Stars to hit right notes at Meteor Awards

IRELAND’S national music awards, where the public gets a chance to choose some of the country’s best performers, was launched yesterday.

This year’s event will see a host of stars come together in Dublin next month to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the awards.

Acts due to perform include Snow Patrol, Westlife, The Script, Florence and the Machine, Paulo Nutini, The Coronas and Pixie Lott.

The music spectacular, hosted by TV presenter Amanda Byram will be held in the RDS, Dublin, on Friday, February 19.

As in previous years, Irish music fans will be able to decide the winners of nine major categories.

Recipients of a further nine awards will be decided by votes cast by representatives of the Irish music industry.

Public voting for the awards is underway while voting for the most promising new artist for 2010 will be live from January 15 next. Text VOTE to 085-7114444 and choose from the list of keywords and categories.

Online voting is at www.meteor.ie and voters will be automatically entered in a competition to win tickets to the event.

A limited number of tickets priced at €40 go on sale today.

The event will be broadcast on RTE2 at 9pm on Sunday February 21.