Radio City Freedom Awards 2017: The Complete Winners List

New Delhi fusion duo Shadow & Light’s vocalist Pavithra Chari receiving the award for the Best Pop Artist (Jury’s Choice)

Trust Cyrus Sahukar to bring smiles to the faces of even the most cynical of scenesters. The former VJ who hosted the fourth edition of the Radio City Freedom Awards (RCFA) was at his goofiest best, taking digs at everything from the intermittently passive audience (“Don’t clap so hard, guys. My ears. My ears. Tone it down!”) to absentee winners (“I hope all these awards that I am receiving on their behalf don’t get to my head”). 

Held at Hard Rock Café, Worli, Mumbai, the awards honored the best talent on the indie circuit, from electro-rock artist Donn Bhat taking home the Jury’s Choice Award for Best Electronica Artist to heavy metallers Carnage Inc. winning the People’s Choice Award for Best Metal Artist.

RCFA also bestowed a bunch of ancillary awards, with the Best Video going to New Delhi ska/jazz band The Ska Vengers for their song “Frank Brazil” and Best Album Art to Ahmedabad/Pune post-rock band Aswekeepsearching.

For the final award of the night, the presenters (Radio City CEO Abraham Thomas and music critic and former Rolling Stone India Executive Editor Bobin James) tried to pull a La La Land/Moonlight. While announcing Indie-Genius-Person of the Year, the two called out the name of Bollywood music composer Pritam, who features on the cover of the current edition of Rolling Stone India, and had everyone in splits. Thomas went on to say, “If the Oscars can do it, so can we.” The award was eventually presented to Aswekeepsearching’s frontman Uddipan Sarmah.

The night also witnessed performances by artists across genres, such as Kolkata folk-electro group Sukanti & Anushree, Mumbai alt/prog rockers Paradigm Shift, New Delhi music-comedy group Aisi Taisi Democracy (comprising veteran bassist Rahul Ram from Indian Ocean, satirist Sanjay Rajoura and comedian Varun Grover). The final performance of the night was by hip-hop crew Mumbais Finest who brought their freestyle verses and cyphers to the table.  

Check out the complete winners list for Radio City Freedom Awards 2017 below:

Radio City Freedom People’s Choice Awards:

Best Hip-Hop Artist ”“ Emiway

Best Pop Artist ”“ Sanket Sane & Rimi Nique

Best Rock Artist ”“ Oorka

Best Folk-Fusion Artist ”“ Jano Nyekha

Best Metal Artist ”“ Carnage Inc.

Best Electronica Artist ”“ Mojo Jojo

Radio City Freedom Jury’s Choice Awards:

Best Rock Artist ”“ The F16s

Best Pop Artist ”“ Shadow And Light

Best Folk-Fusion Artist ”“ Neeraj Arya’s Kabir Café

Best Metal Artist ”“ Demonstealer

Best Electronica Artist ”“ Donn Bhat

Best Hip-Hop Artist ”“ Divine ft. Naezy

Best Young Indie Artist ”“ The F16s

Indie-Collaboration ”“ Midival Punditz + Papon + Malini Awasthi

Best Video ”“ The Ska Vengers

Best Album Art – Aswekeepsearching