After what was, no doubt, a jam-packed Sunday of prepping and preening, Australia’s biggest names in music headed to The Star for the 27th Annual ARIA Awards.
Read on as we find out what went down on the red carpet, and at the awards show.
The ARIA Awards 2013 Red Carpet
We were pleased to see that the black carpet for the ARIA awards this year was splattered with brightly-coloured summer-ready frocks, flawless beauty, and subtle accessories.
Alicia Keys was one of the standouts, wearing a stunning yellow floor-length dress with a gold band and strategic cutouts, but it was Jessica Mauboy who took our best dressed for the night in an absolutely drop-dead brightly coloured Josh Goot number.
We were less thrilled with X Factor songstress Samantha Jade’s look — the singer went for a red lace-and-tulle number that, we have to admit, wouldn’t look out of place on a figure staking rink.
Indie girl of the moment, Lorde, certainly looked the part in a floor-skimming black dress and dark purple lipstick. Sara De Bono didn’t just go for colour, but full-force sequins in a number that was glitzy enough for the likes of a Dancing with the Stars contestant while Missy Higgins was picture perfect in a bold orange number by Camilla and Marc.
Kate Peck, Jessica Gomes and Prinnie Stevens all went with black; the former in a jumpsuit, Jess in a skin tight and sexy leather detailed dress, and Prinnie in an all-leather dress.
Montana Cox wore an animal-print frock that, frankly, only a model could pull off (and pull it off she did), while Jules Sebastian looked stunning beside husband Guy showing off her baby bump in all white.
All in all it was a fairly safe red carpet for the ARIAs this year!
The ARIA Awards 2013 Ceremony
With a huge 20 awards to dish out and a whole host of performances from the likes of Alicia Keys, Lorde, Flume, Jessica Mauboy and more, the ceremony got underway pretty quickly. In fact, so quickly that we started to wonder whether this year the ceremony might actually finish on time…
Birds of Tokyo kicked it all off with a stunning performanceof their track Lanterns before the first award, Breakthrough Artist of the Year, was announced. The winner, naturally, went to electronic man of the hour Flume. Flume was up for multiple awards and had already taken out the early-announced Producer of the Year so this comes as zero surprise. It is nice to see that despite all the success and buzz he’s still clearly a humble, sweet guy, thanking his mum and dad and encouraging young artists to get out there and make their own music.
Next up was the Best Pop Release award, which went to Guy Sebastian for Armageddon. This was the first peer-voted ARIA award Guy has taken out — usually both he and Jess Mauboy score with the public voted awards (of which there are four), but miss out in the other categories. It’s been a bit of a reality show curse that everyone was hoping would break this year so it’s great to see so early on it’s already been done.
Best Comedy Release went to Tom and Alex of Triple J’s breakfast show fame. Tom announced just this week he would be leaving the show to pursue a stand-up comedy careers so this is a perfect end of an era high for the presenter.
Best Children’s Release has been won by the Wiggles a huge 11 times, and with another nomination they were practically a shoe-in but Justine Clarke managed to take it out in what might be one of the biggest surprises of the night.
And in a completely unsurprising award, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds take out Best Independent Release for Push the Sky Away, an album which went on to win Best Adult Contemporary Album soon after.
Our girl crush of the evening, Jessica Mauboy, took the stage next in a stunning silver ensemble to perform Pop a Bottle for the crowd. She was, as always, perfect and an absolute pro.
Hip hop duo Bliss N Eso performed ahead of the announcement of Best Video. With a huge ten nominees and being a public-voted award it was anyone’s guess who would take it out… it went to it went to Christopher Frey’s video for Samantha Jade’s Firestarter. Watch the clip below.
After a few more awards, it was time for the ARIA Hall of Fame announcement which this year honoured Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock of Air Supply. he pair have sold an incredible one hundred million albums which Graham Russell attributed to their critics saying, “without them we never would have learned to get up and fight back and we’re far from done” before promising another 60 years of so of music. Bring it on we say!
The next tribute, performed by Haley Mary of the Jezabels, went to the late Chrissy Amphlett of The Divinyls fame. It was perfect and moving and a wonderful way to pay tribute to an Aussie icon.
After Flume flawlessly performed his single The Greatest View with Isabella Manfredi on vocals, Triple J’s Nina Las Vegas and Gossling took the stage next to present the competitive Best Urban Album award which went to Illy for Bring It Back who was shocked beyond belief, going so far as to say he shouldn’t have won. We love them humble!
Tame Impala were next to nab an award for Best Rock Album, followed soon after by another for Flume who collected the Best Dance Release album.
Alicia Keys was our next performer and she absolutely stole the show with a performance of This Girl is on Fire — what a talent! Suitably, the next award was the publically voted Best International Act which,slightly surprisingly, went to One Direction. The boy band beat out Pink, Taylor Swift, Michael Buble and more.
Song of the Year, another publicly voted award, was even more of a shock — going to Matt Corby for the second year running for his single Resolution. He beat out Flume, Samantha Jade, Birds of Tokyo, Guy Sebastian and more.
Guy Sebastian continued his winning streak with the Best Australian Live Act award before Best Group went to Tame Impala for Lonerism.
Finally, it was time for 17 year old Lorde to perform. The Auckland star has experience international success this year and she absolutely proved herself tonight with more stage presence and talent than performers twice her age. What a talent.
Alicia Keys took the stage next to award Jessica Mauboy with the Best Female Artist award for her album To The End Of The Earth. Like Guy, Jess was likely thrilled to have won a peer-voted award for the first time. Congrats Jess and so well deserved!
After a stellar performance from WA band Tame Impala, the last award for the night, Best Album of the Year, was announced and with already-winners Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Flume, Tame Impala, and Guy Sebastian all up for nomination (as well as Birds of Tokyo) it was anyone’s guess who would take it out. And the winner is… Tame Impala! The indie kids have won three huge awards for their album Lonerism tonight, on par only with the much-hyped over Flume. Congratulations to the guys!
ARIA Awards 2013 Full Nominees and Winners List
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
March Fires, Birds of Tokyo
Flume, Flume
Armageddon, Guy Sebastian
Push the Sky Away, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Lonerism, Tame Impala – WINNER
BEST MALE ARTIST
Flume, Flume – WINNER
Armageddon, Guy Sebastian
Little Bit of Everything, Keith Urban
Resolution, Matt Corby
Spring and Fall, Paul Kelly
BEST FEMALE ARTIST
Kiss My Apocalypse, Abbe May
Vs Head Vs Heart, Emma Louise
To the End of the Earth, Jessica Mauboy – WINNER
Set me on Fire, Missy Higgins
I Awake, Sarah Blasko
BEST GROUP
March Fires, Birds of Tokyo
Harlequin Dream, Boy & Bear
Ice on the Dune, Empire of the Sun
Push the Sky Away, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Lonerism, Tame Impala – WINNER
BREAKTHROUGH ARTIST RELEASE
Not Art, Big Scary
Flume, Flume – WINNER
Atlas, Rufus
The Rubens, The Rubens
God Loves You When You’re Dancing, Vance Joy
BEST INDEPENDENT RELEASE
Not Art, Big Scary
Push the Sky Away, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – WINNER
San Cisco, San Cisco
Let Me Down Easy, Sheppard
I See Seaweed, The Drones
BEST ADULT CONTEMPORARY ALBUM
Familiar Stranger, Bob Evans
The Winter I Chose Happiness, Clare Bowditch
The Beginning and the End of Everything, Josh Pyke
Push the Sky Away, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – WINNER
I Awake, Sarah Blasko
BEST BLUES & ROOTS ALBUM
Into the Bloodstream, Archie Roach
The Magician’s Daughter, Mama Kin
Melbourne Ska Orchestra, Melbourne Ska Orchestra
Sharkmouth, Russell Morris – WINNER
Steal the Light, The Cat Empire
BEST HARD ROCK/HEAVY METAL ALBUM
Black Dog Barking, Airbourne
Asymmetry, Karnivool – WINNER
Singularity, Northlane
Chasing Ghosts, The Amity Affliction
Hate, Thy Art is Murder
BEST POP RELEASE
Ice on the Dune, Empire of the Sun
Armageddon, Guy Sebastian – WINNER
San Cisco, San Cisco
Is This How You Feel?, The Preatures
God Loves You When You’re Dancing, Vance Joy
BEST ROCK ALBUM
March Fires, Birds of Tokyo
Harlequin Dream, Boy & Bear
Lonerism, Tame Impala – WINNER
I See Seaweed, The Drones
The Rubens, The Rubens
BEST URBAN ALBUM
Circus in the Sky, Bliss N Eso
King Amongst Many, Horrorshow
Bring It Back, Illy – WINNER
This Was Tomorrow, Seth Sentry
Smokey’s Haunt, Urthboy
BEST CHILDREN’S ALBUM
Claw Tapping Tunes, Giggle and Hoot
Ten in the Bed, Jay Laga’aia
A Little Day Out with Justine Clarke, Justine Clarke – WINNER
Play Along With Sam, Sam Moran
Taking Off, The Wiggles
BEST COMEDY RELEASE
The TGIF Songs of Colin Buchanan, Colin Buchanan
Live, Housos
Pauly’s Shorts, Pauly Fenech
Bin Night, Sammy J & Randy
The Bits We’re Least Ashamed Of, Tom & Alex – WINNER
BEST COUNTRY ALBUM
If I Want To, Jasmine Rae
Wreck & Ruin, Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson – WINNER
Beautiful Noise, Lee Kernaghan
Lovegrass, Sara Storer
The Great Country Songbook, Troy Cassar-Daley & Adam Harvey
BEST DANCE RELEASE
Flume, Flume – WINNER
Howlin, Jagwar Ma
Atlas, Rufus
Saved in a Bottle, The Potbelleez
Pacifica, The Presets
BEST INTERNATIONAL ARTIST
Birdy
Bruno Mars
Ed Sheeran
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Michael Buble
Mumford & Sons
Of Monsters and Men
One Direction – WINNER
P!nk
Taylor Swift
BEST LIVE ACT
Birds of Tokyo
Flume
Guy Sebastian – WINNER
Karnivool
Keith Urban
Matt Corby
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Paul Kelly & Neil Finn
Tame Impala
The Drones
SONG OF THE YEAR
Lanterns, Birds of Tokyo
Bombs Away (feat. The Twins), Party Bass
Holdin On, Flume
Get Along, Guy Sebastian
Best Night, Justice Crew
Resolution, Matt Corby – WINNER
What You’ve Done To Me, Samantha Jade
Hello, Stafford Brothers feat. Lil Wayne & Christina Milian
Parachute, Timomatic
Riptide, Vance Joy
Images: Zimbio
