Janiva Magness Garners Blues Music Awards Nomination for New Category, Best Vocalist

Courtesy of the Artist

28th career BMA nod, with seven wins, for 2016 Grammy nominee,
who has a new album and memoir due out this year.
 
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Janiva Magness has earned her 28th career Blues Music Award nomination after having won seven of them including the highly coveted B.B. King Entertainer of the Year Award, presented to her by the bluesman himself and Bonnie Raitt. This is one more honor for one of the greatest soul singers of our generation, who in 2016 earned her first Grammy nod and year after year tops the Billboard Blues and Living Blues radio charts. Magness’ nomination is for her main instrument: her voice. The Blues Foundation added a new category for Best Instrumentalist – Vocals and this year Magness joins three other powerhouse female vocalists as nominees in the category. 

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​She’s been praised by Bettye Lavette (current Blues Music Award and Grammy nominee) and by Mavis Staples (recent Blues Hall of Fame inductee from the Staple Singers). Magness’ recording career began with her self-release more than 25 years ago and continued with legendary blues label Alligator Records for three albums, leading to her current home, Blue Elan Records. Her recent album Love Is an Army, release done year ago, features such blues-and-roots heavy-hitters as current Blues Music Award nominees Charlie Musselwhite and Cedric Burnside, along with Delbert McClinton and Poco’s Rusty Young. Since the rise of Spotify, she’s become a staple of notable blues playlists like “Blues Roots,” “Women of the Blues,” and “Blues Ballads.” At nearly 62-years-old, with 14 studio albums under her belt, she shows no signs of slowing down. Magness is about to return to the studio to record her 15th studio album, her third for Blue Elan. 
 
Janiva Magness’ early life encompassed many struggles, including losing both of her parents to suicide, and living in numerous foster care homes. From her hometown of Detroit, Mich. to her days in Minneapolis, Minn. she found salvation through the blues, after witnessing the great late Otis Rush live. She found her calling right there and then. Flash forward to 2019 and she is a keynote speaker at theNational PTA Conference & Expo this summer, a Grammy-nominated, Blues Music Award-winning recording artist, and is about to self-publish her memoir. Mavis Staples says, “Janiva’s robust and soulful voice is showering each cut with determination to make us all fall in love. Her delivery is as always sincere and straight from the heart. Soul music is alive and kicking.”  

http://www.janivamagness.com