It's new - I suspect it developed as a Jubilee idea.

Includes some context:

https://catholicmusicawards.world/nominees-finalists-in-english/

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2025-07/finalists-announced-catholic-music-awards-2025-grammys.html

A rather limited view of "Catholic Music".

There's some background about it here.

It's a bit small in terms of what Catholic means.

I'm sort of grateful that the Pontifical Institute for Sacred Music did not lend its name to this well-intended project. They've been doing a good job lately with their social-media series, "Let's Sing with the Pope".

The winners (in various languages) of the "Catholic Music Awards" have been announced on the web site, and the awards ceremony is on-line at YouTube, but they had a pretty poor audio setup, so the performances don't come across very well in the video. Since several of the performers received multiple awards, I have to think that a lot of Catholic performers in this area (devotional or evangelistic pop-music) never found out about the event.

As for what distinguishes the music as Catholic, at least the performers are: they have to include a testimonial letter from a priest confirming that the performer is a practicing Catholic.