Tattie says..

"There has always been some doubt about HOW people get to be award winners: any followers of the Hands Up for Trad website get invited to nominate our favourites, then it goes to a vote. Somewhere in the system is a panel of professional musician advisers who go through all the nominations and whittle it down to 4 or 5 in each category, but there used to be/still is? a lot of canvassing for votes, so it's maybe those with the biggest fan base/social media links who actually get the awards. Sorry, am I being too cynical?"

Not at all, TB.

I find the nominations part the most intriguing.   Even although the public are invited to nominate their favourites etc, these are whittled down by the "panel of experts". So, the nominations are lttle more than suggestions at the end of the day and not necessarily the popular choice.

It seems pretty clear that these "experts" are often pushing lesser known and even some obscure candidates for the final vote. Possibly on what they consider to be "artistic merit" or maybe it's just to give newer and break through acts a chance?

If the nominations were actually based on popularity, commercial success, and longevity, then you would expect different nominations in the short list. Possibly, many of the same artists would continually be featured.
I realise that wouldn't be that good either but it seems to have gone too far the other way now. It's as if everyone "gets their turn" to get nominated.