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’.
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 Arena’s classic hit, “Chains” with the audience singing along in celebration of this epic tune.
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.
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 became the 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 winners list
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
VANCE JOY ‘DREAM YOUR LIFE AWAY’
Best Male Artist
TINA ARENA
ARIA Hall Of Fame
OH MERCY ‘WHEN WE TALK ABOUT LOVE’
Best Adult Contemporary Album
5 SECONDS OF SUMMER ‘ROCK OUT WITH YOUR SOCKS OUT’ TOUR
Best Australian Live Act
C.W. STONEKING ‘GON’ BOOGALOO’
Best Blues and Roots Album
SAM MORAN ‘PLAY ALONG WITH SAM: BOO!’
Best Children’s Album
MATT OKINE ‘LIVE AT THE ENMORE’
Best Comedy Release
SHANE NICHOLSON ‘HELL BREAKS LOOSE’
Best Country Album
JARRYD JAMES ‘DO YOU REMEMBER’
Best Pop Release
RÜFÜS ‘YOU WERE RIGHT’
Best Dance Release
NORTHLANE ‘NODE’
Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Album
ONE DIRECTION
Best International Artist
SETH SENTRY ‘STRANGE NEW PAST’
Best Urban Album
THE VERONICAS ‘YOU RUIN ME’
(Matt Sharp and Daniel James)
Best Video
CONRAD SEWELL ‘START AGAIN’
Song Of The Year
LEE KERNAGHAN ‘SPIRIT OF THE ANZACS’
Outstanding Achievement Award
ED SHEERAN ‘X’
Diamond Award
Outstanding Digital Service
Spotify
Outstanding National Retailer
JB HiFi
Outstanding Independent Retailer
Red Eye Records
Source: ARIA