MTV Australia to highlight Indigenous artists in new programming initiative

MTV Australia will showcase First Nations artists as part of a new music channels initiative, ‘Indigenous Artist of the Moment’.

The network will highlight one Indigenous artist each month, starting off with rising star Miiesha. The Pitjantjatjara/Torres Strait Islander artist is currently in the running for five ARIA Award categories, including Best Female Artist and Best Soul/R&B Release, for her debut album Nyaaringu.

The clip for Miiesha’s track ‘Twisting Words’ will be featured on MTV Hits over the course of the month.

In addition to the new initiative, MTV will be profiling prominent Indigenous artists throughout NAIDOC Week, such as Baker Boy, Alice Skye, Birdsz, among others.

Earlier this year, MTV debuted a series of new music channels on Foxtel, taking the place of heritage channels MAX, [V], and CMC, which all shut down in June. The new channels, MTV Hits, Club MTV, MTV Classic and CMT (Country Music Television), are all locally programmed in Sydney.

“Music is up 18% year on year on Foxtel and it’s the fastest-growing category behind news, so there’s an exciting opportunity there,” MTV’s senior director of youth and entertainment brands, Helen McMurdo, said at the time.

“Music is really important to us from a brand point of view, and I think this new set of channels demonstrates our commitment to that.”