News November 27, 2015

Barnett, Tame Impala dominate 2015 ARIA Awards

PRESS RELEASE:

The sold out 2015 ARIA Awards Connected By Telstra held at The Star Event Centre, Sydney and broadcast nationally only on TEN,capped off an extraordinary year for the Australian music industry and showcased the talent and diversity of this year’s nominated artists.

It was Tame Impala’s night seeing them win the coveted Telstra Album Of The Year ARIA Award for their ARIA #1 Album, ‘Currents’. They also picked up ARIAs for Best Group and Best Rock Album. This adds to front man, Kevin Parker’s haul after scooping two Artisan ARIA Awards for Producer Of The Year and Engineer Of The Year taking their overall ARIA Awards tally to five.

Courtney Barnett crossed live from London to the ARIAs to celebrate her three ARIA Awards for Best Female Artist, Breakthrough Artist and Best Independent Release. This added to her Artisan ARIA Award for Best Cover Art for her debut album, ‘Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit’.

Guests at The Star Event Centre, Sydney and the fans watching on TEN were treated to stellar performances from ARIA Award winners Vance Joy (Best Male Artist) opening the show with his platinum-selling smash, ‘Fire And The Flood’, Jarryd James (Best Pop Release) wooing the crowd with his double platinum single, ‘Do You Remember’ and Conrad Sewell (Song Of The Year) closing the show in a lush and glorious mash up of his ARIA Award winning ‘Start Again’ and ‘Firestone’. ARIA nominated artists Hermitude featuring Mataya and Young Tapz, Flight Facilities featuring Owl Eyes and Peking Duk featuring SAFIA raised the roof with their sublime performances.

One of the many highlights of the night was Tina Arena’s induction into the ARIA Hall Of Fame by fellow ARIA Hall Of Fame Inductee and friend, Kylie Minogue. Tina was joined on stage by Jessica Mauboy and The Veronicas for a show stopping performance of Tina’s classic hit, ‘Chains’ with the audience singing along in celebration of this epic tune. To commemorate this magic moment fans can download the performance of ‘Chains’ by Tina Arena, Jessica Mauboy and The Veronicas at https://TinaArena.lnk.to/Chains

ARIA CEO Dan Rosen said: “2015 has been a remarkable year for Australian music and that was certainly evident with the wealth of talent present in the room tonight. The collection of tonight’s winners, nominees and performers highlight the world-class homegrown talent that we have here in Australia. ARIA congratulates all of tonight’s winners, in particular Courtney Barnett & Tame Impala, who both won multiple ARIA Awards.”

5 Seconds Of Summer, who crossed live to the Awards from LA, were ecstatic when it was revealed they had won the public voted Twitter live vote in the Best Australian Live Act category. It was the highest public voting category ever with over two million votes cast around the world.

The Honourable Dr Brendon Nelson, Director of the Australian War Memorial presented Lee Kernaghan with an Outstanding Achievement Award for his poignant album ‘Spirit Of The ANZACS’ which honoured the 100th Anniversary of the ANZACS landing at Gallipoli. Former Australian of the Year and music legend, Lee Kernaghan, teamed up with a host of local artists and musicians to create ‘Spirit Of The ANZACS’ and the support of the nation for this release drove the album to #1 on the ARIA Album chart, holding the top spot for 4 consecutive weeks. This ARIA Award for Outstanding Achievement celebrated this incredible achievement.

Ed Sheeran blew the audience away with his stunning rendition of ‘Photograph’ and he became the proud recipient of the first ever ARIA Diamond Award in recognition of sales in excess of half a million for his album ‘X’.

Congratulations to One Direction for their record-breaking fourth consecutive year of winning the public voted Best International Artist ARIA Award.

Denis Handlin AM, ARIA Chairman and Chairman & CEO of Sony Music Entertainment Australia & New Zealand and President, Asia said: “The 2015 ARIA Awards Connected By Telstra were truly a great celebration of Australian music with brilliant performances and magic moments. Our congratulations go to the winners and all the nominees. It was also an honour for ARIA to induct Tina Arena into the Hall of Fame recognising her amazing contribution to Australian music which continues so strongly. ARIA was also very proud to present Lee Kernaghan with the ARIA Outstanding Achievement Award, for his brilliant ‘Spirit of the Anzacs’ album project.

We would also like to thank all of the 2015 ARIA Awards partners – Destination NSW, Telstra, David Jones, The Star, Qantas, PPCA and our media partner Network TEN for their valued support in making the ARIA Awards such a wonderful success.”

The 2014 ARIA Awards Connected By Telstrakicked off in spectacular style on the Red Carpet Presented By David Jones as Nathaniel performed his hit single, ‘Live Louder’.

NSW Minister for Trade, Tourism and Major Events, Stuart Ayres said, “Tonight Australia’s music industry gathered in Sydney, the home of the ARIA Awards, to celebrate another incredible year for home-grown music. The NSW Government is proud to support the ARIA Awards and ARIA Week through our tourism and major events agency Destination NSW and we congratulate each of this year’s winners.”

Music fans around the world joined the conversation around the #ARIAs using the hashtag #ARIAs which generated a cute custom Twitter emoji version of the ARIA award itself. The#ARIAs are the first Australian TV show to have a Twitter emoji created for it and it proved to be a popular move as #ARIAs was the #1 trending topic throughout the event.

ARIA thanks Telstra official Twitter Tweejay, Alli Simpson and Telstra’s Red Carpet and green room backstage host, ARIA Award winner, Ella Hooper for bringing fans closer to the music they love by giving them a unique ARIA Awards experience with exclusive behind the scenes entertainment and red carpet moments at telstra.com/arias.

The ARIAs is an occasion to honour great music and Telstra brought fans closer to the music they love by collaborating with a group of renowned Aussie Artists and fans to celebrate great Aussie music from the past, present and future with the #greataussiemusic series and behind the scenes action online at telstra.com/arias.

On ARIA night, Telstra went Outback at the ARIAs, giving fans a unique ARIA Awards experience with exclusive behind the scenes entertainment and red carpet moments at telstra.com/arias including Red Carpet interviews with formerKilling Heidi front woman and ARIA Award winner, Ella Hooper and Alli Simpson as the Telstra official Twitter Tweejay. Ella Hooper also hosted the green room backstage at the event capturing celebratory chats with the winners, presenters and performers of this years ARIAs.

ARIA wishes to thank its partners and sponsors without whom the ARIA Awards would not be possible: Destination NSW, TEN, Telstra, The Star, David Jones, Qantas, PPCA, Coopers, TDC And Guitar Hero.

As we bid goodnight to this year’s exciting ARIA Awards we look forward to celebrating the landmark 30th year of the ARIA Awards in 2016.

#ARIAS

2015 ARIA Awards Connected By Telstra |www.ariaawards.com.au

The 2014 ARIA Awards Connected By Telstra and ARIA Week are proudly supported by the NSW Government, through its tourism and major events agency Destination NSW.

2015 ARIA AWARDS CONNECTED BY TELSTRA RECIPIENTS

Tame Impala ‘CURRENTS’

Telstra Album Of The Year

Best Group

Best Rock Album

Producer Of The Year – Kevin Parker

Engineer Of The Year – Kevin Parker

COURTNEY BARNETT ‘SOMETIMES I SIT AND THINK, AND SOMETIMES I JUST SIT’

Best Female

Best Independent Release

Breakthrough Artist Presented By PPCA

Best Cover Art