First Apple Music Awards celebrates the best of 2019

By

Apple and Genius team up to bring Verified episodes on Apple Music
Apple and Genius team up to bring Verified episodes on Apple Music
Photo: Apple

Cupertino will celebrate the first Apple Music Awards with a special performance by Billie Eilish this week at the Steve Jobs Theater inside Apple Park.

Eilish takes the top honor as Global Artist of the Year, while Breakthrough Artist of the Year goes to Lizzo. Song of the Year goes to Lil Nas X for genre-blurring viral sensation “Old Town Road.”

You’ll be able to watch Eilish’s performance live at 6:30 p.m. PST on December 4.

The Apple Music Awards salute “the best and boldest musicians” and the impact they’ve had on global culture. It honors achievements across five categories, with winners chosen through a process that combines editorial perspective with what fans love most.

This year, Eilish comes out on top for three of those honors.

2019 Apple Music Awards winners

In addition to Global Artist of the Year, Eilish bagged the Album of the Year awarded for When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? Apple Music’s most popular album of 2019, it racked up more than 1 billion streams. Eilish also took home the award for Songwriter of the Year. She will share it with her brother, Finneas, who co-wrote and produced the hit album.

Lizzo, who scored hits with “Cuz I Love You” and “Truth Hurts,” takes the award for Breakthrough Artist of the Year. Lil Nas X track “Old Town Road,” the biggest single of 2019, won Song of the Year.

“I went into the realm of a loner cowboy, needing to run away from everything,” Lil Nas X told Apple Music. “But I also wanted to put it with what was on the rise, which is the whole meme culture — plus actually making it a listenable, catchy song.”

A uniquely Apple award

“The Apple Music Awards are designed to recognize the passion, energy and creativity of the world’s favorite artists,” said Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and International Content. “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.”

Apple also designed a series of awards for its winners. Each features Apple’s custom silicon wafer suspended between a sheet of polished glass and a machined and anodized aluminum body.

A uniquely Apple award goes to 2019 Apple Music Awards winners.
A uniquely Apple award.
Photo: Apple

The wafers are perfect 12-inch discs. They’re layered with copper and patterned by ultraviolet lithography that creates connections between their billions of transistors. It takes several months to manufacture each one.

The discs are typically cut into hundreds of individual chips for iOS devices. But for these awards, they remain intact. The symbolic gesture acknowledges the Apple devices that put the world’s music at our fingertips.

Watch Billie Eilish live on December 4

Apple Music will celebrate the Apple Music Awards with a special performance from Billie Eilish this Wednesday. The show will take place at the Steve Jobs Theater, but you don’t need to visit Apple Park to watch. You can live-stream the event around the world from 6:30 p.m. PST on December 4.

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.