In 1960, the Committee for Collective Gramophone Campaigns organized the Edison awards for recordings in various categories. The first Edisons – named after the inventor of the phonograph,
Thomas Edison – were awarded at the inaugural
Grand Gala du Disque, a showcase for the awards featuring national and international performers. Coincidentally, Edison was of Dutch lineage. Each year, Edisons were awarded at two separate events, the Grand Gala du Disque Classique for
classical music and the Grand Gala du Disque Populaire for
popular music. There were two main categories: International artists and domestic (Dutch) artists, in various musical styles such as
pop,
vocal,
jazz,
instrumental,
children and (in the early years) a separate award for French-language music. The winners were decided by judges. and their Edison Award at the Grand Gala du Disque in 1965. The 1963 Grand Gala du Disque Populaire, which overran by almost two hours, saw
Marlene Dietrich,
Sarah Vaughan and
Charles Aznavour accepting an Edison. In 1965, the winners included
Esther Ofarim,
Oliver Nelson,
Louis van Dijke,
the Beatles and
Joan Baez. Pianist
Vladimir Horowitz and composer-conductor
Igor Stravinsky won awards at the Grand Gala du Disque Classique.,
Anneliese Rothenberger and
Edo de Waart with their Edison awards at the Grand Gala du Disque Classique on October 3, 1969.The award itself has also gone through many changes. In the 1960s and early 1970s, it grew to a (then) record number of 24 categories in 1969. In later years, the number of awards was inconsistent and several categories did not last longer than a couple of years. From 1975 to 1976 no Edisons were awarded and in 1977 only Dutch artists were awarded a prize. In 1980, the Classical and Popular were jointly awarded. While the award lost much of its prestige in the 1980s due to lack of media coverage and interest from record companies – the number of categories continued to grow to a record number of 35 in 1991. The choices became more progressive, as several award winners were virtually unknown to the general public. In 1991, for instance, no awards were given to best-selling and critically lauded albums, but instead lesser known artists like
The Riverdogs,
Michael Lee Firkins, rapper
Paris and instrumentalist Jean Marc Zelwer got the prizes. By the end of the 1990s, the Edison experienced another overhaul, as the prize was split into the Edison Pop and Edison Jazz/World awards (there had always been a separate
Edison Classical Award ceremony). It also began to focus more on Dutch artists and a number of new categories were introduced, such as best album, video, single and newcomer. Each year also featured one or two awards which were directly voted for by the television audiences. Interest in the Edison has gone up in recent years, although no awards were given in 2006 and 2007. These days, the award is focused on Dutch product only, with several categories such as best male artist, female artist, newcomer, and theatre/vocal artist. There is also an annual lifetime achievement award for an artist with a distinguished career. The 2011 ceremony, held on 2 October and which featured eight categories, was not televised. == Award winners ==