Iowa Music Awards
Burlington Memorial Auditorium, Burlington, lowa • November 9, 2025
The road to Burlington
The loud car wasn’t the first problem of the day — the email was.
I woke up to the bad news that our Airbnb sponsor’s guests had decided to extend their stay, which meant our lodging was suddenly gone. No room. No backup. Just a polite cancellation and a six-hour drive to Burlington staring me in the face. For a few minutes I was doing the math on what it would take to sleep folded into a hatchback without wrecking my spine.
Then my father-in-law, Phil Thode, came through. One text, one spare hotel room, crisis averted. The trip was back on.
The funny thing is, we’d already committed to this car the day before. Jeremy and I had spent part of that prep day giving his Kia Soul a little bit of love — new battery dropped in, oil changed, brake light fixed. We did everything short of sending it to a full mechanic for deep therapy.
It was our editor-in-chief Jeremy Mercier’s Kia Soul — Jeremy wasn’t coming with us, but he loaned us the keys. Mike and I took it because it sipped gas better than anything else we had, even if the muffler sounded like a shopping cart full of cinderblocks. Two energy drinks in, the rattle stopped feeling like a flaw and started feeling like a weird kind of theme music.
By the time we rolled up to the Burlington Memorial Auditorium in downtown Burlington, the street outside was already glowing. Tuxes, gowns, sharp streetwear, sequins, denim, leather — Iowa’s music scene dressed like it knew it had something to prove. And there I was, standing out in my full matching crushed velvet outfit, complete with a matching cloak, glass-blown Grateful Dead necklace, and my press credentials dangling around my neck. I got compliments on my fit all night.
Inside that old theater, the Iowa Music Awards were about to play out like a film reel: one award, one performance, one deeply human moment at a time.
Opening notes, housekeeping, and the first punch
We walked in to a hype track and a female artist killing it onstage pumping through the PA — a nice omen for a night centered on artists who’ve been grinding quietly for years.
Before anything else, the room paused. There was a moment of silence for a videographer who used to run shows in that very building and had passed away the month before. A hundred people inhaled and held the air together.
Then Traci Von Krypt took the mic for the national anthem, her voice climbing cleanly into the rafters.
Antonio “Tone Da Boss” Chalmers — the force behind the Iowa Music Awards, T1 Entertainment, and The Big Bang Foundation — hit the stage next with the Dance Dollz, snapping the night into motion. His mission is simple and ambitious at the same time: amplify Iowa artists and creatives who are shaping the future of music in the state.
The first host out was from Des Moines, a two-time R&B Artist of the Year winner named Entre Luché, who set the tone and added his own performance early on — a reminder that in this room, even the hosts have catalogs.
Burlington City Manager Chad Bird stepped up to welcome everyone and walk us through what was coming. When he mentioned “Cover Band of the Year,” I heard table 12 — Encore Legends territory — erupt loudest in the room. You could feel how much that one meant to them before any names were even read.
Then we got the rules. The cohosts laid out the expectations: keep speeches to about two minutes, keep them clean — the team is working toward a televised future — and if you run long, the DJ will bring the music up as your gentle warning shot.
August Gonzalez was introduced as the next cohost. When she performed it was magic. August was a live-wire collision of genres: a harder-edged Watsky/Chinaka Hodge mashup of energy smashed into rock and metal, with melodies threading behind her double-time flow. She could rap clean at speed and still sound like she meant every word.
With the room primed and the house rules set, it was time to start handing out hardware.
Start of Awards
DJ of the Year
Presenter: DJ Verbatim
Nominees:
Bees Knees (fan vote)
Bo Diddley
DJ Clife
David Baker
DJ Binja
Verbatim came out as a three-time nominee and last year’s winner in this exact category and made sure we knew it. “I decided not to compete this year to give someone else a chance,” he joked, loosening the whole room.
Winner: Bo Diddley
Bo was so nervous he almost fell coming up to the stage, laughed it off, and then grounded himself in the mic. Burlington is special to him — his dad was born here and has since passed — and that’s where he rooted the speech. He thanked God, his girlfriend, and his friends. You could see the nerves peel off him line by line.
Breakout Artist of the Year
Nominees:
Chi Chi
Naimah
3J
Yote
Winner: Chi Chi
The shoutout was quick and sharp — thanks to fans, friends, and haters — and then we were already on to the next moment. Assisted on and off the stage in heels my wife would’ve absolutely loved, Chi Chi’s whole presence said, “Get used to seeing me up here.”
World Impact Award
Winner: James Rhodes
James Rhodes stepped up — born in Toledo, raised in Burlington — and talked about building a record label designed to help artists grow. His goal is to build artists, not just catalog. He thanked his family for backing the vision.
It felt like the right frame: local kid grown into a world-impact role, still rooted enough to stand on that stage and point back at this city.
Albums, singles, and the first musical stretch
Album of the Year (Traditional)
Presenter: DJ Sweets & Bigga$tate
Nominees:
A Garden to Keep — Yote (fan vote)
Ain’t No Shame — Katie and The Honky Tonks
Weary Ramblers — self-titled
Out of Pocket — Dr. Z’s Experiment
Rising Free: A Journey of Healing — Mary Jane Knight
Scattered Pieces — Todd Apfel
The Bus Came By and I Got On — Kristina Marinova
Winner: A Garden to Keep — Yote
DJ Sweets and Bigga$tate framed this as a love note to full albums in a singles-first world. Yote’s speech played like an indie short film: he thanked David, the friend he found mutual friendship with yelling at a McDonald’s drive-through speaker, and talked about Ray — the young kid who came to play guitar and how Dave joined the army with him. Then he dedicated the project to all the moms, even the ones who couldn’t be here. “This is for you, Kelly.”
Single of the Year
Presenters: Big Don & Little E (local radio)
Nominees:
“Ovation” — Klazik
“Chocolate Covered Strawberries” — Ncee WAV
“Casino Queen” — Tevin Jones
“Hellfire BLD” — Grave Corps
“North Star” — 3J
“Mukbang” — Entre Luché
Winner: “Ovation” — Klazik
Big Don and Little E brought local-radio energy — the kind of “we actually spin these songs” vibe that makes a category feel rooted. When “Ovation” won, Klazik didn’t just run through a generic thank-you list. He came out with a spoken-word performance, more slam cadence than standard acceptance. As a Watsky fan, I leaned in hard.
A few musical numbers followed — part award show, part live showcase — and the night started to feel less like a ceremony and more like a festival trapped inside an old theater.
Adult contemporary, legacy, and the first big emotional hit
Adult Contemporary Artist
Nominees:
Rahlan Kay
William Elliott Whitmore
Carol Montag
Dan Medeiros
Winner: Rahlan Kay — ILL Team Six Presents
Rahlan thanked the people who pushed him to keep going and talked about watching OutKast get inducted into the Hall of Fame — a moment that hit different because he came up in that same era. He shouted out DJ Antbomb, bridging us toward what came next.
Legacy Award
Winner: DJ Antbomb
Antbomb’s family came up to accept, and his daughter’s thankful speech carved a stillness into the room. It wasn’t long, but afterward, nobody moved for a second. That quiet weighed more than any standing ovation.
Alternative lanes, love stories, and pop energy
Two “mother artists” stepped up next to present the next award.
Alternative Artist of the Year
Nominees:
August Gonzalez
Stars in Toledo
Sangromantics
Coldsaint
Winner: August Gonzalez
August thanked her team and community — direct, steady, no fluff. It felt like someone who knows this is a checkpoint, not the end of the road.
Collaboration of the Year
Nominees:
“Here Tonight” — Madi × Tevin Jones
“Change Ya Life” — Teeaby × Entre Luché
“Get to You” — Klazik × DJ Luke Nasty
“Tryin’ Not To” — EJ Swavv × Alicia Monée
“On My Own” — Youngstar × Prince Ace
Winner: “Tryin’ Not To” — EJ Swavv × Alicia Monée
EJ accepted alone; Alicia had another music commitment. He ended up turning it into a life announcement, telling the room they’d just gotten engaged. The place ate it up.
Pop Artist of the Year
Nominees:
Tevin Jones
Ncee WAV
Madi Bloc Bay
Alan Morphew
Winner: Tevin Jones
Presented by a previous winner, this one felt like a passing of the torch. Tevin thanked his band and his supporters — very on-brand for someone who leads like a teammate, not just a frontman.
Producer of the Year
Nominees:
Rookalus (fan vote)
Kenshi
The LayZ Otter
Marq C
Courter
The hosts brought out the 2023 Legacy Award winner to present this one, stacking one kind of longevity on top of another. The crowd absolutely erupted when LayZ Otter’s name was read as a nominee — loudest reaction of the night — so by the time the winner was announced, it already felt written.
Winner: The LayZ Otter
He thanked everyone in the room, his supporters, and Jesus. There was no “rockstar producer” energy about it — just a grounded guy fully aware of how many hours behind a screen and a board got him there.
Coldsaint’s trial by monitor and the break
Next up was a performance from the 2024 Hip-Hop Artist of the Year: Coldsaint, with Agony of Defeat. He walked out in a suit with white paint on his face — a graphic novel panel come to life.
Then his monitors betrayed him.
He lost a lot of audio in the monitors, whole phrases vanishing into the void. You could hear him trying to hit whatever pieces of his vocals he could actually hear. Lesser artists would’ve folded or stormed off. He didn’t. He kept jumping in and landing what he could.
By the third song, the sound finally snapped back the way it was supposed to, and he absolutely killed it. It felt like watching someone finally get to fight with both hands again.
Around 6:30, the show slipped into intermission and a run of on-screen announcements. The house DJ threaded a “Last Resort” flip into something Shazam read as a “Still Not a Player” instrumental, then into “21 Questions” by 50 Cent. The mixes and transitions were on point; people danced instead of drifting out mentally.
Back half: bands, lifetimes, and cameras
Original Band of the Year
Presenters: The Outlaws (Brian Page & Kyle Harrison)
Nominees:
Loess Hills (fan vote)
Tevin Jones & The Kickback Band
Daniel X & Co.
Izzy Starchild & The Psychedelic Rose
Lituus Acoustic
The Dan Medeiros Project
William Elliott Whitmore
Lucas Beebe Music
Weary Ramblers
Naimah
Winner: Loess Hills
Presented by working musicians, handed to working musicians. Someone mentioned Loess Hills were the first band to play at the Field of Dreams site. Their sound matches the legend — big-sky, rootsy, the kind of stuff that makes sense echoing off a ballfield in the middle of nowhere.
Cover Band of the Year
Nominees:
Vibe (fan vote)
Encore Legends
Faux Doubt: A Tribute to No Doubt
Pianopalooza
Punching Pandas
The Time Beings
Winner: Vibe
When this category was first mentioned earlier in the night, Encore Legends’ table went off. When the award came and went and they didn’t get called, it stung. Later, in the home stretch, the hosts made sure to shout them out by name.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Winner: Carlos Capdevila
Carlos told the story: moving here from Argentina forty years ago with his wife, their baby, and $45 to his name. He’d met his wife when she was an exchange student in Argentina; now they were standing in an Iowa theater while he accepted a lifetime honor. He joked about being the oldest person he could see in the room. Normally he’d be screaming and jumping, but he’d just had surgery, so we got the calm, medicated version. Even then, he radiated joy. Besides being a husband, father, and grandfather, he said, being a musician was the next best thing. He shouted out the sound guy, the DJ, and the auditorium on the way out.
Videographer of the Year
Nominees:
Key Framezz
Azonte Roby
Twenty Twenty
L.M. Shine
Thrash Panda Media
Before the winner was announced, there was another moment of silence for L.M. Shine — a reminder that Iowa’s music ecosystem includes people who never touch the mic but shape how history remembers it.
Winner: Twenty Twenty
He accepted with his son beside him. Coming after two separate tributes to videographers we’d lost, the category felt like a living bridge between generations of people behind the camera.
Inspiration, Essence, and the triple threat
The hosts joked they were “making good time,” heading into a category they weren’t sure they’d reach:
Inspirational Song
Nominees:
“Grateful” — Jaianna
“Rising Free” — Mary Jane Knight
“Levitate” — Kate Shu
“Breathe Song” — RhythmInn Soothes
“Being a Woman” — Deonna Troxell
Winner: “Grateful”
The screen flashed the artwork for the next set, and “Grateful” landed as more than just a title.
Next artist up: the 2024 Performer of the Year, Essence W.
She performed a run of songs that mixed singing and dance, full of movement and uplift. She had a “female Enlightened Ones” kind of energy — visionary, but with more choreography.
Two artists from Illinois — a female rapper and an EDM artist — helped present the next run of awards, keeping the mic in women’s hands for a while.
Female Vocalist of the Year
Nominees:
Jaianna
Juliette Jackson
Tariajaybre
Carol Montag
Winner: Jaianna
Her second win of the night. The speech stayed short and elegant, and again, the way she was assisted on and offstage in heels felt like its own little performance.
Female Rapper of the Year
Winner: Soe Heartslez
She came out in a long metallic bronze/gold dress that absolutely owned the lights. She looked like an award walking up to receive an award.
R&B Artist of the Year
Nominees:
Entre Luché
Kate Shu
Essence W.
Carol Montag
Winner: Entre Luché
He thanked the academy and the people who kept pushing him to keep going. His daughter joined him onstage, then carefully walked the award off like it was something holy — eyes on the steps and the trophy at the same time. It told you everything about what that win meant in his house.
Country Artist performance
Performer: Jordan Beem
Jordan Beem followed as the 2024 Country Artist of the Year performer, delivering a straight-ahead country set — no gimmicks, just songs. It cut through the density of the awards with something simple and grounded.
Final trophies and the last chord
Music Video of the Year
Nominees:
“Lime Lite” — Sangromantics (fan vote)
“Once Lived a Man” — Alan Morphew
“Hellfire Boulevard” — Grave Corps
“Rock & Roll 24/7/365” — Stars in Toledo
“Strange Ballet” — Carol Montag
“Stuck in Traffic” — Coldsaint
Winner: “Hellfire Boulevard” — Grave Corps
Between their horror aesthetic, the title, and the years they’ve put in, the win felt less like a surprise and more like the universe balancing its own spreadsheet.
Country Artist of the Year
Nominees:
Katie and The Honky Tonks
Mary Jane Knight
William Elliott Whitmore
Weary Ramblers
Winner: Katie and The Honky Tonks
Coming off “Ain’t No Shame,” Katie and The Honky Tonks walked up like a band whose grind was finally paying dividends. It felt right to see a Waterloo-rooted, straight-talking honky-tonk outfit standing there with a state-level country award.
“Home stretch now,” they said. If your name was on the screen but you didn’t get full mic time, there was still a trophy or plaque waiting. That’s when the Encore Legends shoutout landed — a small but important fix after the Cover Band sting.
Rock Band of the Year
Nominees:
Grave Corps
Stars in Toledo
Good King Calel
The Time Beings
Anthony Luke, a WWE Wrestler, was shouted out by Tone Da Boss for using a song he made was the swing to set us into a WWE tone, teaming with IMF Wrestling’s Gary Patrick to present. In the middle of it, Omen Black stormed the stage in full IMF wrestler mode, championship belt and all. Classic wrestling skit energy dropped into an awards show.
Winner: Grave Corps
When they were finally announced, it felt like the payoff of a storyline, not just a line on a program. Shoutouts flew to bandmates, including some who’d been doing this for nineteen years.
Album of the Year (Contemporary)
Nominees:
777 — The Zeffsterr (fan vote)
The Prestige — DraftPick
Unfinished Business — Shorty G.
Mi Casa — Richie Uchiha
Smash Bros — C Note & Crate Reckless
Winner: The Prestige — Draft Pick
Draft Pick wasn’t in the building, but the applause still came through clean. At that point in the night, people were tired, but not too tired to honor a record that clearly hit.
Hip-Hop Artist of the Year — (final award)
Nominees:
EJ Swavv
Coldsaint
Youngstar
Quiet Mike
Winner: EJ Swavv
His second of the night. After everything — the collab win, the engagement announcement, the long run of awards — he closed it with four words: “God is so good.” That was the last trophy of the show.
Final performance: The Dan Medeiros Project
The Dan Medeiros Project closed the night with a killer acoustic performance — voice and guitar, stripped down and steady. It wasn’t just a “play us out” moment; it felt like the last page of a long chapter being turned by hand.
Screen-only awards and shoutouts at the edges
Some awards flashed by on-screen rather than on-mic. They still matter, even if they didn’t get full stage time, so they live here in the credits roll:
Lyricist of the Year: Killa Quey (over Real Dot, Quiet Mike, and Fitz)
Christian Artist: Airyn Duffy (over Tariajaybre, Juliette Jackson, and Carol Montag)
Content Creator of the Year: 319 Kwon (over Chapis and Sparky Sinn)
Photographer of the Year: JMR Images (over JC Productions, Worthington Photography, In the Moment, Mirror Right Media)
Local Support DJ: Lady J (over Bees Knees, DJ Clife, DJ Binja)
Karaoke DJ of the Year: Bee’s Knees Entertainment (over David Baker, DJ Smiles)
Promoter of the Year: DJ Smiles (over Rahlan Kay and Keep Up Ent.)
They may have been “just” on-screen, but they’re the scaffolding that holds a night like this up.
Afterglow
After the show, the crowd bled into the Wake N Bake after-party. That’s where I met 3J — the kid who’d been sitting next to us during the ceremony, surprisingly well-behaved for a long show. We worked a couple of his songs and some LayZ Otter tracks into dubstep versions to show what their music could sound like to a whole new audience.
Igor and I followed the girls trend at the afterparty and we had a round of well done Sex on the Beaches. In response to this drink, I joked to Igor I was gonna tell my wife I had sex on the beach with Igor. His response was “well there is no beach.”
But if I’m being honest, the only real critique I walked away with isn’t about anything that happened in that room. It’s the web presence. The official Iowa Music Awards site still has sections that feel frozen in past years, with links to older cycles that click through to placeholder pages instead of real results or recaps. You can see things slowly getting folded under the T1 Entertainment umbrella, which is starting to carry more current Iowa Music Awards info, but the online footprint still hasn’t caught up to how strong and dialed-in this year’s show actually was. The night onstage felt like right now; the websites still feel like they’re mid-jump between versions.
The next morning, at our sponsor The Hungry Bear, Mike and I sat around a table layered in plates and notes, debriefing. Future coverage. Future shows. Future drives in borrowed cars with patched-up batteries and loud mufflers.
The Iowa Music Awards didn’t just hand out trophies. They mapped a network — of artists, promoters, videographers, DJs, bands, and kids who aren’t onstage yet but will be.
We drove home in the same rattling Kia Soul, same noise, same road. The difference was the experience we were bringing back.
