A fortnight ago, we collated and counted the votes and preferences of The Ticket's critics and presented it to the electorate for their approval. Here, then, is the final say on the past 12 months in music, according to the readers of this weekly publication. Will the readers and reviewers be on the same page? Can the farmer and the cowman be friends? Has Donald Trump influenced the votes? It's time to find out.
The category that typically sets the tone is Album of the Year. There is one clear winner and that's David Bowie with Blackstar, an album which won a colossal amount of votes. Other albums that took your fancy in terms of big votes included James Vincent McMorrow's We Move, Beyoncé's Lemonade and Radiohead's A Moon Shaped Pool.
There were several strong vote-grabbing performances for Track of the Year but it was the latter band who prevailed this time around. Radiohead's Daydreaming takes the honours here, like it's The Ticket Awards version of Michael Healy Rae. It was comfortably ahead of Beyoncé's Formation, Drake's One Dance, Field Music's Disappointed and Kanye West's Fade.
Bands, home and away
Radiohead also took the Best Band accolade – it's clear that a lot of Ticket readers bought those tickets for the band's sold-out Dublin show next year– but they had a fight on their hands here with Bell X1 running them close and Saint Sister jumping into third position. There was also a good vote grab here for The Gloaming, Rusangano Family, Overheard, The Albatross, LCD Soundsystem and All Tvvins.
Your favourite Irish act for 2016 were Saint Sister, who ran away with this one. There were also decent votes tallied by The Gloaming, James Vincent McMorrow, Wallis Bird, Cathy Davey, Girl Band, Rusangano Family and All Tvvins. The same dude who voted for the Wolfe Tones in every other category also made his mark here. Fair play to him (you know it just had to be a man).
Not surprisingly, given the year that was in it and his strong showing in other categories, David Bowie was the choice of Ticket readers for Best Solo Act. Other unaccompanied males and females who did well in this category include Beyoncé, Christine & The Queens, Cathy Davey, Kendrick Lamar and Anohni.
When it comes to the specialist categories, The Gloaming took the gong for Best Traditional Album with their majestic second album. There were also honourable mentions and high votes for Ensemble Eriu's second album Imbas, Gatehouse's Tús Nua, Síle Denvir's Caithréim: Music from the plays of Patrick Pearse and Conor Caldwell and Danny Diamond's excellent North.
In the niches
There were also wins for Leonard Cohen (You Want It Darker was the winner by several country miles for Best Roots album), The Fred Hersch Trio (Sunday Night at the Village Vanguard won the approval of jazz fans but only by two votes from Esperanza Spalding's Emily's D+Evolution) and Vasily Petrenko with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (best classical album of 2016 for their recording of Tchaikovsky Symphonies 1, 2 and 5, an album which received a rave five-star review from The Ticket's Michael Dervan on release).
There was absolutely no doubt about the winner for best video and that was David Bowie for Lazarus. Other videos to make an impression on readers included Beyoncé's Lemonade, Kanye West's Fade and a brace from Radiohead with Burn the Witch and Daydreaming.
In terms of live music, there was again one clear winner when it came to festival of the year and that was the annual end-of-the-summer beano in Co Laois. Electric Picnic took well over 50 per cent of the votes here so we’re confidently predicting another sellout in 2017 regardless of who’s on the bill. Other festivals which garnered decent votes include Body & Soul, Longitude, Castlepalooza and Drop Everything.
In standalone gigs, The Gloaming at Dublin’s NCH was the winner by a narrow margin from LCD Soundsystem at the Electric Picnic. Other gigs which featured lots of Ticket readers in the audience in 2016 - and hopefully those readers were not talking or playing with their phones – included Roisin Murphy (Dublin Olympia), Grace Jones (Dublin Olympia) and Kendrick Lamar (Longitude).
And that concludes the voting for another year. It's time for The Ticket's electorate to put 2016 to bed and get ready for whatever the next 12 months will throw our way – good, bad or indifferent. We went into 2016 full of hope and enthusiasm, so let's approach 2017 in the same manner.
The Full List of Winners
BEST BAND
1 Radiohead
2 Bell X1
3 Saint Sister
4 The Gloaming
5 Rusangano Family
BEST ALBUM
1 David Bowie, Blackstar
2 James Vincent McMorrow, We Move
3 Radiohead, A Moon Shaped Pool
4 Beyoncé, Lemonade
5 Anohni, Hopelessness
BEST ACT
1 David Bowie
2 Beyoncé
3 Christine and the Queens
4 Cathy Davey
5 Kendrick Lamar
BEST TRACK
1 Daydreaming, Radiohead
2 Formation, Beyoncé
3 One Dance, Drake
4 4 Degrees, Anohni
5 Disappointed, Field Music
BEST IRISH ACT
1 Saint Sister
2 The Gloaming
3 James Vincent McMorrow
4 Rusangano Family
5 Cathy Davey
BEST VIDEO
1 Lazarus, David Bowie
2 Lemonade, Beyoncé
3 Burn the Witch, Radiohead
4 Daydreaming, Radiohead
5 Fade, Kanye West
BEST GIG
The Gloaming, NCH
BEST FESTIVAL
Electric Picnic
BEST BLUES/ROOTS ALBUM
Leonard Cohen, You Want It Darker
BEST JAZZ ALBUM
Fred Hersch Trio, Sunday Night at the Village Vanguard
BEST TRADITIONAL ALBUM
The Gloaming, The Gloaming 2
BEST CLASSICAL ALBUM
Tchaikovsky, Symphonies Nos 1, 2, 5 Royal Liverpool PO/Vasily Petrenko
