Mississippi Music Awards come to Meridian April 18

Published 8:49 am Tuesday, February 10, 2026

East Mississippi residents are invited to celebrate the Magnolia State’s rich musical roots as the ninth  Mississippi Music Awards is held April 18 at the Temple Theatre.

Hosted by the Mississippi Music Foundation, the awards show will feature dozens of artists from around the state, nation and globe.

“We have nine lifetime achievement awards, which is Deborah Allen, Ronnie McDowell, Bobbie G. Rice, Little David Willkins, Jerry Foster, Rebecca Holden and Bobby Manuel, which are all big leagues in the music industry,” said Austin Turner, who does marketing for the Mississippi Music Foundation, said. “And then we have three awards we’re doing this year. We’re doing the Jimmie Rodgers Award for the Jimmie Rodgers museum, and we’re doing the Pioneer Award, and we’re doing the Community Service Award.”

Peter Whitham, president of the Mississippi Music Foundation Board, said this will be the first time Meridian has hosted the awards.

“One thing about the show is that we have a lot of genres, we actually have, from hip hop all the way to classical,” he said. “And of course country is a big theme, so we’ll have probably 65 performers for this event. We have them coming from all over the world.”

The foundation is inviting everyone to come out and enjoy the show, Turner said, as well as celebrate with both fans and performers at the after party. It’s going to be a fun time for everyone, he said.

“We welcome everybody to come out and everybody show up,” he said. “It’s going to be a big thing.”

In addition to the Mississippi Music Awards, the foundation does a lot of other work promoting music throughout the state, Whitham said. It provides instruments to youth and has a youth orchestra, both of which are free for the children involved, and has a money matching program to help artists with the costs of recording and producing their own music.

For more information about the Mississippi Music Foundation or the upcoming Mississippi Music Awards, visit mississippimusicfoundation.org.