The following are some of the categories and nominees for the 2008 Meteor Music Awards.

Best Irish Band
Ash
Aslan
Fight Like Apes
Delorentos
The Flaws
Future Kings of Spain

Best Irish Male
Paddy Casey
Damien Dempsey
Duke Special
Glen Hansard
David Geraghty
Declan O’Rourke

Best Irish Female
Andrea Corr
Cathy Davey
Maria Doyle Kennedy
Roisin Murphy
Sinead O’Connor
Dolores O’Riordan

Best Irish Pop Act
Bell X1
The Blizzards
The Coronas
Brian McFadden
Roisin Murphy
Westlife

Best Irish Album
Paddy Casey - Addicted to Company
Cathy Davey - Tales of Silversleeve
Delorentos – In Love with Detail
The Flaws – Achieving Vagueness
Future Kings of Spain – Nervousystem
David Geraghty – Kill Your Darlings

Best Irish Live Performance
Bell X1 - Malahide Castle
The Blizzards - Oxegen
Duke Special - Vicar Street
Fight Like Apes – Whelans
Future Kings of Spain - Village
Damien Rice - Marlay Park

I’m glad to see that David Geraghty is up for Best Irish Male and that his album ‘Kill Your Darlings’ is in with a shot for Best Irish Album. It is also good to see Cathy Davey getting a nod for Best Irish Female and that ‘Tales of Silversleeve’ is up for Best Irish Album. I don’t know much about the Meteor Music Awards or how artists and their music are nominated for particular categories. It strikes me as strange that BellX1 have been nominated for Best Irish Pop Act as opposed to Best Irish Band. What makes them a ‘Pop Act’ instead of a ‘Band’? The other puzzling thing is that all the Best Irish Live Performances took place in Dublin except for The Blizzards at Oxegen. I know that Dublin has a large population and many fine music venues but music is performed in other counties around Ireland too. Is it the music industry or the public that put forward nominees for these categories? I couldn’t find any information about that on the Meteor website, it was all just about the voting categories and the non-voting categories!!!