Medusa Tops LEA Nominations

CTS Eventim’s domination of the German market is well illustrated by the fact that its Medusa Group promoters have nine nominations for this year’s Live Entertainment Awards.

Marek Lieberberg leads the way with four nominations, Folkert Koopmans and Dieter Semmelmann each have a couple and Peter Rieger also has one.

Six wins is the best that CTS chief Klaus-Peter Schulenberg can hope for, as there are a couple of categories where his promoters are up against each other.

Lieberberg (Depeche Mode), Rieger (George Michael) and Semmelmann’s Semmel Concerts (James Last) have three of the five nominations for best arena tour, while Lieberberg and Semmelmann are also up for best promoter – where they’re pitched against Carlos Fleischmann’s Creative Talent and Klaus Wagener’s Trinity Concerts.

Lieberberg is also shortlisted for best festival (Rock Am Ring) and best show (Madonna in Düsseldorf), while Koopmans’ FKP Scorpio has been nominated – in cahoots with Extratours – for best club tour (Revolverheld) and best musical for "Die 13 1/2 Leben des Käpt’n Blaubär" – or the 13 1/2 Lives Of Captain Bluebear.

The best show category looks very competitive as Peter Schwenkow’s DEAG, the country’s second-largest promoter, is also in the last four for the classical extravaganza it put on at Berlin Waldbühne, which starred Anna Netrebko, Placido Domingo and Mexican tenor Rolando Villazon.

Scumeck Sabbotka’s MCT is also in the running for the Robbie Williams shows it did in Cologne. KKT has the fourth nomination for the New Year’s Eve show it did for Die Arzte in the same city.

Lieberberg’s also facing some stiff opposition for best festival, where the other nominations are Contour Music’s Summer Jam, KGV’s Sonne Monde Sterne and Melt Festival.

Best venue also looks close, with Bonn Museumsmeile, Munich Olympiapark, Frankfurt Alte Oper and Mannheim SAP all in the running.

Best agency is between Künstlermedia, Südpolmusic and World Concerts, while best manager will be chosen from Freddy Burger (Udo Jürgens), MTS GmbH (Mario Barth), Marc Liebscher (Sportfreunde Stiller) and Leonie Lorenzen (Rosenstolz).

There are also a couple of special categories where the judges – a mixture of music industry people and journalists – choose the winner without collecting nominations, including lifetime achievement, which went to Marcel Avram in 2006.

The LEAs were started last year as a cooperation between the IDKV promoters association and weekly trade magazine Musikmarkt.

"I’m delighted to see how the popularity of the LEA has increased in the German live entertainment business since the first award ceremony," said Musikmarkt vice chief editor Martin Schruefer after the January 23rd press conference that launched this year’s event.

"The magazine continues to work very closely with the award committee. We appreciate having the chance to build up an industry award which helps to show all the great companies and people behind German live entertainment and put them in the spotlight."

Speakers at the press conference at Hamburg’s Fliegende Bauten, where the February 15th ceremony will also be held, included veteran promoter Fritz Rau and Jens Michow from the IDKV.