2021 ARIA Music Awards

The 2021 ARIA Music Awards are the 35th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards and consist of a series of awards, including the 2021 ARIA Artisan Awards, ARIA Fine Arts Awards and the ARIA Awards. The ARIA Awards ceremony occurred on 24 November 2021 in partnership with YouTube Music and streamed live on YouTube, and broadcast via 9Now. The main ceremony was hosted by Linda Marigliano at the Taronga Zoo.
The 2021 ARIA Awards inaugurated a new category, Best Artist, which replaced the categories of Best Female Artist and Best Male Artist. This change is designed to ensure that the ARIA Awards reflect and embrace equality and the true diversity of the music industry in 2021. In making this change the number of nominees for Best Artist were ten. Nominations were announced on ARIA's YouTube channel on 20 October, in a livestream hosted by Brooke Boney. Both the Avalanches and Budjerah had eight nominations, while Genesis Owusu received seven, and Amy Shark had six. Owusu won four categories. No ARIA Hall of Fame inductee was announced. At the split ceremony Boney presented a total of 18 trophies, starting with Music Teacher of the Year on Today in the morning, 16 categories at the Pre-Show, and the inaugural Best Artist at the main ceremony.

Performers

Performers for the ARIA Awards ceremony:

Artist	Song
The Kid Laroi	"Stay"
Amy Shark	"Love Songs Ain't for Us"
Rüfüs Du Sol	"Alive"
Genesis Owusu	"Waitin' on Ya", "The Other Black Dog", "Don't Need You"
Budjerah	"Missing You"
Gretta Ray	"Love Me Right"

Presenters

Presenters for the ARIA Awards ceremony:

Artist	Award
Brooke Boney
Linda Marigliano & Masked Wolf	Best Soul/R&B Release
Lime Cordiale	Best Independent Release
Charli XCX	Best Pop Release
Bryce Mills & Ebony Boadu	Best Hip Hop Release
Baker Boy & Peach PRC	Best Video
Troye Sivan	Song of the Year
Ed Sheeran	Breakthrough Artist
The Wiggles	Best Live Act
Vera Blue & Ruel	Album of the Year

ARIA Hall of Fame inductee

There were no inductees

Nominees and winners

The nominees were announced on 20 October 2021 with winners presented on 24 November 2021.

ARIA Awards

Winners indicated in boldface, with other nominees in plain.

Public voted

Winners indicated in boldface, with other nominees in plain.

Fine Arts Awards

Winners indicated in boldface, with other nominees in plain.

Best Classical Album

Genevieve Lacey & Marshall McGuire – Bower
*Christian Li – Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
*Emily Sun & Andrea Lam – Nocturnes
*Grigoryan Brothers – This Is Us
*Nat Bartsch – Hope

Best Jazz Album

Mildlife – Automatic

*Australian Art Orchestra, Reuben Lewis, Tariro Mavondo & Peter Knight – Closed Beginnings

*Kristen Beradi, Sean Foran & Rafael Karlen – Haven

*Petra Haden and the Nick Haywood Quintet – Songs from my Father

*Vazesh – The Sacred Key

Best World Music Album

Joseph Tawadros – Hope in an Empty City

*Bob Weatherall & Halfway, with William Barton – Restless Dream

*Bukhchuluun Ganburged – The Journey

*Eishan Ensemble – Project Masnavi

*Kuya James – ISA

Best Original Soundtrack or Musical Theatre Cast Album

Angus & Julia Stone – Life Is Strange

*Antony Partos – Rams

*Caitlin Yeo, Maria Alfonsine, Damian de Boos-Smith – Wakefield

*Sia – Music – Songs from and Inspired by the Motion Picture

*Yve Blake – Fangirls

Artisan Awards

Winners indicated in boldface, with other nominees in plain.

Producer of the Year

Konstantin Kersting and The Rubens for The Rubens – 0202 and "Masterpiece"
*Andrew Klippel, Dave Hammer for Genesis Owusu – Smiling with No Teeth
*M-Phazes for Amy Shark – Cry Forever, Illy – The Space Between and Guy Sebastian – T.R.U.T.H.
*Matt Corby for Budjerah – Budjerah
*Robert Chater for The Avalanches – We Will Always Love You

Engineer of the Year

Konstantin Kersting for The Jungle Giants – Love Signs, The Rubens – 0202 and "Masterpiece"

*Chris Collins for Budjerah – Budjerah, Skegss – Rehearsal and Tyne-James Organ – Necessary Evil

*Eric J Dubowsky for The Rubens – 0202

*Matt Corby for Budjerah – Budjerah

*Tony Espie for Kate Miller-Heidke – Child in Reverse and The Avalanches – We Will Always Love You

Best Cover Art

Kofi Ansah & Bailey Howard for Genesis Owusu – Smiling with No Teeth

*Ngaiire Joseph & Dan Segal for Ngaiire – 3

*Eben Ejdne for Odette – Herald

*Jonathan Zawada for The Avalanches – We Will Always Love You

*Giulia Giannini McGauran & Mitchell Eaton for Tones and I – Welcome to the Madhouse