AMA 2024 judging demographic breakdown

2024 is the first time demographic statistics have been collected from Aotearoa Music Awards judges. Here's what the 2024 judging group looked like:

A bigger Judging Academy than ever before
523 artists and industry practitioners were invited to judge AMA 2024, across all categories. Of those that were invited, 379 individuals participated in judging. Comparatively, 205 judges participated in judging for AMA 2022 (there was no AMA in 2023).

Judges by gender
In 2024, 44.85% of judges identified as female or gender diverse. While there is more work to do to improve the gender balance, this is an encouraging result.

Judges by age
A wide range of ages are represented – including judges from younger age groups in both the overall judging Academy and specialist Schools was a key priority in 2024. We were pleased to engage 120 (31.66%) judges under the age of 35 and 228 (60.16%) under the age of 45.

Judges by industry role
Nearly 40% of judges are artists. A total of 142 (37.47%) judges in this year’s group included ‘Artist’ as one of their roles. This means that people with lived experience of being an artist are playing a significant role in deciding AMA winners.

Judges by ethnicity
Judges were able to report multiple ethnicities when registering with us. The full breakdown of judges by ethnicity is set out below, using ethnic groupings as recognised by Stats NZ.

In 2024, 90 judges (23.75%) whakapapa Māori. This includes the Mana Reo and Best Māori Artist categories, for which all judges are Māori.

View the full AMA 2024 judging demographics announcement here