MTA New York Riders’ Choice Award: Honoring the Underground Music Scene of NYC

What you should know

The MTA’s Music Under New York is a program that has allowed local artists to entertain passengers on train platforms since 1985. In an effort to recognize these artists, the city has created the MTA New York Riders’ Choice Award. The winner would receive a session in a recording studio with Atlantic Records. One of the three finalists is Afro Americano, a Latino Afro-Caribbean soul music band.

NEW YORK — The New York City subway is a whole other world. Rather than a network of railways connecting four of the five counties, some may even consider it a mini-town of its own, with art being a big part of it.

If you take the subway frequently, you may be familiar with the MTA’s Music Under New York, a program that has allowed local artists to entertain passengers on train platforms since 1985.

In an effort to recognize these artists, this year the city has inaugurated the MTA New York Riders’ Choice Award, which is sponsored by the WE❤️NYC campaign.

Taking home this award would not only be a historic achievement for the winner, but it could be a game changer in their career. After all, the grand prize is a recording studio session on Atlantic Records.

The three finalists vying for this honor are Afro Dominicano (an Afro-Caribbean Dominican soul band from Brooklyn), Augie Bello (saxophonist and composer), and Brass Queens (an all-female brass band).

Afro Dominican music combines different genres, resulting in a truly unique rhythm: reggae, afrobeat, merengue, rock, among others. In this way, its purpose is to show the public a type of music that perhaps they had never heard before.

They were chosen from a competitive field of 128 artists, with only 24 of them being selected to be part of the Music Under New York program.

New Yorkers have until Wednesday to cast their votes. The grand winner will be announced the following day.

For more information and to cast your vote, visit

2023-07-24 16:26:57
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