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Perth County artists in the running for Forest City London Music Awards

Perth County is well represented on the list of nominees for this summer’s Forest City London Music Awards and there’s still time to cast a last-minute vote for a local favourite.

Perth County is well represented on the list of nominees for this summer’s Forest City London Music Awards, and there’s still time to cast a last-minute vote for a local favourite.
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St. Marys-based jazz singer Jennifer Thorpe picked up a solo nomination in the Jazz Vocal category and is also represented in the World Music and Folk/Roots categories as a member of local quintet Rant Maggie Rant.
Rant Maggie Rant (Contributed photo)
“Musicians have had such a challenging year pivoting, trying to … cope, adapt, and stay relevant and visible, so it’s a great honour (to be nominated),” she said Thursday.
Thorpe’s last gig was a tribute to Southwestern Ontario jazz pianist John Noubarian. She performed in and produced the show at London’s Aeolian Hall a few weeks before the beginning of the pandemic’s first wave. 
“It’s been a hard year, make no mistake, but I’m just choosing to look at the positives. It keeps me going,” Thorpe said. “I did a lot of running; I’ve logged a lot of miles but I can’t say I’ve logged a lot of gigs.”
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Stratford’s Dayna Manning was happy to see her name appear in the Contemporary Singer Songwriter category.
“I’m often put in folk, so that was nice,” she said. “I know there’s a lot of fellow nominees from the area, and it’s just really nice to be recognized locally.”
Manning has been among the local artists who have dabbled with live online performances over the past year. She performed songs from her latest album, Morning Light, live from Revival House on New Year’s Eve. The album has since earned Manning a Producer of the Year nomination from the Canadian Folk Music Awards.
On Valentine’s Day, Manning performed an online concert from her home.
Dayna Manning (File photo)
“Honestly, when I first started doing it I kinda wondered why I’d never done it before,” she said. “Those have been really cool opportunities for me as an artist and, what’s really nice about them is that they’re on video and I’ll be able to use those as a tool later on.”
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Other area artists nominated for this year’s Forest City London Music Awards include Emm Gryner in the Ontario Independent Recording Artist category and Justine Chantale in the Country category.
Justin Bieber is up for Ontario Major Recording Artist, along with The Weeknd, J.J. Wilde, Shawn Mendes, The Blue Stones, and Meghan Patrick.
There are 22 categories in total in which fans can vote for their favourite artists. A mix of new and long-established musical acts are vying for the honours, with the winners to be announced during London Music Week June 6-13.
Voting on the Forest City London Music Awards website, fclma.ca, ends Friday at 11.59 p.m.
-With files from Joe Belanger, London Free Press
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