Anugerah Industri Muzik a.k.a. Malaysian Grammy’s latest to adopt skincare brand as sponsor, adds new categories for relevance

IT was halfway through 2015, and it was due for the Recording Industry Association of Malaysia (RIM) music awards ceremony Anugerah Industri Muzik (AIM) to make their usual round of announcements. However, a surprise “strategic” postponement took fans by surprise.

Claiming that year-end local programming was becoming over-saturated with entertainment awards shows, AIM Chairman Rosmin Hashim hoped to push his ceremony to May or June the following year.

Rosmin recently confirmed that Anugerah Industri Muzik ke-22 will indeed return after a one-year hiatus, but the awards show is set to take place this December per usual. There will be some changes however, as five new award categories have been added to this year’s proceedings, and one of them even lets you vote on who should be given the “Best Malaysian Singer” trophy.

In its latest edition, AIM has taken into account the various different ways Malaysian listeners consume music. Among its new categories are Song with Highest Total Downloads, Song with Highest Total Streams, and Most Viewed Official Music Video on Youtube.

Rosmin explained that these four categories have been created to take into account music sales in the new era, while an overall “Best Malaysian Singer” award gives the public a chance to decide an award. Nominees for the latter will be obtained from the Best Male Vocalist and Best Female Vocalist categories.

Meanwhile, AIM’s Best Malay Song by a Foreign Artist award has been dropped after organisers decided to focus on recognising local talents through the awards show. This brings the number of categories to 24 for this year’s theme of “Kemuncak Segala-galanya” (“the peak of everything”).

The awards ceremony is also set to receive a facelift as it follows in the footsteps of other popular music programming and acquires itself a major sponsor from the cosmetics and healthcare industry. Skincare product is the latest to capitalise on burgeoning demand for health and beauty among television viewers, contributing RM1.5 million to AIM this year.

Sweedskin, led by CEO Mohd Suharman Abdul Rahman since 2014, boasts Dewi Remaja runner-up Syamim Farid as spokesperson. It was first established in 2012 but today claims to be the first beauty product in the world to use Celtonyl and the first in South East Asia to contain snow algae powder.

Although the official site’s copy can falter in credibility, Sweedskin does seem pretty serious in a field where at least one rival is promising skin whitening through its top-selling collagen-infused chocolate shake. But that’s a story for another day.

Other popular awards shows and reality television to receive funding from healthy and beauty brands at present include Anugerah MeleTOP Era (AuraWhite), Anugerah Pilihan Online (D’nars), Gempak Superstarz (D’Herbs), Gegar Vaganza (QuPuteh) and Dangdut Star (Jamu Mak Dara).

Submissions to AIM whether in the Malay or English language must be released between 1 July 2014 and 30 June 2016 and must reach organisers by 29 July 2016. Nomination forms are distributed to members of RIM but can also be downloaded via the official site.

This year’s AIM is set to take place on 11 December 2016 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC). It will be aired live on Astro Ria.

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Find out more about Anugerah Industri Muzik ke-22 from their and official website. Information sourced from Star2, Malay Mail Online and Berita Harian. Featured image borrowed from EwahEwah until AIM22 starts issuing official photos!