No encerramento da 1ª edição do Digital Music Days, a AMAEI agradece a Charles Caldas com o 1º CALDAS AWARD

Charles Caldas of Merlin honoured at Digital Music Days in Portugal

Lisbon, 9th December 2019

AMAEI, the Portuguese Independent Trade Association, debuted its first edition of Digital Music Days, in partnership with Centro Cultural Belém. With the support of Merlin and Level: UP Distribution, this professional music conference proposed workshops, keynote presentations and speed meetings during two days in Lisbon. This new event is presented as one of the main European digital music events. During this event, Charles Caldas, Merlin CEO, was honoured with a brand new award in his name, to recognise his work for independent music sector during the last decade.

For its first edition, Digital Music Days ended with a special closure ceremony. Helen Smith, Executive Chair of IMPALA and Carmo Cruz, Director of AMAEI, congratulated Charles Caldas for a decade of defending and promoting local and international independent music across the globe. He received a new award named the Caldas Award. This award is a piece of work from the world renowned Portuguese artist Bordallo Pinheiro, mixing a gramophone and an evocative mouth and lips.

Charles Caldas commented : “I was very happy that my last conference representing Merlin was the truly excellent inaugural edition of AMAEI Digital Music Days in Lisbon, the city of my family and my heart. To be honoured with an award by the AMAEI board and to have that presented to me by Helen Smith of Impala was unexpected and special. It will remain long in my memory. Obrigado!”

Helen Smith added : “I was honoured to be able to present this amazing award to Charles. His work has done so much to help us realise our aim of making sure all artists are equal in the digital age. AMAEI’s Digital Music Days was very impressive and informative, with a compelling line up of panels and discussions. The turnout was great and underlines the need for this type of capacity building in local markets across Europe.”

Nuno Saraiva, President of AMAEI, added : “Superlative people like Charles Caldas are few and far between. Future editions of the Caldas Award shall only be given by AMAEI when someone truly special steps up to the plate, or the turntable. Thank you Charles!“

Mais informações sobre a 1ª edição do DIGITAL MUSIC DAYS no site www.digitalmusicdays.com