+ OASIS MUSIC AWARDS 2006 +

ABOUT US

The Oasis Awards is organised by Roney Henderson, CEO of Musicstar Entertainment, a company that specialises in promotions of events in the entertainment industry.

Roney started working in gospel music whilst in her teens and has amassed a wealth of contacts and success in the business.

Beginning her career as a sales agent for a gospel music distributor, she then went on to become a road manager for leading gospel artists that visited the UK. Amongst the artists she has worked with are the legendary Clarke Sisters, Yolanda Adams and The Winans.

In the 90s Roney formed a gospel music agency MJR with Marcia Dixon and Juliet Fletcher booking acts for various events, agency sessions and also marketing the West End production, Mama I Want to Sing.

She then went on to set up her own marketing, promotions and PR company Musicstar, working with a number of labels including Gospocentric to promote their artists (eg Kirk Franklin, Trin-i-tee 5:7) in radio promotions, retail support, and press to raise their profile and increase sales.

Highlights of Roney's career include the role of UK coordinator for the Donnie McClurkin Live in London recording which went on to achieve platinum sales and working with United International Pictures (UIP) in marketing and promoting the film the Apostle starring Robert Duvall.

THE HISTORY

Roney Henderson founded the Oasis Awards in 2002.

The Oasis Awards had been a vision of Roney Henderson for a number of years as she has always wanted to hold an event that celebrated the achievements and artistry of British gospel artists.

Using her skills and knowledge that she had gained over the years working as promoter and marketer and even a publicist and coordinator, the first Oasis Awards was held at the Hilton Hotel in Central London.

Gospel music in the UK had been developing at a steady pace, and peaked during the mid 80s to early 90s when top selling US artists frequented the British shores on the strength of their product sales, without promotion of satellite or terrestrial TV and some cases without any or very little radio promotion.

For the first Oasis Awards, held in 2002, a number of key individuals agreed that it would be best served if the nominations criteria was extended to include projects from the late 90s as acts were recording every few years.
We now have the internet, satellite TV, web TV, myspace.com, myblog.com and a number of other media outlets and it is these tools that both up and coming and established British gospel artists are now using to promote and market their music.

However, since 2002 British gospel acts have stepped up their recording and are now bringing out projects every other year. In fact since the first awards some acts have only released one project, so although it may seem 4 years too long, it is actually perfect timing, but from 2006 the Oasis Awards will be an annual event.

To see a list of the 2006 winners click here