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13 February 2016, at 20:32
Concerning the awards, I pretty much agree with everything. Not all my personal no.1s, but they are all in my favorites.
Only thing is that it's a shame Menno isn't in the top 10 of Best DJ or Producer.
Will Atkinson and Bryan Kearney were both very close to go above Armin in the Best Producer category, but Armin won it in the end. Good to see also that guys like Standerwick Adam Ellis and Dan Stone made it in the top 10 of Best Producer in between the established artists. And also good to see that Ferry Corsten has made his return in both Best DJ and Best Producer categories. He's really coming back to trance!
My favorite vocalists are Betsie Larkin, who went up to #3, and Stine Grove, who is a new entry in the top 10, so both already good and I'm already glad Susana won it from Christina Novelli.
My personal favorite newcomer is Johan Ekman and it's a shame to see him going down, but I'm glad Alex Di Stefano and Vini Vici are the new entries and to be honest, both UCast and Dan Stone had both a massive year, so completely deserved. I like Adam Ellis very much as well, but to me he's not really a newcomer anymore.
What I like is that Anahera, which really fits the Gouryella alias outwon the Rising Star track by far, which in my opinion has nothing to do with Rising Star. It's just another random Armin van Buuren vocal track he made so many of and called it Rising Star purely for commercial reasons. Rising Star was not even in the top 20. And Anahera only lost the award to Numb The Pain (my personal favorite together with Abhyasa) with 1 point difference!
I love Dan Stone's rework of See The Sun and therfor deserved, he won it with a big distance anyway, but my personal favorites were the Ben Gold Remix of Cherry Blossom, the Alex Di Stefano Remix of Abhyasa and UCast's Rewake of Awaken.
Btw, first time ever that 1 track was twice in the top 10 of best remixes; both Fady & Mina's Remix and Solarstone's Pure Mix of The Other Shore are in it.
I don't think there's 1 Mashup that really jumped out this year, but I kinda like all the picks from the top 5. My favorites were Tears From Sadness In Black And White (Airwave Mashup) and One Way Tribe (Sequence Six Mashup). Nubia Is Good For Me won with a big distance tho.
My absolute favorite artist album was Harmonia, but I'm already glad that one and Sneijder's album, which I like very much too, came above the Embrace, who IMO shouldn't even be in the top 10.
What can I not like in the top 10 of Best Mix Compilation albums. Besides the ASOT and both FSOE albums, I have them all and I like them all. Great to see Technoclub 48 in it also!
Armin lost his last award, the one for Best Radioshow also to Aly & Fila. And that's deserved. I can't add anything else to that. IMO ASOT should even be lower. But good to see Pure Trance Radio at 3 and MdJcc also being in the top 10. ALso here, Ferry Corsten has won a lot of spots, just not enough to enter the top 10.
All the livesets in the top 10 are really great. Aly & Fila as most popular won it of course, but my personal favorites were Menno Solo and the System F set.
All the studio mixes mentionned are also great. Glad to see both Yearmixes from Menno are there, really the best yearmixes every single year and Orkidea being at no.2 was a big surprise for me, but I love it! And with Airwave one of our own is in the list
My personal favorite events were Lumi Beach and Menno Solo. Lumi won it with a big distance at the end, but for a long time, FSOE 400 Egypt was topping the list. At the end even Transmission passed it. Never been there, but I think it must be a great festival and they deserved the #2 spot.
Afterhours FM seemed to lose their awards this year, for quite a while they were 3rd behind DI and Party 103, but at the end AH.fm won it with a distance again. That DI is 2nd seems normal and expected, but this year Party 103 only have a few points less. Every year DI is losing fans.
That FSOE is voted best label is only normal, with 8 tracks in our top 20 it is only normal. Only Black Hole had more releases in the top 20 (9, including sublabels) and that's why I expected them to be higher than #4. Of course it included the sublabels like Subculture, Outburst, Damaged and Pure Trance which are also in the top 10. I also expected ITWT to be higher, but the label from label boss Menno de Jong didn't even come near the top 10.
About the community awards, I already thanked everybody again for voting me, but I can't do it enough! For the rest I think the top spots from Shadowman are much deserved as he's been very active and Autumn_Opaline winning the Best Newcomer Award as well, with taking the tracklisting of ABGT on her and when me and Shadowman are both absent, she's doing the tracklisting of Club Elite Sessions as well. Keep up the good work! Tom being Best DJ?Producer is nothing new either. I mean, I like all the others too, but all Tom's mixes are simply brillant. To me his mixes are better than most of the famous artists and I'm so glad to have him on board here. Randy has produced his ass off in 2015 and its no surprise to me he's in the top 10 with 3 (!) tracks. Well done mate! About the discussion and funny topics, I really hope there will be many more discussions going on in 2016. Both winning topics from Randy are deserved, but last year, there wasn't much to choose from to be honest.