The Ondas World Podcast Awards celebrate a global boom for the sector in Malaga

• Los Papeles; La firma de Dios, Los últimos días de Maradona, Batman Desenterrado; El Extraordinario and Canción Exploder are among the winners at the second edition of the awards.
• Hosts Inés Hernand and Andrea Compton enlivened proceedings, while Henar Álvarez interviewed the winners ahead of the ceremony for TikTok.
• The awards gala brought together more than 800 guests in Malaga, including leading figures from the worlds of politics, government, culture, journalism and the audio and podcast industry.
• Malaga singer and musician Fran Perea and Víctor Elías and his choir provided the soundtrack to the evening.

Humor, entertainment, talent and passion. For the second consecutive year, the Ondas World Podcast Awards have been held in Malaga to pay tribute to the most outstanding work in the sector. Among the night's big winners wereLos Papeles, from EL PAÍS Audio and True Story; La firma de Dios and Arsénico Caviar, by Podium Podcast; El silenci de la Rambla, from SER Podcast; Batman Desenterrado, from Spotify; Cristina Mitre’s podcast; and El Extraordinario

Hosting the awards ceremony, held on Wednesday night at the Soho CaixaBank Theater, were Inés Hernand and Andrea Compton who, from the very outset, sprinkled their presentations with comedy as they paid tribute to the world of audio. They had the help of Henar Álvarez who, in addition to featuring in a number of videos interviewing the Malaga public, enlivened the countdown to the awards by chatting with the winners and top guests on the red carpet. They included: Ana Milán and Sebastián Gallego, from the podcast La vida y tal; podcasters Victoria Martín and Carolina Iglesias, from Estirando el chicle; David Andújar and David Insua, from Menudo Cuadro; Lety Sahagun and Ashley Frangie of Se regalan dudas; and comedians Laura Márquez, Charlie Pee and Antonio Castelo, among many others.

Malagan singer and musician Fran Perea, accompanied by Víctor Elías and the On Five choir, entertained the crowd with a look back over his twenty-year career. It all kicked off with the TV series Los Serrano he said, adding that it was like something Resines might dream up, alluding to the actor who played the lead in the hit show. He then gave a musical version of the famous poem by Calderón de la Barca, Life is a Dream, before getting the audience to join in as he sang his big hit Uno más uno son siete.

An 800-strong crowd filled the Soho CaixaBank Theater, with guests including leading figures from the worlds of politics, government, culture and entertainment. They included: the mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre; the president of the Provincial Council, Francisco Salado; the special commissioner for the Alliance for the New Language Economy of the Government of Spain, Cristina Gallach and the delegate of the Government of the Junta de Andalucía, Patricia Navarro.

The hour-and-a-half-long gala was scripted by El Terrat, and the winners, who were announced on March 2, were honored for their outstanding contributions to the podcast sector across a wide and varied range of categories, such as journalism, entertainment, humor, sound production and fiction. Among the winners were the creators of the daily podcasts of the newspapers El Mundo, Eldiario.es and EL PAÍS, as well as Radio Ambulante, who harnessed the power of quality journalism to tell great stories.

Organized by PRISA Audio and Cadena SER, the Ondas World Podcast Awards have quickly become the leading awards in the Spanish-language podcast sector. The second edition has been sponsored by Amazon Music, Audible, CaixaBank and Peugeot, and enjoyed the support of Malaga City Council, Malaga Provincial Council, the Costa del Sol Tourist Board and the Junta de Andalucía, as well as El Terrat and the brewer Mahou San Miguel .

Just hours ahead of the awards, Malaga’s mayor gave an institutional welcome to this year's winners at Malaga City Hall. “The best thing about organizing awards is seeing that there are so many people eager to win them,” said managing director of PRISA Audio, María Jesús Espinosa de los Monteros, referring to the global nature of the awards. The second edition of the awards received 1,178 submissions from 18 countries, 25% more than the previous year. This was also highlighted by Carlos Núñez, executive chairperson of PRISA Media: "We are setting the gold standard for international awards, ones with a very promising future and a spectacular present." Long live the podcast.

The winners

Best Conversational Podcast: (joint winners) Arsénico caviar and Se regalan dudas

Best Fiction Podcast: La firma de Dios

Best Non-Fiction Narrative Podcast: Los Papeles

Best Branded Podcast: Blum, by El Extraordinario, for the Swiss Tourist Board

Best Experimental Podcast: Crímenes: El Musical. Special Mention: Un mundo maravilloso

Best International non-Spanish Language Podcast: Punk in translation: latinx origins

Best Podcast in a Co-official language of Spain: El silenci de la Rambla

Best Sound Design: Adoleszentes. Special mention: Artxipelagoa

Best Host: : El podcast de Cristina Mitre

Best Screenplay: La firma de Dios

Best Production: Los últimos días de Maradona

Best Episode: Jorge Drexler – Silencio, from Canción Exploder

Best Actor or Actress: Batman desenterrado

Special prize for best newcomer podcast: (joint winners) to the newspaper podcasts Un tema al día, El Mundo al día, Hoy en El País and La vida y tal

Download images from the gala here: https://www.sercomunicacion.com/premios-ondas-globales-del-podcast-2023-material-para-medios/