Echo Music Prize (stylised as ECHO, German pronunciation: [ˈɛço]) was an accolade by the Deutsche Phono-Akademie [de], an association of recording companies of Germany to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry. The first ECHO Awards ceremony was held in 1992, and was set up to honor musical accomplishments by performers for the year 1991, succeeding the Deutscher Schallplattenpreis, which was awarded from 1963 to 2018. Each year's winner was determined by the previous year's sales. In April 2018, following controversy regarding that year's ceremony, the Bundesverband Musikindustrie announced the end of the award.^[1][2]

First held with 370 people in the Flora, Cologne^[3] in 1992,^[4] the award ceremony in Frankfurt was televised and the classical awards were moved to a separate event, Echo Klassik, in Cologne in 1994.^[5] Until 1995, only invited guests could attend the ceremony.^[6] It was held in Munich,^[3] and in 2001, the venue was moved from Hamburg to Berlin^[7] because of subsidies of up to 20 million euros, although a return in 2004 was considered.^[8] In 2009, the venue in Berlin was moved to Mercedes-Benz Arena.^[9]

The trophy was designed by Oliver Renelt when he was a student at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg. It is stainless steel, and is 40 centimetres (16 in) tall and weighs 2 kilograms (4.4 lb).^[3] It depicts half a disc with notes flowing into it from a globe, and the design was the winner of a competition held for that purpose.^[6]

The Echo Award was heavily criticized worldwide when Farid Bang and Kollegah received the award for best hip hop/urban album in April 2018. The nominated album, Jung, Brutal, Gutaussehend 3 (English: "Young, brutal, handsome 3"), contains the track "0815", in which the artists refer to their muscles as being more defined than those of Auschwitz inmates. The duo was even allowed to perform this track during the ceremony, despite heavy protests weeks before the award show.

Campino, singer of German punk band Die Toten Hosen, was the first one to criticize the committee's decision during the ceremony.^[10] His remarks received a standing ovation from the audience.^[11] Several artists later returned their Echo awards in protest, such as Marius Müller-Westernhagen, who returned all of his seven Echo awards received over the years. Other artists returning their awards were German conductors Christian Thielemann and Enoch zu Guttenberg, Russian-German pianist Igor Levit, record producer Klaus Voormann, and the Notos Quartett.^[12]

However, criticism did not only come from artists and the German press. Several businesses joined in, with Tom Enders, CEO of Airbus, being one of the most recent high-profile commentators, saying that this would hurt "Germany's international reputation". He also asked if "antisemitism [was] becoming acceptable in Germany" again.^[10]

As a consequence, the Echo Award was discontinued.^[2]

The Kastelruther Spatzen have won 13 Echo Awards in the category Volksmusik which is more than any other artist; the awards were in 1993, 1996–2003, 2006–2010.

Selected pop categories

Following its first edition as a separate event in Cologne in 1994, the Echo Klassik has been held in the Semperoper in Dresden in 1996 and 2009,^[18] in Dortmund in 2003,^[19] in Gasteig in Munich from 2004 to 2008 and in 2014.^[20] In 2010 it was held in Essen.^[21] From 2011 until 2016 the award show was held in Berlin's Konzerthaus - only shortly intermitted in 2014.^[20] In 2017, the Echo Klassik took place in Hamburg's newly opened Elbphilharmonie.^[22]

After 2010, the Echo Jazz awards were given in thirty categories, including ensemble of the year, male and female singer of the year, record label, and lifetime achievement. In 2012 the criteria for entry included album release date and "two outstanding reviews from music journalists." Conductor Claus Ogermann was given the ECHO Jazz Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.^[23] Awards are decided by a twelve-member jury based on critical and commercial appeal.^[24][25]