Music Commission News

On the anniversary of the inaugural awards, the Pacific Music Awards Trust proudly opens entries and announces the date for the 2026 Pacific Music Awards.

The awards ceremony celebrates current artists, honours history and looks to the future of Pacific music. This is a collective celebration, dedicated to the incredible Pacific music community. The 2026 Pacific Music Awards will be held on Wednesday 12 August, at the Due Drop Events Centre, Manukau, Auckland.

Nominations for the 2026 Pacific Music Awards are now open to all Pacific artists across Aotearoa and the world, who released music in 2025. Local Pacific artists, i.e. New Zealand citizens/residents, can be nominated for all the entered award categories except for the Best International Pacific Artist Award, which is open to Pacific artists from overseas. Singles, EPs or albums that have been released between 1 January – 31 December 2025, are eligible for entry. All nominations need to be submitted online through the official entry system, with the deadline being 5pm, Friday 17 April 2026

For more details, including the 2026 PMA Terms & Conditions of Entry, please go to the Entries page on the website (https://www.pacificmusicawards.org.nz/entries-2026.html) The entered categories for the 2026 Pacific Music Awards are confirmed as follows: Best Pacific Female Artist, Best Pacific Male Artist, Best Pacific Group, Best Pacific Gospel Artist. Best Pacific Hip Hop Artist, Best Pacific Soul/RnB Artist, Best Pacific Roots/ Reggae Artist, Best Pacific Language, Best Pacific Song, Best Pacific Music Video, Best Producer, Best International Pacific Artist and Best Pacific Music Album (Aotearoa Music Award).

The Trust will also continue to work on the Tautua Programme, providing advocacy and support for the Pacific music community – and will share more music and content from the Hiva Folau Vaka project, which aims to contribute to language revitalisation through music.

Check out all things Pacific Music Awards below:
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In 2004 the Pacific Music Awards Committee (PMAC) was formed to realise a vision and the inaugural Pacific Music Awards debuted at Pasifika Festival in March 2005. Encouraged by the success of the awards the PMAC set about developing an annual event as a significant highlight of the New Zealand music industry calendar. The awards committee formed a Charitable Trust to organise and host the awards, and are driven by a simple core objective: to create and manage an event that acknowledges the success of Pacific artists, celebrates and promotes excellence in Pacific music and encourages young Pacific musicians to aspire to a higher level of achievement.