To the MCMA Membership,

On behalf of myself and our entire Board of Directors, I would like to wish each and every one of you all the best this holiday season, and a very Happy New Year.

I’d like to take a moment to share some of our incredible successes in 2023 with you:

We had a very successful songwriters workshop event (Songwriters Mixer) at the Exchange District Studios this past spring that gave some less-experienced songwriters the opportunity to work with more-experienced ones. The goal of this event was to help develop skills and to network with other songwriters.

The MCMA attended Dauphin’s Countryfest to help support and bring attention to the MCMA artists performing there this summer. This year, with the help of our sponsors Styling’s RV Ltd. and Dauphin’s Countryfest, we were able to have a much bigger presence at the festival. Countryfest provided us with a campsite on Media Row where we parked the motorhome provided by Styling’s RV. Over the course of the weekend, we were able to host eight live performances at our site, bringing attention to some of the MCMA artists who were performing at Countryfest. They also asked us to host the After Party in the VIP tent every night, which was a great honour, and another great opportunity to showcase MCMA Industry members.

This past November, we held our biggest and most-successful Manitoba Country Music Awards. Selling out The Metropolitan Entertainment Centre by Canad Inns in 2022 made it necessary for us to move to a larger venue. Club Regent Casino and Event Centre was the perfect choice for us, as it is one of the best rooms in the province for sound, lighting and seating, but it also will give us room to continue to grow. Special thanks to the whole team at Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries and at Club Regent Casino and Event Centre for working with us to make this transition and this event so very successful.

On the Friday evening before the 2023 Manitoba Country Music Awards Show, we were pleased to be part of a panel discussion event organized by Manitoba Music and Indigenous Music Manitoba called “What Country Music Radio Stations Want to Hear” followed by our MCMA “Country in the City” kickoff party at The Royal George Hotel. It was a great way to get the Manitoba Country Music Awards weekend started and showcase some of our MCMA Industry members from outside of Winnipeg.

The MCMA has established a much better relationship with the Province of Manitoba and we are continuing to work on funding opportunities with the province. We hope to have some very exciting news to share with our members regarding that in the first quarter of 2024.

Our social media team have done an outstanding job this year sharing content from our country music community in Manitoba. Our social media has never looked better and we’ve been able to share more interesting and relevant information with our followers than we ever have this past year.

For an organization that does not receive any operational funding from any government or any other agency, we are thrilled to be able to have had such great success in 2023.

We been working hard to foster a relationship with the Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) for several years now. Through our continued efforts with the other provincial organizations, I think that we are much closer to establishing a clearer relationship with the CCMA. This fall, I have had some great conversations with the CCMA and have a commitment from them for us to work together in 2024 to build a much better and closer relationship.

We will be holding our 2024 AGM on January 30, 2024, at the Canad Inns Windsor Park. Please check the MCMA website, www.ManitobaCMA.com, for more information.

If you are interested in learning more or have any questions regarding the MCMA, please send an email to manitobacma@gmail.com

Please refer to our website at www.ManitobaCMA.com for more specific information on and about the MCMA.

Please check our Facebook page often at https://www.facebook.com/ManitobaCMA for information about the MCMA and our members. You will often find links there to virtual concerts or other projects our members are working on.

During this holiday season, I wish you all peace, happiness and a chance to spend quality time with those closest to you.

Respectfully,