ARIA Music Awards


The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The event has been held since 1987 and encompasses the general genre-specific and popular awards as well as Fine Arts Awards and Artisan Awards, Achievement Awards and ARIA Hall of Fame – the latter were held separately from 2005 to 2010 but returned to the general ceremony in 2011. For 2010, ARIA introduced public voted awards for the first time.
Winning, or even being nominated for, an ARIA award results in a lot of media attention and publicity on an artist, and usually increases recording sales several-fold, as well as chart significance – in 2005, for example, after Ben Lee won three awards, his album Awake Is the New Sleep jumped from No. 31 to No. 5 in the ARIA Charts, its highest position. In October 1995 singer-songwriter Tina Arena became the first woman to win Album of the Year for Don't Ask and Song of the Year for "Chains". Before the ceremony the album had achieved 3× platinum and by year's end it was 8× platinum and had topped the end of year albums chart.

History

In 1983, the Australian Recording Industry Association was established by the six major record companies then operating in Australia, EMI, Festival Records, CBS, RCA, WEA and PolyGram replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956. It later included smaller record companies representing independent acts/labels and has over 100 members.
Australian TV pop music show Countdown presented its own annual awards ceremony, Countdown Music and Video Awards, which were co-produced by Carolyn James from 1981 to 1984 and, in the latter two years, in collaboration with ARIA. ARIA provided peer voting for some awards, while Countdown provided coupons in the related Countdown Magazine for viewers to vote for populist awards. At the 1985 Countdown awards ceremony, held on 14 April 1986, fans of INXS and Uncanny X-Men scuffled during the broadcast and as a result ARIA decided to hold their own awards. Australian music journalist, Anthony O'Grady, described the fans of Uncanny X-Men, "screeching dismay and derision every time their heroes were denied a prize. Finally, when INXS were announced Best Group and Michael Hutchence walked towards the stage, X-Men fans unfurled a 2-metre banner reading: '@*l! OFF POCK FACE'".
After that ceremony ARIA withdrew their support for the Countdown awards. Meanwhile, four music industry representatives had met in Sydney: a talent manager Peter Rix and three record company executives Brian Harris, Peter Ikin and Gil Robert. Rix summarised the outcome, "the industry deserved a peer-voting Awards night and it needed to be sanctioned by" ARIA. Its "primary purpose was to strive for some sort of objective overview of excellence in recording". Rather than the ARIA board pay the entire cost of the event, "we cooked up a scheme whereby the ARIA Awards would be funded by individual record companies buying tickets for a dinner." Rix and his group approached ARIA board members, Paul Turner and Brian Smith then-chairperson of ARIA. After several months of arguing for the change, Rix was appointed chair of "a committee to convene the inaugural ARIA Awards".
Starting with the first ceremony, on 2 March 1987, ARIA administered its own entirely peer-voted ARIA Music Awards, to "recognise excellence and innovation in all genres of Australian music" with an annual ceremony. Initially included in the same awards ceremonies, it established the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1988, it held separate annual ceremonies from 2005 to 2010, the Hall of Fame returned to the general ceremony in 2011. The ARIA Hall of Fame "honours Australian musicians' achievements have had a significant impact in Australia or around the world".
The first ceremony, in 1987, featured Elton John as the compere and was held at the Sheraton Wentworth Hotel, Sydney. There were no live performances at the early ARIAs, music for both walk on/walk off was supplied by a nightclub dj, Rick Powell. All subsequent ceremonies were held in Sydney except the 1992 event at World Congress Centre, Melbourne. For 2010, ARIA introduced public voted awards for the first time. Winning, or even being nominated for, an ARIA award results in a lot of media attention and publicity on an artist, and may increase recording sales several-fold, as well as chart significance – in 2005, for example, after Ben Lee won three awards, his album Awake Is the New Sleep jumped from No. 31 to No. 5 in the ARIA Charts, its highest position.

Broadcast history

The first five ARIA Awards were not televised, at the very first award ceremony on 2 March 1987, the host, Elton John, advised the industry to keep them off television "if you want these Awards to stay fun". In June of that year Countdown still had its own awards ceremony, which was televised, "so there was no thought of going to TV". The first televised ARIA Awards ceremony occurred in 1992, all subsequent ceremonies were televised. They were broadcast on Network Ten from 2002 to 2008 and returned in 2010. Nine Network aired the ceremony on 26 November 2009, its digital channel, GO!, aired the 2011 ARIA Music Awards on 27 November 2011. The 2023 and 2024 ceremonies aired live on Stan with a delayed broadcast on Nine Network and YouTube. In 2025 the awards aired live on Paramount+ with a delayed broadcast on Network 10.

Controversy

At the 1988 ceremony a fracas developed between band manager, Gary Morris, accepting awards for Midnight Oil, and former Countdown compere, Ian "Molly" Meldrum, who was presenting. They conflicted over visiting United Kingdom artist, Bryan Ferry, who had also presented an award. Morris objected to Ferry's presence and insulted him, Meldrum defended Ferry and then scuffled with Morris. Also in that year Midnight Oil were nominated for Best Indigenous Record for Diesel and Dust despite having no Indigenous members. Morris objected to that decision by ARIA, "an Indigenous Award should go to an indigenous band". In 1995 electronic music group, Itch-E and Scratch-E, won the inaugural award for "Best Dance Release" for their single, "Sweetness and Light". Band member, Paul Mac thanked Sydney's ecstasy dealers for their help. One of the sponsors of the awards, that year, was the National Drug Offensive. In 2005 Mac explained that he did not expect to win and so had not prepared a speech. His speech was bleeped for the TV broadcast.
During the 2004 voting process, former 3RRR radio DJ Cousin Creep, published his user name and password on a music site, Rocknerd, allowing public votes, before being removed from voting two days later. The 2007 ARIA Awards telecast was marred by controversy after it was revealed by the ABC's Media Watch programme that Network Ten had used subliminal advertising during the course of the broadcast, which under the Australian Media and Broadcasting rules is illegal. Network Ten disputed the finding; however, their basis for defence was criticised by Media Watch, demonstrating an ignorance of the rules.
Tony Cohen, a record producer and audio engineer for Nick Cave and the Cruel Sea, who won three Artisan Awards in mid-1990s, described the ARIA Board's determination of general award winners, "I find them a bit hypocritical those ARIAs. I mean, the awards for the technical people are quite honest but the ones for the actual artists, basically the record companies just sit down at a meeting and decide which one of their acts are going to win this year and all, that sort of thing. It's like a promotion thing." He specifically pointed to Gabriella Cilmi's winning six trophies in 2008, "like that girl who won everything... who only had one song. It's a great song but, I mean, I'd rather see a little longevity first... I wish her luck and everything but you just don't, especially with kids that young."
The 2010 telecast was criticised in media reports: Crikey's Neil Walker decried the "infamously shambolic Sydney Opera House fiasco", The Punch's Rebekah Devlin speculated on it being the worst ever telecast, "it felt like we'd stumbled into some raging A-list party and we definitely weren't invited Guests who were there said it was a great night, but it reignites the debate of what the Arias are actually all about... is it an event staged for the musicians and the people there, or is it for a TV audience?", while Daily Telegraphs Kathy McCabe felt the "underlying problem with the past two years' telecasts is they have tried to be all things to all people and do way too much" and advised that ARIA should get "professionals to do the job professionally, give them ample time to rehearse and allow them to protest when the words just don't work". In 2011 Dallas Crane's vocalist and guitarist, Dave Larkin hoped for improvement from ARIA and the telecast, "o gross was last year's 'stubby-on-the-opera-house-steps' screaming match, that it still burns a brutal reflux just thinking what horrible depths our embattled industry and its unfortunate viewership plummeted to on that grievous evening of small screen hell" and felt their main flaw was that the "ARIAs never seem to take enough time or pride educating the masses on our local industry legends... There never seems to be enough reference or homage paid to great Aussie pop and rock trailblazers who made and continue to make Australian music what it is today".

Nomination process

To be eligible, a release must be commercially available within the specified period for a given year. Material must be previously unrecorded, thus ruling out most live albums. A recording can be nominated within multiple categories, but only one genre category. Re-released recordings are not eligible and compilations are not eligible.
Artists must either be Australian citizens, or have applied for or attained permanent resident status and have resided in Australia for at least six months within the specified period. For bands, at least half the members of the group must meet this requirement. If a recording refers to both an individual and a band, it must be nominated only the basis of the individual or the band, not mixed or both.
Some categories have further requirements as specified below:
  • Album/Single of the Year: Recording must appear in the ARIA Top 100 Albums or Singles chart respectively during the specified period.
  • Breakthrough Artist : Artist must not have previously reached the final five nominations in any ARIA awards category for any release, or have been in a group that has done so, or have a previous release in the Top 50 release charts.
  • Best Rock Album: "Recording must be directed toward Contemporary Rock, Modern Rock and Active Rock formats."
  • Best Adult Contemporary Album: "Recording must be directed toward Adult Contemporary formats."
  • Best Pop Release: "Recording must be directed toward CHR/Top 40 formats."
  • Best Independent Release: Recording must be released and funded by an ARIA member that is not a member of a multinational corporation.
  • Best Music DVD: Compilations may enter this category. Content must be at least 60% original. The release must be eligible to appear on the ARIA Music DVD chart.
  • Best Comedy Release: Compilations are acceptable. Album, single and DVD releases are all eligible. Content must be 100% original.
  • Best Children's Album: Compilations are acceptable. Form and content must be aimed at a pre-teen audience.
  • Best Dance Release: Compilations are acceptable. "Artists working primarily within the dance genre, e.g.: House, Techno, Trance, Hardcore, Garage, Breakbeat, Drum & Bass, Disco and Electronica are eligible. In the case of a remixed album or single, the production team and the original recording artist must both meet the artist eligibility criteria, and the release must qualify for inclusion in either the ARIA Album or Single chart."
  • Best Urban Release: "Artists working primarily within the urban genre, e.g.: R&B, hip-hop, soul, funk, reggae, and dancehall, are eligible. In the case of a remixed album or single, the production team and the original recording artist must both meet the artist eligibility criteria, and the release must qualify for inclusion in either the ARIA Album or Single chart. The ARIA member must also nominate whether the production team or the original recording artist would be the recipient of the award." This category was discontinued in 2018 and replaced by Best Hip Hop Release and Best Soul/R&B Release from 2019.
  • Sales awards: A company may enter up to five recordings in a category. For these categories, the recording does not have to be first released during the specified period, so these categories are two of the few where recordings can be nominated more than once. These categories were discontinued in 2010.