Sera Kalo wins the German Jazz Award 2025 in the “Vocal” category – Tigran Tatevosyan nominated as Newcomer of the Year – Both albums released by o-tone music

Caribbean-American singer, songwriter and producer Sera Kalo was awarded the prestigious German Jazz Award 2025 in the “Vocal” category last weekend. The award ceremony took place on June 13, 2025 at the sold-out E-Werk in Cologne and was broadcast via livestream on YouTube, where it can be viewed. The award winners were selected from a total of 76 nominees – based on 1,193 submissions in 22 different categories, which were evaluated by an international jury of experts.

With its award, the jury paid particular tribute to Kalo’s current album “eXante”, which was released in June 2023 via o-tone music and was already nominated for the German Record Critics’ Award in 2023. The album is a collection of genre-bending songs that combine progressive futuristic soul with poetic storytelling and an electronic atmosphere and unconventional rhythmic structures.

Alongside award winner Sera Kalo, pianist Tigran Tatevosyan was also nominated for the German Jazz Award 2025 in the Newcomer of the Year category for his album “MER TAN ITEV”, which was also released in June 2025 via o-tone music.With his debut album “Mer Tan Itev”, the Armenian-born pianist takes up the challenge of developing a personal sound language in the classical line-up of the jazz trio that is inspired by the Armenian musical tradition as well as the energy of modern jazz.

The German Jazz Award was already initiated in 2021 and is Germany’s most important jazz award and is funded by the Federal Ministry of Culture and Media and can be seen in full length on YouTube as a video livestream.