ARIA Award for Best Female Artist
The ARIA Music Award for Best Female Artist, was an award presented at the annual ARIA Music Awards, which recognised "the many achievements of Aussie artists across all music genres", since 1987. It was handed out by the Australian Recording Industry Association, an organisation whose aim is "to advance the interests of the Australian record industry."
To be eligible, the female artist had to meet one of the following criteria: be an Australian citizen; be born in Australia; be a permanent resident or have applied for permanent residency ; if they are from New Zealand they must have lived in Australia for at least six months for two consecutive years prior to the awards and signed to an Australian record label.
The ARIA Award for Best Female Artist was given to a female artist who had a single or an album appear in the ARIA Top 100 Singles Chart between the eligibility period, and was voted for by a judging academy, which consisted of 1000 members from different areas of the music industry.
The award for Best Female Artist was first presented to Jenny Morris in 1987. Wendy Matthews, Sia and Kasey Chambers hold the record for the most wins, with three each, followed by Morris, Kate Ceberano, Natalie Imbruglia, Missy Higgins and Kimbra with two. Kylie Minogue has received 14 nominations, more than any other artist, winning one in 2001 for her album Light Years.
This, and the ARIA Award for Best Male Artist were merged in 2021 to form a single award for Best Artist.This change was 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 will be ten.
Winners and nominees
In the following table: the years in the "Year" column are listed as per the ARIA Award ceremony; in the "Winner" column the winner for that particular year is always listed first and highlighted in a separate colour, in bold face and with a double dagger ; the nominees are placed alphabetically beneath the winner and are not highlighted or in bold face; the "Album/single title" column lists the title of the album or single that the artist was nominated for.| Indicates the winner |
Multiple wins and nominations
The following individuals received two or more Best Female Artist awards:| Wins | Artist |
| 3 | Kasey Chambers |
| 3 | Wendy Matthews |
| 3 | Sia |
| 2 | Kate Ceberano |
| 2 | Missy Higgins |
| 2 | Natalie Imbruglia |
| 2 | Kimbra |
| 2 | Jenny Morris |
The following individuals received two or more Best Female Artist nominations: