Alastair Burns takes out top music manager award

Last year’s Breakthrough Manager and International Achievement Award winner at the MMF Music Manager’s Awards in New Zealand has taken out this year’s highest honour.

Alastair Burns, who manages Australian-based artists Marlon Williams and Julia Jacklin, took out Recorded Music Manager of the Year last night.

His two acts have both achieved global success in the last few months alone. Following her appearance at SXSW, Julia Jacklin inked international record deals, and landed 20 major festival appearances including Glastonbury and Splendour in the Grass.

New Zealand-born Melburnian Marlon Williams has sold 30,000 albums, performed on US TV show Later with Jools Holland, and toured his self-titled album globally, including appearances at Austin City Limits, London, and Los Angeles.

Burns accepted the award from the UK and is currently based in Berlin.

Fun fact: The designer of the MMF Award trophy is Brii Jamieson, who is the Social Media Manager at Seventh Street Media, TIO‘s parent company.

The 2017 Breakthrough Manager of the Year’ is Matt Headland for his work with Auckland artist KINGs. Last year KINGs broke Lorde’s record for the most consecutive weeks at number one in the New Zealand Music Singles Chart for his single ‘Don’t Worry Bout It’.

Headland has helped KINGs sign recording deals with Warner Music New Zealand, Ministry of Sound Australia, Universal Music Germany, and Sony Music Canada.

The inaugural Emerging Manager of the Year award (for managers who have just started managing in the last two years) was won by Nicole Thomas and Paula Yeoman for their work with Theia.

Meanwhile, the International Achievement award was given to Julie Foa’i for her work with Te Vaka. Te Vaka was signed to Walt Disney and licensed 13 tracks to the Moana movie. The soundtrack hit #2 on the Billboard top 200 albums charts, #1 in New Zealand and was nominated for an Oscar.

The full list of 2017 MMF Music Managers Awards winners are:

Recorded Music Manager of the Year – Alastair Burns (Marlon Williams, Julia Jacklin)

Emerging Manager of the Year – Nicole Thomas and Paula Yeoman (Theia)

Breakthrough Manager of the Year – Matt Headland (KINGs, DUNES, Jamie McDell)

NZ Music Commission International Achievement Award – Julie Foa’I (Te Vaka)

Best Self-Managed Artist of the Year – Tami Neilson

Best Independent Tour – Rodney Hewson (Anika Moa – ‘Songs for Bubba’s 2 Tour’)

OneMusic Best Small Venue – San Fran, Wellington

OneMusic Best Large Venue – The Powerstation, Auckland

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.