The top nominees for the 2013 mtvU Woodie Awards are a study in contrasts. On the one end, you have blues revivalist Jack White and on the other is EDM star Dillon Francis, both with two nominations apiece.
They lead a pack that includes MGK, A$AP Rocky, Grammy winners Fun., Kendrick Lamar, Grimes, Walk the Moon and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, who are all vying for the coveted Woodie of the Year honor.
"Two years ago I was in the crowd at the Woodies, the next year we won the Breaking Woodie, now this year we're nominated for the Woodie of the year!," said MGK. 'I just want my fans to be proud of how far we've come, dreams are coming to life. Lace up."
Woodie Award voting opens Tuesday (February 12) and runs through March 14 at 4 p.m. ET. The 2013 mtvU Woodie Awards and Festival are returning to Austin, Texas for a full day of musical performances on March 14, during the SXSW Music Festival. MTV and mtvU will air a half-hour 2013 Woodie Awards special on March 17 at 8 p.m. ET, with performers announced at a later date.
Francis leads the pack of nominees for the Breaking Woodie honor, which also includes twenty one pilots, Alt-J, Earl Sweatshirt, Gold Fields, the Lumineers and Zedd.
Among those vying for Best Video Woodie are: Best Coast, "The Only Place," Chairlift, "Met Before," Danny Brown, "Grown Up," Father John Misty, "Hollywood Forever Cemetery," Major Lazer, "Get Free," Of Monsters and Men, "Little Talks" and Skrillex, "Bangarang."
This year's event brings a few new categories as well, including the Tag Team Woodie for best collaboration. That one pits A-Trak and Dillon Francis ("Money Makin'") against Kimbra featuring Mark Foster & A-Trak ("Warrior"), Meek Mill featuring Drake ("Amen"), Morgan Page featuring Tegan and Sara ("Body Work"), Kanye West, Big Sean, Pusha T and 2 Chainz ("Mercy"), Steve Aoki and Angger Dimas featuring Iggy Azalea ("Beat Down") and Swedish House Mafia versus Knife Party ("Antidote").
Another new category is the FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) Woodie, for the most "can't miss" performance of the moment which includes Death Grips, Fiona Apple, Flux Pavillion, Grammy winner Frank Ocean, Jack White, Swedish House Mafia and The Weeknd.
The third fresh race is the Branching Out Woodie, which honors artists who find innovative, creative ways to use social media. Amanda Palmer (who raised $1.2 million via Kickstarter) leads a pack that also features Avicii (crowd-sourcing melodies, vocals and rhythms for his next single), Dan Deacon (made fans his light show with a mobile app), deadmau5 (used fan vocal for a Twitter-sourced track), White (releasing 1,000 balloons with flexi-discs that were tracked on the Third Man website), Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (hosted live YouTube show for fans) and the xx (debuted new single to one fan before it spread virally).
Other categories include the Chevrolet College Artist Woodie and College Radio Woodie.
The Woodie Awards Festival will kick off at 2 p.m. CT on March 14 in Austin, Texas with a number of live performances by up-and-coming artists at a show open to all SXSW badge holders and music fans over the age of 18. The 2013 mtvU Woodie Awards will then take over the night beginning at 8 p.m. CT with a host of hardware hand-outs and performances.