Moe And Friends, Raymond McGrath and Anika Moa take home the 2017 Children’s Music Awards.

After last year’s awards were a low key industry affair, this year’s celebrations were included into the National Children’s Day event at Auckland’s Silo Park, alongside family friendly activities.

Following live performance from the finalists, much-loved children’s entertainer Suzy Cato announced the winners.

• APRA Best Children’s Song – Ben Sinclair & Jeremy Dillon aka Moe and Friends: We Like Pets!
• NZ On Air Best Children’s Music Video – Raymond McGrath: Monstomping! 
• Recorded Music NZ Best Children’s Album – Songs for Bubbas 2 by Anika Moa

A little bit about the winners…

Moe and Friends have been entertaining kids for nearly three years on beloved TV series The Moe Show. With songs written by Jeremy Dillon and Ben Sinclair, and brought to life by the entire Moe Show team, they seamlessly blend humour and education into one energetic package. We Like Pets! is a perfect example of a song which manages to straddle age groups and interests, all the while getting stuck in your head.

Raymond McGrath will be familiar to some of you as an author, illustrator, and animator, known for his magical drawings and beautiful books, but also as a talented musician, bringing his books to life through songs and videos too. His winning video is a visual treat, with beautiful hand drawn animation accompanying his simple but wonderfully crafted and memorable song Monstomping!

Anika Moa is renowned for her cheeky humour and soulful music. While she’s had a wonderful, long career writing award-winning songs that have found plenty of adult fans, when she had children of her own, she decided to write songs for them too. And it turns out she had quite the knack for impressing babies and toddlers with her playful, forthright, occasionally naughty tunes, with her first kids album ‘Songs for Bubbas’ selling like hotcakes. The second one looks set to be just as popular!