ARIA Announces New Members to Hip Hop and R&B Advisory Group

ARIA has today announced the appointment of five new members to its Hip Hop and R&B Advisory Group.

Marking the industry association's first membership renewal since its establishment in 2024, the new members include Tani Webb (FN Focus), Alexander Franco (Liquorice Music), Neda Rahmani, Kieran "KIZ" Lonergan (Seventhree) and Peter Sabbagh (Bodega Collective).

Since its formation, the group has engaged members in the national AI and copyright debate, opened dialogue with Victoria Police on knife crime and community safety, and made a submission to the 2026 consultation on Australia's next National Cultural Policy. Members have also helped shape three iterations of the YouTube Hip Hop and R&B Showcase and supported ARIA Collab, a production program that has delivered at least 10 new tracks for release. The committee has also run knowledge-sharing sessions with Spotify, Sounds Australia and IFPI covering playlisting, export pathways and global market data, and its input has fed into ARIA Awards criteria for the R&B and Dance categories and ARIA chart surveys for hip hop and R&B genre categorisation.

"When we established the Hip Hop and R&B Advisory Group two years ago, we made a clear commitment to listen more closely, work more collaboratively and help build stronger pathways for these communities within the Australian music industry," ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd said in a statement.

“Welcoming Tani, Alexander, Neda, Kieran and Peter brings valuable new perspective and expertise to that work at an important point in the group's evolution.”

The new appointees join the group which already includes Mohamed Komba (co-chair), Julia Robinson (co-chair), Aćol Agaar Apollo (Pookie), Ali Tomoana, Austin Benjamin, Ben Martin, N'Fa Jones, Hau Latukefu, Jelal Edmonds, Kween G, Matthew Craig, Nina Agzarian, Petrina Convey, Sosefina Faumoli and Vyvienne Abla.