Radio Kantipur hosted a press conference to unveil the full set of nominees for National Music Award (NMW) 2079 at Hotel Yak and Yeti on Thursday.

A total of 75 nominees have been selected for NMW 2079 across 15 different award categories. Additionally, the organisers will honour an artist who has contributed to the field of music for a long time.

Bhupendra Khadka, the program director of Radio Kantipur, announced the nominees for all categories—Best New Singer, The Best Lyricist, The Best Music Director, The Best Singer (Female—Lok), The Best Singer (Male—Lok), The Best Playback Singer—Male, The Best Playback Singer—Female, The Best National Song, The Best Singer (Pop Male), The Best Singer (Pop Female), The Best Band, The Best Singer (Male Adhunik), The Best Singer (Female Adhunik), The Best Duet Song, and People’s Choice Award.

Fans can vote for their favourite song among those nominated for People’s Choice award—‘Dhokebaaj Hau Timi’, ‘Kalo Keshma’, ‘Risaune Bhaye’, ‘Pir’, and ‘Sasto Mutu’—via the Khalti app. The winner of this category will receive a cash prize of Rs100,000.

‘Rel Ko Bato’ by Suraj Pandit and ‘Dokebaaj Hau Timi’ by Eleena Chauhan and Shiva Pariyar both received four nominations each—the former for Best New Singer, The Best Lyricist, The Best Music Director and The Best Singer Male Adhunik, and the latter for People Choice Award, The Best Singer Female Adhunik, The Best Singer Male Adhunik and The Best Music Director.

Big names from the industry, including Kiran Nepali, Prakash Saput, Swoopna Suman, Samir Shrestha, Sushant KC, Shiva Pariyar, Subani Moktan, Sandip Chhetri, Sajan Shrestha and Pradip Rodan will be present at the event, which will take place on July 6. Salman Ali, the winner of Indian Idol 2018, is also set to perform a special set.

The organisers revealed they are conducting the show to express their appreciation for the musicians “who are tirelessly putting out new music that enriches our lives.”