SAN JOSE, Dec 3 — The tech giant has announced its first-ever annual Apple Music Awards, which are described as “a celebration of the best and boldest musicians of 2019 and the enormous impact they have had on global culture this year.”

The inaugural award ceremony will be livestreamed on Apple’s website on December 4 from the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California, where Billie Eilish will perform a concert at 6.30pm PST/9.30 pm EST.

The 17-year-old vocalist will notably be the first recipient of the Apple Music Award for Global Artist of the Year.

She will also walk away with the award for Album of the Year for her debut album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, which racked up more than one billion streams on Apple Music.

Advertisement

Eilish will also share the award for Songwriter of the Year with her brother and privileged collaborator Finneas O’Connell, who co-wrote her chart-topping debut studio album.

“The Apple Music Awards are designed to recognise the passion, energy and creativity of the world’s favourite artists. The musically diverse group of inaugural winners have sparked deep social conversation, influenced culture and inspired our customers around the world. We couldn’t be more excited to celebrate them,” Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and International Content, said in a statement.

Additional winners include Lizzo, who was named Breakthrough Art of the Year following the success of her third album, Cuz I Love You, and Lil Nas X, whose genre-blurring hit Old Town Road garnered him the award for Song of the Year.

Advertisement

Each of the artists and songwriters will receive an award that the tech giant described as “uniquely Apple,” as it is made from parts used to build iPhones and iPads.

Apple Music is not the only streaming platform to hold its own award ceremony.

Last month, Spotify announced that the inaugural edition of the Spotify Awards will be held on March 5, 2020 in Mexico City.

While the Spotify Awards bill themselves as the “first-ever award ceremony 100 per cent based on user-generated data,” winners of the Apple Music awards for Global Artist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Breakthrough Artist of the Year were selected by Apple’s global editorial team.

The awards for Album of the Year and Song of the Year are based solely on user-generated streaming data to reflect “what Apple Music customers have been listening to (on repeat) this year.” — AFP-Relaxnews