{"id":823174,"date":"2026-08-23T13:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T13:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/823174\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T13:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T13:24:15","slug":"why-has-only-one-woman-won-san-diego-music-awards-lifetime-achievement-honors-who-else-should-we-have-suggestions-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/823174\/","title":{"rendered":"Why has only one woman won San Diego Music Awards\u2019 Lifetime Achievement honors? Who else should? We have suggestions. \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do the San Diego Music Awards<\/a> have a problem finding worthy women artists to honor?<\/p>\n

Women won in nearly one-third of the 27 categories that were awarded in May at the 2026 edition of this 35-year-old nonprofit event. That was a marked improvement over the previous three years, when there were only a handful of women winners.<\/p>\n

San Diego Music Awards 2026 announces 27 winners, surpasses $1 million in fundraising<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The lack of more could reflect that voters favor male nominees, who typically outnumber women nominees by a significant margin in many of the awards categories. Or, perhaps, that voters are generally less familiar with the women nominees at this annual event, which this year raised a record $86,465.20 to support its Guitars for Schools<\/a> music education program.<\/p>\n

Since its inception 35 years ago, the annual awards show \u2014 which is presented under the auspices of the nonprofit San Diego Music Foundation<\/a> \u2014 has raised more than $1 million to provide free guitars and lessons to students in 131 schools across San Diego County.<\/p>\n

But the bigger issue has nothing to do with how invaluable this event is for music education and celebrating local artists \u2014 or with nominating and voting patterns that seem skewed in favor of male musicians. It has everything to do with the recipients of the event\u2019s annual Country Dick Montana Lifetime Achievement Award<\/a>, a category that has been unmistakably skewed in favor of male musicians.<\/p>\n

Only one woman has received this lifetime honor since the awards show introduced the category in 1994: blues and jazz piano and vocal great Jeannie Cheatham, who turned 99 on Aug. 14. She was jointly presented the award in 2006, alongside her now-deceased husband, Jimmy Cheatham, with whom she co-led the internationally acclaimed and now-dormant Sweet Baby Blues Band.<\/p>\n

Music great Jeannie Cheatham isn\u2019t thinking about her 98th birthday: \u2018I\u2019m busy!\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The issue isn\u2019t a lack of extremely gifted female musicians here who are worthy of lifetime recognition. There are plenty. Rather, it\u2019s that \u2014 apart from Cheatham \u2014 there have been no other women recipients of this award, which is named after the late leader of the San Diego roots-rock band the Beat Farmers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was not aware there has only been one woman and I\u2019d love to see more recognized,\u201d said Claudia Russell, who recently concluded her 25-year tenure at radio station KSDS Jazz 88.3 FM.<\/p>\n

Russell is one of six women currently serving on the San Diego Music Awards Academy, a volunteer board whose 12 other members are men. Russell will be one of the lifetime achievement honorees on Oct. 16 at the annual San Diego Music Hall of Fame Awards, which debuted as an independent event in 2018.<\/p>\n

It has honored two women artists in each of the past three years. That is five more than the San Diego Music Awards have given lifetime achievement awards to in 3-\u00bd decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe definitely have some extraordinarily gifted women musicians here worthy of the San Diego Music Awards Country Dick Montana Lifetime Achievement Award,\u201d Russell said. \u201cI think the decisions about who gets it are mostly made by Kevin Hellman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hellman is the founder of the San Diego Music Awards and its driving force. The former publisher of the weekly publication San Diego CityBeat, he is a veteran events producer and a tireless local music advocate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of worthy candidates for the lifetime achievement award and we only honor one person a year,\u201d Hellman said. \u201cThere\u2019s no equation we have to follow every year \u2026 We have an inner circle of six people who I discuss things with. Ultimately, I make the final decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he was concerned only one woman has ever received the lifetime honor, Hellman said: \u201cIt\u2019s not about a man or woman. It\u2019s about just trying to choose the best. There are two women I have in mind for our next (lifetime) award, but I can\u2019t say that will happen. There\u2019s no rhyme or reason as to why it\u2019s been almost all men that have received the award. Part of it is about the date of the event and the availability of the (potential) honoree.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no question many of the past lifetime achievement honorees have been deserving. The list includes everyone from jazz greats (Daniel Jackson, Mike Wofford) and seminal punk-rock bands (The Zeros, The Penetrators) to singer-songwriters (Nick Reynolds, Jack Tempchin), radio mainstays (Mike Halloran, Al Guerra) and concert promoters (Joe Flammini, Malcolm Falk).<\/p>\n

But the absence of women honorees is glaring. A top contender would surely be Jewel, who honed her craft singing in San Diego coffeehouses before writing a bestselling book of poetry and making albums that have sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.<\/p>\n

Jewel reflects on her 1995 debut album, which sold 12 million copies and changed her life<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cJewel is somebody we have talked to the last two years,\u201d Hellman said. \u201cBut she wasn\u2019t available last year. She was in Amsterdam the day of our awards show and we couldn\u2019t change our date. She\u2019s on our short list.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is there any sense of urgency for more notable women artists to receive the lifetime achievement award?<\/p>\n

\u201cOur job is to honor the people we think deserve it, man, woman, Black, White,\u201d Hellman replied. \u201cWe\u2019ve talked about deserving women; there are also very deserving men. And we only do one lifetime award a year, so we can\u2019t do them all at the same time. We try to honor the right person at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the Union-Tribune cited other female San Diego artists, besides Jewel, who are eminently worthy of the award \u2014 from top jazz flutist and concert promoter Holly Hofmann and singer-songwriter, radio host and local music champion Cathryn Beeks to the late singer Candye Kane and boogie-woogie piano queen Sue Palmer \u2014 Hellman enthusiastically agreed.<\/p>\n

Queen of boogie woogie Sue Palmer celebrates 25 years with her Motel Swing Orchestra<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

But agreeing women should be honored is not the same as actually honoring them. Here\u2019s hoping the 2027 San Diego Music Awards, which will be held May 3 at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay, mark the start of a new era.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, here \u2014 in alphabetical order \u2014 are some of our suggestions of artists who should be honored. What are yours?<\/p>\n

Jennifer Batten
\n\"GuitaristGuitarist Jennifer Batten achieved worldwide acclaim as a member of the bands led by Michael Jackson and Jeff Beck. (Courtesy Jennifer Batten)<\/p>\n

Like 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award-winner and fellow guitarist Mike Keneally, Jennifer Batten was born in New York and grew up mostly in San Diego. Like bass great and 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award-winner Nathan East, she cut her teeth playing with bands in San Diego clubs before moving north to further her career.<\/p>\n

Batten went on to make history, at least three times. In 1979, she became the first woman to graduate from Los Angeles\u2019 Guitar Institute of Technology (GIT), where she won two awards. She then became the first woman to teach at GIT, a bastion for top six-string artists.<\/p>\n

in 1987, Batten began a 10-year stint as the lead guitarist in Michael Jackson\u2019s band for three consecutive world tours. Her subsequent 1998-2001 tenure with English guitar legend Jeff Beck made her the first female instrumentalist to play alongside Beck in his then-30-year history of leading bands.<\/p>\n

Batten has made multiple solo albums and instructional videos. She is the founder of GuitarCloudSymposium.com<\/a>, an online educational program. Her next area performance is Sept. 20 at El Foro in Tijuana, followed by a two-month tour of Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, when young guitarists ask me for advice, I just say: \u2018Keep your nose to the grindstone, work on your music, and the career will take care of itself\u2019,\u201d Batten said in a 2016 Union-Tribune interview.<\/a> \u201cBecause I don\u2019t know any magical way to make things happen, other than engrossing yourself in what you\u2019re passionate about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Claire Chase
\n\"FlutistFlutist Claire Chase, a San Diego native who performs around the world and teaches at Harvard and Julliard, was the Ojai Music Festival\u2019s 2025 music director. (Walter Wlodarczyk)<\/p>\n

In 2012, Claire Chase became the first flutist to earn a MacArthur Foundation \u201cgenius grant\u201d fellowship, an honor previously bestowed to choreographer Twyla Tharp, Broadway musical writer Lin Manuel-Miranda, author Colson Whitehead and Chase\u2019s fellow native San Diego musician, Chris Thile.<\/p>\n

In 2017, she was awarded Lincoln Center\u2019s Avery Fisher Prize for Classical Music (which had never been won by a flutist). Her credits also include two honorary doctorates, nine solo albums of world premiere recordings and her commissioning and performing of hundreds of new flute works.<\/p>\n

Chase, who now teaches music at Harvard and Juilliard, was the 2025 music director of the prestigious Ojai Music Festival. Her new album, \u201cThe Holy Liftoff,\u201d was released in July, 25 years after she founded the groundbreaking International Contemporary Ensemble. Her impact on her instrument and its creative possibilities has been so profound that a 2023 New York Times article about her bore the headline: \u201cClaire Chase Is Changing How People Think of the Flute.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a very happy workaholic,\u201d Chase said in a 2025 Union-Tribune interview.<\/a> \u201cI really, really love what I do, and I cherish the time that I get to do it with people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosie Flores
\n\"ValleyRosie Flores became a San Diego music scene favorite in the 1970s. She is the opening act on Robert Plant\u2019s 2026 fall tour, which includes a San Diego show at Humphreys Concert by the Bay. (K.C. Alfred \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

A 2025 San Diego Music Hall of Fame inductee and 2024 NEA National Heritage Fellowship honoree, rockabilly, Western swing and country music standout Rosie Flores was a Peabody Award-winner in 2007 and a 1986 Academy of Country Music nominee in the Top Country Female Vocalist category.<\/p>\n

Equally skilled as a singer, guitarist and songwriter, she co-founded San Diego\u2019s first all-girl rock band, Penelope\u2019s Children, in 1966. In the 1970s, Flores led one of the area\u2019s most popular bands, Rosie & The Screamers. Her self-titled debut album was released in 1987 by Warner Bros.\/Reprise Records. She has made a dozen more solo albums since then, and has been featured on recordings by Joe Ely, Wanda Jackson, Alejandro Escovedo, Marshall Crenshaw, Dave Alvin, Juice Newton and many more.<\/p>\n

Flores\u2019 latest album, \u201cImpossible Frontiers,\u201d came out last fall. Her next performance here will be Sept. 28 at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first big gig I did in San Diego, I got to open for Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Turtles,\u201d Flores said in a 2025 Union-Tribune interview.<\/a> \u201cCreedence loaned us their amps because ours weren\u2019t big enough. There have been so many wonderful shows in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diamanda Gal\u00e1s
\n\"SanSan Diego-bred vocal marvel Diamanda Gal\u00e1s has earned international acclaim for her fearless and groundbreaking music. (Austin Young \/ Courtesy Grandstand Media & Diamanda Gal\u00e1s)<\/p>\n

No one else sings like Diamanda Gal\u00e1s, the San Diego-born vocal wizard of awes whose fearless, take-no-prisoners work blends elements of bel canto opera, avant-garde, blues, gospel, German cabaret, traditional Greek music and more into a stunning synthesis.<\/p>\n

The depth, power, nuance and sheer velocity of her voice inspires chills and thrills. The grim subject matter she often sings about \u2014 disease, genocide, maimed and disfigured war victims \u2014 is both harrowing and cathartic. Her admirers include Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, John Zorn, Vinko Globokar, Henry Rollins and Deborah Harry, as well as Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, who teamed with Gal\u00e1s on their audacious 1994 album, \u201cThe Sporting Life.\u201d<\/p>\n

A pioneer of solo vocal concerts, she is also a strikingly original pianist. While her original compositions are gripping, Gal\u00e1s has proven just as mesmerizing putting her stamp on songs by everyone from Frank Sinatra and B.B. King to Johnny Paycheck and Screamin\u2019 Jay Hawkins.<\/p>\n

Gal\u00e1s\u2019 newest album, \u201cDe-formation: Second Piano Variations,\u201d came out last fall. She will perform three concerts in Italy in September, followed by more in Poland in October.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to work on dark subject matter. It\u2019s not that I choose to \u2014 I\u2019m inhabited by dark subject matter. It\u2019s part of my flesh,\u201d Gal\u00e1s said in a 2022 Union-Tribune interview.<\/a> \u201cThis is the kind of work where you better know what you\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

San Diego Music Awards Country Dick Montana Lifetime Achievement Award winners<\/p>\n

2026 \u2013 Steve Poltz<\/p>\n

2025 \u2013 Nathan East<\/p>\n

2024 \u2013 Stevie Salas<\/p>\n

2023 \u2013 Mike Kenneally<\/p>\n

2022 \u2013 Jesse Davis<\/p>\n

2021 \u2013 Jerry Raney<\/p>\n

2020 \u2013 Richard Livoni<\/p>\n

2019 \u2013 Joe Flammini<\/p>\n

2018 \u2013 The Paladins<\/p>\n

2017 \u2013 Wayne Riker<\/p>\n

2015 \u2013 Peter Sprague<\/p>\n

2014 \u2013 Tomcat Courtney<\/p>\n

2013 \u2013 Daniel Jackson<\/p>\n

2012 \u2013 Mike Wofford<\/p>\n

2011 \u2013 The Penetrators<\/p>\n

2010 \u2013 Iron Butterfly<\/p>\n

2009 \u2013 The Zeros<\/p>\n

2008 \u2013 Mundell Lowe<\/p>\n

2007 \u2013 Nick Reynolds of The Kingston Trio<\/p>\n

2006 \u2013 Jimmie & Jeannie Cheatham<\/p>\n

2005 \u2013 The Beat Farmers<\/p>\n

2004 \u2013 Charles McPherson and Scottsville Squirrel Barkers<\/p>\n

2003 \u2013 Joe Marillo<\/p>\n

2002 \u2013 Jack Tempchin and Al Guerra<\/p>\n

2001 \u2013 Jack Costanzo<\/p>\n

2000 \u2013 Lou Curtissand Barney Kessel<\/p>\n

1999 \u2013 Frankie Laine<\/p>\n

1998 \u2013 Joey Harris and Mike Halloran<\/p>\n

1997 \u2013 Tim Mays and Harlon Shifmann<\/p>\n

1996 \u2013 Jim McInnes<\/p>\n

1995 \u2013 Dave Hodges<\/p>\n

1994 \u2013 Malcolm Falk<\/p>\n

YOUR TURN!<\/p>\n

Tell us which female San Diego musician you think most deserves a lifetime achievement award, and why. Send your responses to: george.varga@sduniontribune. Please include your full name and where you live (not your address, but the city or neighborhood you live in, such as North Park, Chula Vista or Talmadge).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Do the San Diego Music Awards have a problem finding worthy women artists to honor? Women won in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":823175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[2356,88,2558,216,7831,7155,7156,2628,2557],"class_list":["post-823174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-california","tag-entertainment","tag-latest-headlines","tag-music","tag-music-and-concerts","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county","tag-things-to-do","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=823174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/823175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=823174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=823174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}