Courtney Barnett continued her stellar year with four ARIA Awards, including Best Female Artist, last night at Sydney’s Star Casino. Tame Impala were also big winners on the night with three ARIAS, including Album of The Year, Best Group and Best Rock Album.
Barnett also won the award for Best Independent Release with her acclaimed album Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit.
Other winners included the eccentric CW Stoneking for Best Blues & Roots Album with Gon’ Boogaloo, Oh Mercy for Best Adult Contemporary Album and Shane Nicholson for Best Country Album with Hell Breaks Loose.
The evening wasn’t without its controversy. Hall of Fame inductee Tina Arena used her acceptance speech to slam the current state of commercial radio and its attitude towards older artists.
“Who decides in radio that a woman at a certain point in her life no longer becomes viable?” said Arena. “Women and men of all ages have something interesting to say but what I have struggled with is the complete ostracisation of a woman at a certain age.”
“I want to still acknowledge that ladies over 40 are still in the game,” she added. “My darling friend behind me Miss Kylie Minogue, the wonderful Madonna, J-Lo, Annie Lennox, my Lord the list does go on.”
Triple J presenter Matt Okine, who won the ARIA for Best Comedy Album, used his speech to criticise the fact that his category had only male nominees.
“I don’t think there was any women nominated at all in the comedy category just then,” said Okine. “I don’t think there were any women who were featured artists on tonight’s show even.”
Okine’s speech was not shown in the telecast, which according to TV ratings figures tanked with over 100,000 fewer viewers than last year’s show (461, 000 vs 570,000, with only 406,000 for the red carpet broadcast). The show did top the 16-39 demographic and rated better than the 2011-2013 broadcasts.
ARIA AWARD WINNERS 2015
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Tame Impala – Currents
SONG OF THE YEAR
Conrad Sewell – Start Again
BREAKTHROUGH ARTIST
Courtney Barnett
HALL OF FAME
Tina Arena
BEST MALE ARTIST
Vance Joy
BEST FEMALE ARTIST
Courtney Barnett
BEST GROUP
Tame Impala
BEST URBAN ALBUM
Seth Sentry – Strange New Past
BEST ROCK ALBUM
Tame Impala -– Currents
BEST POP RELEASE
Jarryd James – Do You Remember
BEST COUNTRY ALBUM
Shane Nicholson – Hell Breaks Loose
BEST INDEPENDENT RELEASE
Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
BEST DANCE RELEASE
Rufus – You Were Right
BEST HARD ROCK/HEAVY METAL ALBUM
Northlane – Node
BEST ADULT CONTEMPORARY ALBUM
Oh Mercy – When We Talk About Love
BEST BLUES AND ROOTS ALBUM
C.W. Stoneking – Gon’ Boogaloo
BEST LIVE AUSTRALIAN ACT
5 Seconds Of Summer – Rock Out With Your Socks Out tour
BEST CHILDREN’S ALBUM
Sam Moran – Play Along With Sam: Boo!
BEST COMEDY RELEASE
Matt Okine – Live At The Enmore
BEST VIDEO
The Veronicas/Matt Sharp and Daniel James – You Ruin Me
BEST INTERNATIONAL ARTIST
One Direction
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Lee Kernaghan – Spirit Of The ANZACS
DIAMOND AWARD (for sales in excess of half a million)
Ed Sheeran
