If the launch party is anything to go by, then this year's EMMA Awards ceremony will have more stars than seats. Last Friday's launch party brought together stars like Patti Boulaye, members of the band 'Blue', along with nominees Lennie James (Buried), Diane Parrish (Baby Father), the cast of Tanika Gupta's Fragile Land including Christopher Simpson who also performed the double role in the TV adaptation of Zadie Smith's 'White Teeth'. The stars had all turned out to support founder Bobby Syed's dream of saluting Britain's Multicultural Society. Cabinet Minister Paul Boateng and men's fashion designer Oswald Boateng were among the celebrated guests.

Friday's launch revealed the finalists for 2003 and announced the latest news from the Ethnic Multicultural Media Academy (EMMA) including its new TV Channel, EMMA TV, the EMMA Trust and the EMMA Festival. Hosting coverage of the launch party was Narinder (Big Brother) on behalf of EMMA TV. The EMMA Trust was launched by Asian lawyer Imran Khan, Trevor Phillips, Wendy Woods and Lord Herman Ouseley, all of whom are trustees.

Wayne Williams, a former member of Another Level launched his solo career and performed his debut single 'Anything's Possible' (released 5th May) live for EMMA guests. The Accapella group, Blessed Voices, winners of the Channel Four Gospel Singers of the Year Award 2002 also performed live with a new song written specifically about EMMA. DJ Lautrec provided his own mix of world music with support from his band members Thierry Diallo and Kevin G Davy. Nominee Tasha's World, an accomplished singer/songwriter born in Rotterdam, who has a voice trained by singing Jazz, Soul and Hip Hop, was ready to share her soul with EMMA.

EMMA AWARDS CEREMONY

This 6th glitzy annual Natwest EMMA Awards ceremony held at the end of May, which sees stars from the worlds of media and entertainment gather in London's Grosvenor House Hotels' Great Room to obtain a top accolade, is to be broadcast on BBC TWO and is produced this year by Chris Cowey, Executive Producer of Top of the Pops.

Asians among this year's finalists include: Ravi Shankar's daughter Norah Jones (Best International Music Act) for her debut album, Gurinder Chadha's film 'Bend it Like Beckham' (Best Film Production), Jimi Mistry for this role in 'The Guru' (Best Film Actor), Parminder Nagra for her role in 'Bend it Like Beckham' (Best Film Actress), The Kumars at No 42 (Best Entertainment Production), Om Puri for his roles in 'Murder' and 'White Teeth' (Best TV Actor), Bombay Dreams (Best Play/Theatre Production), Tanika Gupta's Fragile Land (Best Play/Theatre Production), Meet the Magoons (Best Comedy), Meera Syal (Best Comedy) and Hari Kunzru for his debut novel 'The Impressionist' (Best Book/Novel).

Asians dominate the Journalism categories with nominees Raekha Prasad and Vikram Dodd, both from The Guardian, battling it out in the Best Print News category. In the Best Radio Journalist category, the BBC gets a clean sweep with all four nominees working for the channel including Asians Barnie Choudhury and Zubeida Malik from the 'Today' programme and Nazanine Moshiri (Radio 1 Newsbeat). Krishnan Guru Murthy (ITN/Channel 4) and Navdip Dhariwal (BBC) are both nominated in the Best TV News Journalist category.

In the Best TV Documentary category nominated subjects include 'India Calling' a documentary about India's call centre industry, 'Through Muslim Eyes' and 'Hidden Jihad' which was the first programme in Channel 4's Muslim season.

India's top batsman Sachin Tenduklar has been nominated in the Sports Personality of the year and activist, campaigner and booker-prize winning author Arundhati Roy is nominated as the Media Personality of the Year. Rabinder Singh QC, a specialist in Public, Human Rights and Employment Law is nominated in the Public Figure of the Year category and is dubbed an "outstanding public lawyer".

Bobby Syed, Founder of EMMA said "This year's NATWEST EMMA Awards are particularly significant given the ever present need to create and celebrate harmony and diversity within local and international multi-cultural communities. EMMA seeks to promote this ethos by visually honouring individuals who excel professionally and socially on a universal multi-cultural level."

The Awards have previously honoured Muhammad Ali, Nelson Mandela, Lord Richard Attenborough, Ray Charles and Dr Maya Angelou for the Lifetime Achievement. On receiving his award, Nelson Mandela acknowledged the EMMA's as a 'great initiative bringing together ethnic and mainstream media in Britain'.

Introduced for the first time in 2002 was the Legend Award, which honoured the Mahatma Ghandi legacy. This year's award will pay tribute to the prolific legacy of Martin Luther King for his historic civil right's work in the USA.

ABOUT THE EMMA FESTIVALL

Launched in 1997, the event has now grown into the Emma Academy, and acts as an umbrella for a wide range of cultural initiatives including the launch in May this year of the EMMA FestivALL, a programme of the best multi-cultural arts and entertainment on offer in London and across the country during May.

Click here for the EMMA 2003 Launch party photos.
Click here to read about the EMMA 2002 winners.
Click here to visit the NatWest EMMA Awards website.