World music is getting bigger. There is even a yellow AA sign on the approaching road pointing to Ocean and the Radio 3 awards for world music. Everything is becoming more mainstream and more visible for the music business's "fastest growing sector".

But does an awards concert make for a great evening's entertainment? As with the Oscars and the Booker, the winners are unlikely to be bad, but also unlikely to blow your socks off. While audience members - sporting anti-war badges and T-shirts, decorative hats and formidable handbags - drink and chat, each winning act has to conjure its own sound world within three numbers.

Newcomer category winners Gotan Project deliver a taste of their stunning live show: five musicians, including Nini Flores on bandoneon, two guys on programmed beats, and blurry cinematic back projections. Boundary crossing category winners Ellika and Solo simply come on and play well. "I like her trousers," says a woman nearby, as the violin/kora duo get into their stride. Mahwash and the Ensemble Kaboul, winners of the Asia/Pacific category, sit down to perform their introspective, meditative music, sounds forbidden or forgotten in Afghanistan for a generation, as award-presenter Jon Snow points out in his heartfelt encomium.

The most sock-knocking act is the Portuguese star Mariza, who comes across like a young Annie Lennox cast in Gormenghast. Mariza is a stunning performer, expertly accompanied by a tasteful acoustic band. Michael Nyman hands over an ugly metal award with the most minimal speech of the evening: "I'm speechless - the voice says it all."

Moroccan pop star Samira Said, winner of the Middle East category, makes a longer announcement: "I hope that the winner of this category will be able to stand here and sing next year. Unfortunately, because of what is happening in my region, I don't feel I can sing tonight."

Manu Dibango and Lucy Duran present two awards to Orchestra Baobab, who are the perfect closing act, delivering their familiar Afro-Cuban sounds with a professional savoir-faire that transcends the poor sound mix. The event comes to an end with a brief, ingenious stage invasion from three naked musicians, who protest gleefully about a "BBC cover-up". I guess you won't see that on Friday's BBC4 transmission.