Aotearoa Music Award for Best Pop Artist

Benee has won the award four times.

Best Pop Artist ( Māori : Te Manu Taki Arotini o te Tau) is an Aotearoa Music Award that honours New Zealand artists for outstanding pop recordings.

The inaugural award was presented as Best Pop Album in 2010 to Gin Wigmore for her album Holy Smoke. In 2017, the award was changed to Best Pop Artist. The change was made to all the genre-specific awards, and was to reflect the changing release climate in which full albums had become less common. Under the new rules, an artist who has released "an album OR a minimum of five tracks" can be nominated. ^[1]

Benee has the most awards with four wins, followed by Lorde, Kimbra, and Broods who have all won it twice each.

Recipients

Best Pop Album (2010 - 2016)

Year	Winner	Album	Other finalists	Ref.
2010	Gin Wigmore	Holy Smoke	Anika Moa – Love in Motion Dane Rumble – The Experiment	[2]
2011	Brooke Fraser	Flags	Kids of 88 – Sugarpills Julia Deans – Modern Fables	[3]
2012	Kimbra	Vows	Bic Runga – Belle Gin Wigmore – Gravel & Wine	[4]
2013	Jamie McDell	Six Strings & A Saliboat	AnikaBoh&Hollie [a] – Peace of Mind Kids of 88 – Modern Love	[5]
2014	Lorde	Pure Heroine	Benny Tipene – Toulouse Stan Walker – Inventing Myself	[6]
2015	Broods	Evergreen	Benny Tipene – Bricks Six60 – Six60	[7]
2016	Broods	Conscious	Avalanche City – We Are for the Wild Places MAALA – Composure	[5]

1. Collaboration between Anika Moa, Boh Runga, and Hollie Smith.

Best Pop Artist (2017 - present)

Year	Winner	Other finalists	Ref.
2017	Lorde – Melodrama	Theia – Theia Mitch James	[8]
2018	Kimbra	Drax Project Six60	[9]
2019	Benee – Fire on Marzz	Broods – Don't Feed the Pop Monster Mitch James – Mitch James	[10]
2020	Benee – Stella & Steve	Paige – Always Growing Six60 – Six60	[11]
2021	Benee	Foley LA Women	[12]
2022	Benee – Lychee	Georgia Lines – Human Lorde – Solar Power	[13]
2023	No awards held
2024	Georgia Lines	Foley Paige	[14]
2025	Cassie Henderson – The Yellow Chapter	Frankie Venter Georgia Lines – The Rose of Jericho	[15]

References

1. "New Zealand Music Awards dump album categories for artist categories". Stuff . 21 June 2017. Retrieved 15 June 2025.
2. "Gin and Stan win big at NZ Music Awards". One News (TVNZ). 7 October 2010. Archived from the original on 9 October 2010. Retrieved 7 October 2010.
3. "Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards 2011 Winners" (Press release). New Zealand Music Awards. 4 November 2011. Retrieved 27 December 2011.
4. "VNZMA 2012: Full List of Winners". The Corner. Archived from the original on 10 February 2013. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
5. "AMA | Archive". Aotearoa Music Awards. Retrieved 9 June 2025.
6. "Lorde wins all the Tuis". NZ Herald . 20 November 2014. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
7. Jenkin, Lydia (18 November 2015). "Broods clean up at the Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards". The New Zealand Herald . NZMA. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
8. Oliver, Henry (17 November 2017). "New Zealand Music Awards hits and misses (+ The Spinoff vs Spotify result!)". The Spinoff . Retrieved 15 June 2025.
9. "Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards 2018 Winners Announced". UnderTheRadar.co.nz. 16 November 2018. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
10. "Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards 2019 Winners Announced". UnderTheRadarNZ. Retrieved 15 June 2025.
11. "AOTEAROA MUSIC AWARDS | NGA TOHU PUORO O AOTEAROA WINNERS 2020 | Recorded Music NZ ® - We Love Music" . Retrieved 15 June 2025.
12. Skipwith, David (17 December 2021). "L.A.B. and Teeks reign supreme at 2021 Aotearoa Music Awards". Stuff . Retrieved 15 June 2025.
13. "L.A.B secures spot in history at 2022 Aotearoa Music Awards". RNZ . 10 November 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2025.
14. "2024 Aotearoa Music Awards recap: The Beths win Best Group, Best Album". RNZ . 30 May 2024. Retrieved 15 June 2025.
15. "Aotearoa Music Awards 2025: Fazerdaze re-emerges on top". RNZ . Retrieved 15 June 2025.

External links

• Official Aotearoa Music Awards website