With the awards season gathering pace, Ireland gets in on the act with the announcement of the nominees for the Meteor Awards, namely:

Best National DJ (public vote)

Alison Curtis – Today FM
Dave Fanning – 2fm
Tony Fenton – Today FM
Ray Foley – Today FM
Dan Hegarty – 2fm
Rick O’Shea – 2fm

Best Traditional/Folk

Damien Dempsey
Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill
Colm Mac Con Iomaire
Eleanor McEvoy
John Spillane

Best Regional DJ (public vote)

Keith Cunningham (KC) – Red fm
Dermot, Dave & Siobhan – Dublin’s98
Leigh Doyle – Beat 102-103
Mark Noble – FM 104
Jon Richards – Galway Bay fm
The Zoo Crew – Spin South West

Best International Live Performance

Leonard Cohen – IMMA
Coldplay – The O2
Kings of Leon – OXEGEN
Bruce Springsteen – RDS
The Killers – OXEGEN

Best Irish Band (public vote)

The Blizzards
Fight Like Apes
Republic of Loose
The Script
Snow Patrol

Best International Band

AC/DC
Coldplay
Elbow
The Killers
Kings of Leon

Best Irish Male (public vote)

Damien Dempsey
Duke Special
Mick Flannery
David Holmes
Jape

Best International Female

Beyonce
Duffy
Lykke Li
Pink
Rihanna

Best Irish Female (public vote)

Tara Blaise
Lisa Hannigan
Gemma Hayes
Imelda May
Camille O’Sullivan

Best International Male

Chris Brown
Nick Cave
Bon Iver
James Morrision
Kanye West

Best Irish Pop Act (public vote)

Boyzone
The Blizzards
The Coronas
The Script
Westlife

Best International Album

Day & Age – The Killers
Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
Only By The Night – Kings of Leon
The Circus – Take That
Viva La Vida – Coldplay

Best Irish Album (public vote)

Fight Like Apes – Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion
Lisa Hannigan – Sea Sew
Messiah J & The Expert – From the Word Go
The Script – The Script
Snow Patrol – A Hundred Million Suns

Best Irish Live Performance (public vote)

The Blizzards – Oxegen
The Coronas – The Button Factory
Fight Like Apes – Whelans
Republic of Loose – The Academy
The Swell Season – The Olympia

In addition the Hope For 2009 Award will be voted for by 2FM listeners.

Public voting will be live from today, Wednesday 28th January, allowing the public to decide who will be awarded the accolade of a Meteor Ireland Music Award. Voting is easy, simply text VOTE to 085 7114444 to receive a list of keywords and categories.

Voting is open to all Irish mobile networks and will be charged standard text rates. Online voting will be available on www.meteor.ie and everyone who votes will be automatically entered into a competition to win tickets to the 2009 Meteor Awards.

The awards, hosted this year by Amanda Byram, take place at the RDS on 17th March, broadcast the next evening on RTE Two. Tickets priced €30 go on sale tomorrow.

We’ll leave the comments to you, suffice to say what the hell do Ham Sandwich have to do to get some recognition in this country. In the meantime, here’s last year’s undisputed hightlight….