Tonight (May 1) saw much of the Australian music industry convene to celebrate the 2024 APRA Music Awards, honouring the most successful releases of the past year.
Troye Sivan was the night’s biggest winner, taking out the prestigious Song Of The Year award – as voted on by his own peers – with the title track of his career-defining Rush album. He was joined in the cohort by The Teskey Brothers and grentperez (a first-time winner), who respectively took home the titles for Songwriter Of The Year and Emerging Songwriter Of The Year, as well as Bart Willoughby as the recipient of this year’s Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music.
Dean Lewis won two awards – Most Performed Australian Work and Most Performed Pop Work, both at the hand of his song How Do I Say Goodbye – while Sia won Most Performed Australian Work Overseas (for Unstoppable) and Taylor Swift won Most Performed International Work (for Anti-Hero).
Meanwhile, a suite of incredible artists were honoured in the APRAs’ other genre-based categories, including the inaugural award for Most Performed Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Work (which went to Parkway Drive for Darker Still). The equivalent award for alternative music went to Birds Of Tokyo (for Daylight), while blues and roots went to Ziggy Alberts (Dancing In The Dark), country went to Casey Barnes (Summer Nights), dance and electronic went to the duo of Jason Derulo and Shouse (Never Let You Go), hip-hop and rap went to ONEFOUR (COMMA’S featuring CG), R&B and soul went to JKING (Cinderella), and rock went to Polish Club (Good Time).
In a press statement, APRA AMCOS CEO Dean Ormston congratulated this year’s APRA Music Award winners, calling them all “outstanding songwriters and music creators who are the living epitome of what it is to be born global in their success”. He said of tonight’s ceremony: “It was a memorable night where we honoured several first-time winners as well as established national treasures, including the extraordinary Bart Willoughby.”
Ormston went on to note that APRA still has a lot of work on the horizon: “In recognising the incredible talent in Australia’s music landscape,” he continued, “it’s important to acknowledge that as an organisation that champions gender diversity through advocacy, funding and creative opportunities, there’s more to do to address the disparity in the industry of male to women, non-binary and gender-diverse award winners.
“We must continually question the absence of diversity in every facet of the industry – whether in rooms, executive offices, on stages, or across airwaves and streaming platforms – and commit to amplifying the entirety of Australia’s musical brilliance.”
In a statement of their own, The Teskey Brothers celebrated their landmark win from the road: “We just got the word that we have received the APRA Award for Songwriters Of The Year so we are really, really honoured and really sorry that we can’t be there tonight as we’re in the middle of a US tour. But we’re there in spirit sending you all bunch of love and absolutely honoured and really excited to win this award – it’s really special. Thank you so much.”
Sharing the sentiment was grentperez, who said of his win: “I just want to say a huge congrats to the other nominees, as a well as a huge, gigantic, humungous thank you to my girlfriend, my mates as well as the Fast Friends team. Thank you all for believing in me and creating this foundation of love which allowed me to grow into this, I guess the Emerging Songwriter Of The Year, so thank you guys so much.
“As a Filipino Australian artist I feel seen, as well as coming out from Western Sydney as well the creativity is emerging from everywhere and it really goes to show I think ‘emerging’ is the perfect word for it. For me it’s been three to four years in this career and hopefully many, many more so thank you all so much. Take care, peace out. My name is grentperez and I love you.”
See the full list of winners below:
APRA MUSIC AWARDS 2024
FULL WINNERS LIST
PEER-VOTED APRA SONG OF THE YEAR
Troye Sivan – Rush
TED ALBET AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING SERVICES TO AUSTRALIAN MUSIC
Bart Willoughby
SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR
The Teskey Brothers
EMERGING SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR
grentperez
MOST PERFORMED AUSTRALIAN WORK
Dean Lewis – How Do I Say Goodbye
MOST PERFORMED ALTERNATIVE WORK
Birds Of Tokyo – Daylight
MOST PERFORMED BLUES & ROOTS WORK
Ziggy Alberts – Dancing In The Dark
MOST PERFORMED COUNTRY WORK
Casey Barnes – Summer Nights
MOST PERFORMED DANCE/ELECTRONIC WORK
Jason Derulo & Shouse – Never Let You Go
MOST PERFORMED HARD ROCK/HEAVY METAL WORK
Parkway Drive – Darker Still
MOST PERFORMED HIP-HOP/RAP WORK
ONEFOUR – COMMA’S (ft. CG)
MOST PERFORMED POP WORK
Dean Lewis – How Do I Say Goodbye
MOST PERFORMED R&B/SOUL WORK
JKING – Cinderella
MOST PERFORMED ROCK WORK
Polish Club – Good Time
MOST PERFORMED AUSTRALIAN WORK OVERSEAS
Sia – Unstoppable
LICENSEE OF THE YEAR
Australian Calisthenic Federation Inc
MOST PERFORMED INTERNATIONAL WORK
Taylor Swift – Anti-Hero
