2018 LEGENDS OF VINYL: Hall of Fame Awards Honors Recording Artist Felipe Rose formerly of the Village People

The Legends of Vinyl are proud to announce their 2018 Hall of Fame Awards which will take place on Tuesday, 18 September 2018 at the Amadeus Nightclub located at 7951 Albion Avenue, Queens, NY. Doors open at 6pm, admission is $20 (L.O.V Members $10). The award ceremony begins at 8pm and the public is invited to join as they award the area's best DJs, Producers, Recording Artists, Recording Engineers, Record Promoters, Remixers, and other music industry professionals. The organization will present Awards to members of the DJ/Artists Hall of Fame for their contributions to the music industry. 2018 Honorees include Claudja Barry; Felipe Rose (formerly of the Village People), Melba Moore; Michael Felder; Christine Wiltshire, Sarah Dash; and the Original Ladies of Chic Norma Jean Wright, Alfa Anderson, and Luci Martin. The organization will also honor Michael Zager, Audrey Josephs, Bobby Goodrich, Bruce Marcus, Jose Bonilla, Ray Vazquez, Steve Bogen, Tom Savarese, Tom Silverman, and Grammy Award Winner Little Louie Vega. In addition, the organization is proud to present the 2018 Icon Of The Year Award to John “Jellybean” Benitez. Chris Robinson aka Father Chris will be presented with the Golden Circle Award. An after party with music and dancing with DJs Ray Vasquez and Dan “Pooch” Pucciarelli will conclude the evening. To vote visit legendsofvinyl.com

The Native American Music Awards is the world's largest and only professional membership-based orgranization dedicated to honoring the best new music initiatives from the Americas. The 18th Annual Gala Awards will take place on Friday, 12 October 2018 at the Seneca Niagrara Resort & Casino located at Niagra Falls, NY. Banquet tickets are $45. Rose is nomiated in two leading categories including "Best Single" and "Best Dance song" for his hit "Going Back to My Roots'. For more information visit nativeamericanmusicawards.com 
Interested media who wish to interview Felipe Rose, please contact Workhouse, CEO Adam Nelson via [email protected] or telephone +1 212. 645. 8006. 

"Bruce Springsteen, the Four Seasons, Whoopi Goldberg, “Cake Boss” Buddy Valastro and three New Jersey governors were on stage May 6 at the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park for the  induction ceremony of the New Jersey Hall of Fame Class of 2017. Yet, it was Felipe Rose, the Indian formely of the Village People, who all but stole the show. Rose and Tammy Murphy, wife of Gov. Phil Murphy, inducted singer Gloria Gaynor. Rose was hard to miss. He wore his Native American garb, including a headdress and suede vest. Rose has star power…" - Asbury Park Press (5 July 2018) Read the full story here ​https://www.app.com/story/entertainment/music/2018/07/05/village-people-legacy-indian-felipe-rose-split-asbury-park-and-life-solo-star/750234002/

FELIPE ROSE came into prominence in the 1970s out of the urban gay clubs and discotheques of New York City. He was best known in those days as the Native "Indian" dancer and singer inspired by his parent’s heritage when he met a French producer by the name of Jacque Morali. Felipe's ancestry is that of Taino and Lakota. His mother was from Puerto Rico and his father arrived from a wave of Indians who came to New York City to work in construction in the 1950's. Felipe would grow up in the ghettos of Brownsville, Brooklyn, but his rise to pop music fame would make him a fixture in mainstream music culture. Felipe became an original member of Village People fame, by the young age of 19 yrs old. Village People began as a disco group well known for their on-stage costumes and named after New York City's Greenwich Village. Originally created by Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo inspired by Felipe's insidious imagery to target disco's gay audience, the Village People quickly became popular and moved into the mainstream. The group scored several disco dance hits internationally, including three hits in the US, "Macho Man, "In the Navy", and their biggest hit, "Y.M.C.A.”. Now four decades later, Felipe and Village People remained a pop culture mainstay in music, sports arenas, commercials and television as they continue to tour the world. “Y.M.C.A” remains the group's biggest hit since it’s release in 1978. The song remains popular and is played throughout the U.S. and Europe, with crowds using the dance in which the arms are used to spell out the four letters of the song's title. The song is number 7 on VH1's list of The 100 Greatest Dance Songs of the 20th Century. Village People's mega-hits include: San Francisco/Hollywood, Macho Man, Y.M.C.A. , In The Navy, Go West, Can't Stop the Music, 5 0'Clock In the Morning, Let's Go Back to the Dance Floor (2014) written and penned for VP by K.C. of the Sunshine Band Internationally, on a worldwide scale, Y.M.C.A. sold over a million copies each in Germany and United Kingdom.  The latter also made it a hit all over again in 1993 when a remix hit #12 ( made it to #1 for the first three weeks of 1979 in its original go-round). The Guinness British hit single ranked Y.M.C.A. as the  45th biggest single ever on that country's music chart (which began in 1952). Putting it ahead of "Unchained Melody" and behind "Reach Out I'll Be There.” To date, Felipe and the Village People sold over 100 million records and have won many international music awards and garnered over 30 Platinum and Gold records. Felipe's highest moment of achievement was receiving a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the following month, being inducted into the NAMA Music Hall of Fame.
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In 1996, he formed The Tomahawk Group and Tomahawk Records focusing on songwriting and talent development. BY 2001, with Tomahawk flourishing, Felipe set his sights on a solo career, collaborating with his longtime composer/arranger Forrest "Frosty" Lawson. Rose released his first EP, “Trail of Tears, his retelling of the forced removal of the Cherokee Nation. Creating his hybrid Native dance composition's calling it Disco Fever/Burning up the Rez!  It received rave reviews and was nominated for three Native American Music Awards in 2002.  Felipe was asked to open the Fifth Annual Native American Music Awards show. His production number "brought the house down" and "Trail of Tears"  took home "Best Historical Recording" honors that year. To date, no artist has ever duplicated the energy and visual effect, that Felipe unveiled that evening at the Marcus Amphitheater.

Continuing his solo sojourn in 2003, Felipe released "We're Still Here".  Rose was again nominated and awarded a second NAMMY as the EP won the coveted "Single Song of the Year" statuette at the Sixth Annual Awards show.  In 2005, rounding out the trilogy was his next CD, a tribute to the late Virginia Indian activist Thomasina E. Jordan, entitled, "Red Hawk Woman”.  Combining contemporary elements with traditional music, spoken word, Native hip-hop, and poetry, the recording features contributions by; Chief Anne Richardson, Chief of the Rappahannock Nation, flutist Douglas Blue Feather and Native rapper Shadowyze. The album won best Hip-Hop Recording and Songwriter of the Year. Felipe then returned to rapper Shadowyze to create a hip-hop offering called, "Two Fallen Feathers".  Taking a break from recording, he continued touring the world with Village People, heading in concert venues, throughout Europe, South East Asia, and Australia, for the 39th time in his career and a country he calls his second home. In 2005, Felipe donated his Gold single of Y.M.C.A.  before an international audience in the rotunda of the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). His unique branding and indigenous style in pop music and his rich heritage is reflected in the clothing he dons with Village People as he tours the world. To Felipe, he is not just wearing a stage costume, and shares where his roots come from, using his unique style that honors the heritage of his Native American roots, which reflect the that he dons to perform in. This is not just a costume but is a signifier of where his bi-racial roots come from and his long association with Native American Indian groups across the country.  A "ShadowWalker" is a Native term or word for walking in two worlds and also as a "Two-Spirited" person who is Gay. Felipe has managed to stay relevant throughout his adult life tapping into a passion and devotion to what he loves to do around the country as a speaker, an ordained minister with the Universal Church of Life, most recently he was the host and interviewer on the Red Carpet for the Native American Music Awards and also as a presenter in the category for Artist of the Year.

W O R K H O U S E is one of the country's leading public relations and integrated creative agencies. For the seventh consecutive year, Workhouse received the "Best of Manhattan Award" by the U.S. Commerce Association (USCA). The agency swept three of the industry's highest honors when it was bestowed with the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Silver Anvil Award, PR News' Platinum PR "Wow Award", Bulldog Reporter's Silver Medal Award and was also named a PR Daily/ Dow Jones Finalist for "Grand Prize: PR Campaign of the Year". Celebrating two decades of service, Workhouse is a full-service creative agency positioning emerging and established brands with celebrity craftsmanship. The agency provides forward thinking public relations, social media, brand promotion, creative consulting and modern day marketing. Clients have included Lou Reed, The Rolling Stones, Hugh Jackman, Francis Ford Coppola, David LaChapelle, CBGB, Max's Kansas City, Interview Magazine, Galleries Lafayette, Porsche, Ford Motor Company, Virgin, Jazz at Lincoln Center, International Emmy Awards, Assouline Editions, Rizzoli International Publications, Tony Shafrazi Gallery, Versace and Avroko. Workhouse offers untraditional service across a broad spectrum of entertainment, culture, fashion and lifestyle spheres. Visit workhousepr.com