Radio City enthralled the indie music enthusiasts at the grand finale night of Radio City Freedom Awards 6, a one of its kind platform that recognizes, honors and celebrates the essence of independent music across genres and languages.The finale in Mumbai witnessed some of the country’s best indie artistes and performers like Sanam, Emiway Bantai and Prateek Kuhad, Ankur Tewari bag awards and titles across jury and popular choice categories
The sixth season of RCFA garnered 1,200 entries across 11 categories including Hip Hop/ Rap, Folk Fusion, Rock, Metal and Electronica in the music-based categories.The non-music categories, screened by the jury included Best Video, Best Album Art, Best Young Indie Artist, Best Indie Collaboration and Indie-Genius: Person of the Year awards.
Commenting on the culmination of yet another prolific season, Ms. Rachna Kanwar, COO, Digital Media, Jagran Prakashan Limited said, “Radio City Freedom Awards is now undoubtedly the biggest platform for bringing fresh and untapped talent to the forefront. We are truly delighted to have surpassed engagement and participation levels for RCFA 6 with 1200 participants across the country. This is testament to the massive talent pool which India has to offer. It has been an amazing 6-year journey and it fills us with pride to witness the popularity of the awards. As we culminate the power-packed season, a big thank you to our Jury and the entire music community, and especially to the fabulous new talent that never ceases to impress! We are grateful for all the love and support we have received, and look forward to entertaining music lovers with many more seasons to come.”
Band SANAM on winning the ‘Best Pop Artist’ award said, “Our constant need to create new music led us to produce the track ‘Itni Door’ and winning the ‘Best Pop Artist’ award for this original, that too from an established platform like ‘Radio City Freedom Awards’, definitely gives us a great sense of accomplishment. So many of us, especially our parents, grew up listening to the radio at our homes and its truly amazing how radio, since its inception, has been helping musicians reach out to people, supporting the artiste fraternity. We want to thank everybody who voted for us and we look forward to witnessing more successes for musicians in the future editions of RCFA.”
Amongst winners, Ankur Tewari, the man behind the music supervision of the 18-songs soundtrack from the most loved and famed film ‘Gully Boy’ bagged the Skoda Indie-Genius: Person of the Year award. Sanam won The Best Pop Artist (popular choice) award for ‘Itni Door’. The hip hop sensation Emiway Bantai won the Best Hip-Hop Artist (popular choice) for ‘Jump Kar’. Prateek Kuhad was awarded as the Best Pop Artist (Judges Choice) and Best Video (Judges Choice) for ‘Cold/Mess’. RCFA’s checkered list of past winners include now household names such as Divine, Benny Dayal, Parvaaz, Swarathma, Papon, Midival Punditz, The Ska Vengers, Indus Creed, Dualist Inquiry, Donn Bhatt, and The F16s, to name a few.
Winners of Radio City Freedom Awards 6:
| Category | Winners |
| Best Pop | Prateek Kuhad – Cold/Mess (Jury Choice) |
| Sanam – Itni Door (People’s Choice) | |
| Skoda Indie-Genius: Person of the Year | Ankur Tewari (Jury Choice) |
| Best Video | Prateek Kuhad – Cold/Mess(Jury Choice) |
| Best Hip Hop | Brodha V – Way Too Easy (Jury Choice) |
| Emiway Bantai – Jump Kar (People’s Choice) | |
| Best Metal | Against Evil – All Hail The King (Jury Choice) |
| Against Evil – All Hail The King (People’s Choice) | |
| Best Rock | The Local Train – Vaaqif (Jury Choice) |
| Coma Rossi – Turn Back Time (People’s Choice) | |
| Album Art | Paradigm Shift – Sammukh ( Jury Choice) |
| Indie Collaboration | VS42 x DeeMC x Siri x Kavya & Kriti – Tu Bas Naach (Jury Choice) |
| Young Indie | Calico – Garnet Eye (Jury Choice) |
| Best Electronic | VS42 x DeeMC x Siri x Kavya & Kriti – Tu Bas Naach (Jury Choice) |
| Zingaroe – Defuse (People’s Choice) | |
| Best Folk Fusion | Agam – Rangapura Vihaara (Jury Choice) |
| The Thayir Sadam Project – A Crazy Little Thing Called Chakravakam (People’s Choice) |
