The Travellers stole the show last night at the first-ever Lovin Music Awards, winning four trophies, including the Best Performance of the Night Award.

The six-piece band also won Best Band, Best Live Act and Best Song for Ersaq fil-Qrib. 

Around 2,500 people attended the concert which was held at WH21, a new venue in Kordin. 15 performances including a surprise performance of Xemx by the original members of The Tramps, accompanied by vocal powerhouses Claudia Faniello, Amber, Federica Falzon and Nicole Frendo, were featured.

The second biggest winner of the night was Ira Losco who won three awards: Best Solo Act, Best Pop Act and Best Collaboration for Hey Now with Owen Leuellen. The X Factor rapper from Valletta also won the Best Upcoming Male award. 

Ira Losco also performed an 11-minute medley of some of her biggest songs including her latest Cannonball with Michela, who represented Malta at Eurovision last year. 

Michela won Best Upcoming Female and Best Music Video for her song Chameleon.

Other winners included The Busker for Best Album, Joseph Calleja for Best Classical Artist, Emma Muscat for Best International Success and Chris Birdd for Best Urban/Hip Hop Act.

Ziggy was awarded Best DJ, Place by Micimago won Best Dance Track, Brikkuni won Best Alternative Act and Martyrium won Best Metal Band. 

Howard Keith won Best Producer and Freddie Portelli won the Lifetime Achievement Award. 

All winners were voted by the public. Some 40,000 votes were cast in the run-up to the show. 

A surprise award was also given to Steven Levi Vella, the creative director of the Lovin Music Awards and one of Malta's most prolific music video producers. He was awarded for his contribution to Maltese music. 

Lovin Music Awards was co-organised by Lovin Malta and events planning company Ovation. 

The event was supported by Festivals Malta and sponsored by Cisk, Go’s Music Wildcard and Malta Public Transport.