Recognizing exceptional artists and musical works from around the world — an extension of what X DOT 25 Music has been doing since 1990: listening, discovering, supporting, recognizing.
Inaugural Award · May 2027
In 1990, X DOT 25 Music began with a simple vision: music without borders. More than 35 years later, that vision continues.
From its earliest days with Zoobeen Banafsh and the groundbreaking Arghavan, X DOT 25 Music has followed music wherever creativity leads — across cultures, traditions, genres, and generations. On Arghavan, Beethoven’s Für Elise was transformed from its original 4/4 rhythm into a Persian 6/8 interpretation — an early example of the East-meets-West spirit that would become central to the X DOT 25 Music identity.
That spirit continued through releases such as The Child Within by Aldoush, Beyond Denial by Axiom of Choice, and Introspection by Mythos, which reached #2 on the New Age charts before the music moved into the major-label world through Higher Octave / Virgin Records, EMI, and Universal.
But X DOT 25 Music has never been only about its own roster. For more than 35 years, X DOT 25 Music has listened for exceptional music and supported artists from diverse musical backgrounds. More than 100 artists have been supported through the X DOT 25 Music journey, and today more than 80 albums remain actively in worldwide distribution.
That tradition of discovery also led to projects such as Nevâg, first released in 1996 after dozens of contemporary Persian musicians submitted their music for consideration, with selections made on the basis of artistic merit. Portraits in Sound continued that tradition, bringing together music from the X DOT 25 Music world alongside exceptional artists beyond the label’s core roster.
And now, that tradition takes another step forward.
The X DOT 25 World Music Awards is being created to recognize exceptional artists and musical works from around the world. It is an extension of what X DOT 25 Music has been doing since 1990:
The award will look beyond popularity and commercial success to the qualities that make music truly meaningful:
And importantly, the award is not limited to X DOT 25 Music artists. We are opening our ears beyond our own catalog to recognize artists whose music deserves to be heard, remembered, and celebrated.
The world has always been full of extraordinary music. The X DOT 25 World Music Awards is our way of celebrating it.
Some pieces of this journey have become increasingly difficult to find. X DOT 25 Music still has a very limited number of original physical CDs of Nevâg (1996) and Portraits in Sound, Vol. 1 in its archive.
These original releases are now collector’s items, representing important pieces of the history of X DOT 25 Music and the independent World Music movement of their time.
And beyond these two, X DOT 25 Music still holds a limited number of original CDs from several other projects across its catalog.
A limited number of all of these will be made available to collectors at selected X DOT 25 Music concerts.