Worldwide Winners

The Worldwide Awards, formerly known as the Worldwide Winner Awards, are an annual awards celebration curated by radio DJ Gilles Peterson and currently hosted by Worldwide FM and Radio 6 which celebrates up-and-coming musicians on an international scale. The ceremony evolved out of an annual segment on Peterson's BBC Radio 1 show Worldwide during which listeners would vote on a list of Worldwide Winners.

History

Worldwide Winners was begun by radio and club DJ Gilles Peterson during his tenure on BBC Radio 1. In 1998, he brought his show Worldwide to the station and began a quarterly radio segment called All Winners Special in which he replays what he considered the previous few months' best new tracks from out DJing or the show. At the end of the year, these winners, plus a few further favourites that may have been overlooked, were compiled into a longlist. Listeners of the show then get to vote this longlist down to a shortlist of ten Worldwide Winners in each section which Peterson plays over the last couple of editions of his radioshow at the end of the year. Worldwide Winners has been compiled in various forms at the end of every year since 1998 to present, though the first few years did not involve any public vote. From 2004 onwards, this has been expanded into the Worldwide Winners Awards, now called the Worldwide Awards, with an event held at a London club venue during January of the following year. The celebration, which features live musical performances, was recorded and broadcast by Radio 1. When Peterson moved to BBC Radio 6 in 2012, the show followed him there. The show is also promoted on Peterson's independent online radio platform Worldwide FM. For most of the ceremony's history, Track of the Year and Album of the Year has been awarded. Further categories were added over time, like Best Clubnight, Best Recordshop, Best Compilation Album, and The John Peel Play More Jazz Award (a tribute to Peterson's Radio 1 colleague who died suddenly in 2004) given to an artist, often a newcomer, who has displayed special noteworthy work over the year. Since 2017, the categories have been: Track of the Year, Album Of The Year, Jazz Album of the Year, Breakthrough Artist of the Year, Session of the Year, Label of the Year, Lifetime Achievement Award, John Peel Play More Jazz Award.

Ceremonies

A ceremony has taken place for the Worldwide Awards from 2004 onwards.

Winners

1999: 1st Year

Note: 1999-2002 charts were on just one list, singles, individual album tracks and whole albums.

2000: 2nd Year

2001: 3rd Year

2002: 4th Year

2003: 5th Year

Note: 2003–present, switched to separate lists: Tracks - singles, individual album tracks / Albums - whole albums. Tracks of the Year Albums of the Year