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Germany | Reeperbahn Festival puts the spotlight on French music journalism for IMJA 2020
Every year, Reeperbahn Festival rewards musical journalism. Its International Music Journalism Award (IMJA) greets German, English and – for the third year running- French journalists’ commitment. In addition, the 2020 edition has opened up to Danish journalists. The list of 2020 laureates was released on Wednesday 16 September.
Two French journalists got the International Musical Journalism Award (IMJA) on Wednesday 16 September, after a decision of Reeperbahn Festival’s jury in partnership with Le Bureau Export. IMJA sheds the light on high-quality journalism. As the environment in which excellent, original journalism can be produced is becoming ever more challenging and, particularly for young journalists, a lot less attractive ; the award aims at underlining outstanding individual work and first-rate ongoing journalistic engagement that focuses on popular music and its business climate. Each year, the selection pays a special attention to the work of young music journalists. It rewards an expertise in musical industry, as well as the accessibility of its broadcasting through text, audio, or multimedia.
This year, France is represented in two categories:
The Best Music Journalist of the Year
Ouafa Mameche: this journalist and book editor has been rewarded for her professional journey, including the creation of “Faces Cachés” (Hidden Face) – contributing to the influence of French rap in pop culture, her participation to several media focusing on urban music (ABCDR du son, AfterRap, OKLM Radio…), and her article “Retour d’expérience sur l’activité de critique musical” (“Feedback on being a music critic”) that was published in the collective book Perspectives esthétiques sur les musiques Hip Hop (Chants Sons / PUP 2020).
The Year’s Best Work of Music Journalism – Text
Sofian Fanen: this journalist gets rewarded for “Le Chants des Machines: l’intelligence artificielle entre dans la pop” (Les Jours), a collective work with Les jours’ photo manager Sébastien Calvet. Fanen analyzed the relationship between artificial intelligence and pop music through several episodes.
For now, Reeperbahn Festival did not communicate on the conditions in which the reward ceremony – planned for Friday 18th September – would occur.
Access the full list of 2020 laureates here
