation, business, science and technology, sport and medicine. Nomination papers can be obtained by contacting Rehab at 01 – 205 7200.
Speaking on the launch, Donal Clancy, General Manager of QUINN-healthcare, said: ‘We’re delighted to support Rehab in their excellent work and we encourage more people to become involved in their local communities; it can make a real difference to the lives of others.’
The Awards ceremony, including the presentation of the Greatest Living Musician Award, will take place at Dublin’s CityWest Hotel on Saturday, 8th September 2007, and will be televised live by RTÉ.
Past People of the Year include Sir Bob Geldof, Brian Keenan, Veronica Guerin, Senator George Mitchell, Mo Mowlam and Maeve Binchy.
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Further Information: Colm O’Riagain, Slattery Communications T: 661 4055, E: colm.oriagain@scomms.ie