Does Detroit Have The Best Music In The World? The Detroit Music Awards Say 'Yes!'

Detroit (CBS Detroit) - Detroit is obviously known as Motown, and that distinctive sound resonates throughout the world. Since 1992, Detroit has hosted the Detroit Music Awards. We recently caught up with Co-Founder and Co-Producer Gary Graff to get a personal, behind the scenes tour at The Filmore in Detroit. What makes the awards show so unique is that the winners are chosen by their peers, fellow musicians in a democratic online voting process.

"The Detroit Music Awards were actually founded back in 1989 for a show in 1992. So this is the 28th Annual Detroit Music Awards, and the idea really was to create the Grammy Awards for Detroit."

"Everything we do in terms of the voting for the show is modeled after the way the Grammy Awards do it.  So it's completely democratic, it's a vote of their peers, it's a vote from music professionals in the Detroit area. So musicians, club owners, radio and media people like that."

"The whole thing is utterly democratic, nobody manipulates anything here, we just get the nominees, set the votes up and people vote for each other in the industry. And I think that's what gives it a lot of credibility, and also gives it a lot of value that these are your artistic peers who have selected you for this honor."

"I think what it does for the community of Detroit is it's a lot of chest thumping and saying Detroit really does have the best music in the world. We really believe that that's why we do this year in and year out."

"We have a community here that's just wonderful and filled with creative, talented, original thinkers. We truly believe that the music that comes out of this city is the best in the world!"

Watch for "Eye on Detroit" segments weekdays during "CBS This Morning" at 7 a.m. featuring unique and positive stories from the Motor City.

© 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.