2020 ARIA Awards to reveal nominees on YouTube this week

UPDATE: Lime Cordiale leads the 2020 ARIAs tally with eight nominations

For the first time in the ARIA Awards’ 33-year history, the annual nominations event – usually limited to industry folk only – will this year stream on YouTube for the world to watch.

The virtual event will premiere on the Google-owned video platform at 10am AEDT next Tuesday, October 13 with broadcast partner Nine’s Brooke Boney confirmed as host.

Organisers have also revealed that Aussie chartbusters Tones And I, Dean Lewis and last year’s host Guy Sebastian will make appearances during Tuesday’s presentation.

As reported by TMN last month, ARIA confirmed the awards would still proceed this year, but they’ll look a little different to years gone by due to mass gathering and travel restrictions.

The 2020 event will take place at Sydney’s The Star on November 25 without an audience, as the organisers look to celebrate Australian music in a COVID-Safe environment.

Speaking to TMN recently, outgoing ARIA chief executive Dan Rosen said the group was determined to find a way not to cancel the celebrations this year.

“We were always working really hard to be able to put on an event,” he said. “We felt that it’s been an incredibly challenging year for so many people in our industry – for our artists, for our labels, for our managers, agents, everyone – but through it all, people were still putting out great music, and Aussie music fans were still listening and buying great Australian music.

“And so we thought it’s very incumbent on us to be able to celebrate the year, and not just the year in music, but the year in resilience of our music community, to get through it.”

This year’s ARIAs will be Rosen’s last as CEO of the industry body after the executive was named president of Warner Music Australasia on September 30. He begins at the major next February.

This year the Fine Arts and Artisan Awards will be on the same day as the main event.