ARIA Award nominees revealed
FOR seven years running, pop princess Jessica Mauboy has bravely shown up for the crazy industry circus that is the ARIA Awards nominations.
Out of the leading contenders for the 2017 awards, she was the only major nominee in town to celebrate her six nominations, including Best Female Artist and three to be determined by public vote Song Of The Year, Best Live Act and Video.
Everyone else was either touring or decided not to set their alarm for the nominations event which is held at the brutally un-rock'n'roll hour of 9.30am at the Art Gallery of NSW.
Top of the nominations leaderboard for this year are London-based indie rockers Gang Of Youths, whose acclaimed second album Go Farther Into Lightness has scored nods in eight categories.
They already have one of the dangerously pointed trophies going straight to the pool room, having being named Producer of the Year for their Springsteen-channelling record at the annual ARIA Awards nominations event in Sydney on Tuesday.
Paul Kelly, who is currently touring Europe, also added two awards - Engineer of the Year and Best Cover Art for his first-ever No. 1 album Life Is Fine.
Ir received seven nominations in total, including Album of the Year and Best Male Artist.
And Kelly also has two albums contending different categories this year with Life Is Fine up for Best Adult Contemporary record while his Death's Dateless Night collaboration with Charlie Owen will battle it out for the Best Blues & Roots Album.
The incendiary indigenous hip hop duo A.B. Original, whose breakthrough single January 26 provoked a national debate about switching the date of Australia Day, were also celebrated by their industry peers in the nominations voting.
The revered pair of rapper Briggs and producer Trials scored six nominations for their debut album reclaim Australia including Album of the Year and Best Group.
Illy, who shifted his hip hop into the pop arena with the chart-topping single Papercuts, featuring Vera Blue, has also been nominated in six categories including Album of The Year and Best Male Artist.
One of the most exciting new talents to emerge on the Australian airwaves this year was Amy Shark and she tours America with Vance Joy, her peers rewarded her with six ARIA nods including Album of the Year and Best Female Artist.
Mauboy isn't the only artist to be nominated for a seventh year running.
Guy Sebastian is also on the honour roll for 2017 with his single Set In Stone to be considered by fans in their votes for the Apple Song Of The Year.
The Wiggles have been nominated every single year in this millennium, winning Best Children's Award a phenomenal 10 times just in that period alone.
But they face some friendly competition from one of the best mates for the 2017 gong. Not only does Jimmy Barnes feature on their Duets album which is nominated this year but his collaboration with the king of the kids on the Och Aye the G'Nu! is also up for the award.
After wide debate within the Australian music industry about gender equality at festivals and on the airwaves this year, there is a strong contingent of female artists represented in the 2017 honour roll.
And not just in Female Artist of the Year, of course.
While only one female artist, the indie pop singer songwriter Amy Shark made the Album of the Year cut, women outnumber their male peers in Breakthrough Artist and Best Pop Release.
The late John Clarke was posthumously recognised for his unique and enduring contribution to Australia's cultural landscape at the nominations event with the Best Comedy Release for his Clarke's Classics collection.
The most prolific recording artists in Australia, the defiantly independent psychedelic rockers King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard not only scored a nomination in Best Hard Rock Album (Murder of the Universe) but Best Jazz Album (Sketches Of Brunswick East).
The 2017 ARIA Awards will be held at The Star on November 28 with organisers now courting international acts including Harry Styles to walk the red carpet and present a couple of awards.
You can vote for the public awards via ariaawards.com.au
And the nominees are....
Apple Album Of The Year
A.B. Original, Reclaim Australia
Amy Shark, Night Thinker
Gang Of Youths, Go Farther In Lightness
Illy, Two Degrees
Paul Kelly, Life Is Fine
Best Male Artist
D.D Dumbo, Utopia Defeated
Dan Sultan, Killer
Illy, Two Degrees
Paul Kelly, Life Is Fine
Vance Joy, Lay It On Me
Best Female Artist
Amy Shark, Night Thinker
Jessica Mauboy, The Secret Daughter
Julia Jacklin, Don't Let The Kids Win
Meg Mac, Low Blows
Sia, The Greatest feat. Kendrick Lamar
Best Dance Release
Dom Dolla & Torren Foot, Be Randy
Jagwar Ma, Every Now & Then
Peking Duk, Stranger (feat. Elliphant)
Pnau, Chameleon
The Kite String Tangle, The Kite String Tangle
Best Group
A.B. Original, Reclaim Australia
Gang Of Youths, Go Farther In Lightness
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Flying Microtonal Banana
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Skeleton Tree
Peking Duk, Stranger (feat. Elliphant)
Breakthrough Artist
A.B. Original, Reclaim Australia
Amy Shark, Night Thinker
Dean Lewis, Waves
Tash Sultana, Notion
Tkay Maidza, TKAY
Best Pop Release
Amy Shark, Night Thinker
Dean Lewis, Waves
Jessica Mauboy, Fallin
Sia, The Greatest (feat. Kendrick Lamar)
Vera Blue, Perennial
Best Urban Album
A.B. Original, Reclaim Australia
Illy, Two Degrees
REMI, Divas & Demons
Thundamentals, Everyone We Know
Tkay Maidza, TKAY
Best Independent Release
A.B. Original, Reclaim Australia
Dan Sultan, Killer
Sia, The Greatest (feat. Kendrick Lamar)
Tash Sultana, Notion
Vance Joy, Lay It On Me
Best Rock Album
Dan Sultan, Killer
Dune Rats, The Kids Will Know It's Bullshit
Gang Of Youths, Go Farther In Lightness
Polish Club, Alrighty Alrighty
The Preatures, Girlhood
Best Adult Contemporary Album
Bernard Fanning, Brutal Dawn
D.D Dumbo, Utopia Defeated
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Skeleton Tree
Paul Kelly, Life Is Fine
Pete Murray, Camacho
Best Country Album
Kasey Chambers, Dragonfly
Lee Kernaghan, The 25th Anniversary Album
O'Shea, 61-615
Shane Nicholson, Love And Blood
The McClymonts, Endless
Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Album
Airbourne, Breaking Outta Hell
Frenzal Rhomb, Hi-Vis High Tea
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Murder Of The Universe
Northlane, Mesmer
Sleepmakeswaves, Made of Breath Only
Best Blues & Roots Album
All Our Exes Live In Texas, When We Fall
Archie Roach, Let Love Rule
Busby Marou, Postcards From The Shell House
Paul Kelly & Charlie Owen, Death's Dateless Night
Tash Sultana, Notion
Best Children's Album
Jimmy Barnes, Och Aye the G'Nu!
Lah-Lah, Having Fun!
Peter Combe, Live It Up
The Idea of North, Lior & Elena Kats-Chernin, A Piece of Quiet [The Hush Collection, Vol 16]
The Wiggles, The Wiggles Duets
PUBLIC VOTED AWARDS
Best Video
Amy Shark, Drive You Mad
Bliss N Eso, Moments (feat. Gavin James)
Client Liaison, A Foreign Affair
Client Liaison, Off White Limousine
Dean Lewis for Waves
Gang Of Youths, The Deepest Signs, the Frankest Shadows
Illy, You Say When (feat. Marko Penn)
Jessica Mauboy, Fallin
Kirin J Callinan, S.A. D
Sia, The Greatest (feat. Kendrick Lamar)
Best Australian Live Act
Client Liaison
Flume
Gang Of Youths
Illy
Jessica Mauboy
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Peking Duk
Tash Sultana
Violent Soho
Apple Music Song Of The Year
Amy Shark, Adore
Bliss N Eso, Moments (feat. Gavin James)
Dean Lewis, Waves
Guy Sebastian, Set In Stone
Illy, Catch 22 (feat. Anne-Marie)
Jessica Mauboy, Fallin
Peking Duk, Stranger (feat. Elliphant)
Pnau, Chameleon
Sia, The Greatest (feat. Kendrick Lamar)
Starley, Call On Me (Ryan Riback Remix)
Best International Artist
Adele, 25
Bruno Mars, 24K Magic
Ed Sheeran, ÷ and Loose Change
Harry Styles, Harry Styles
Kendrick Lamar, DAMN and Untitled Unmastered
Lorde, Melodrama
Metallica, Hardwired ... To Self-Destruct
Shawn Mendes, Illuminate
The Rolling Stones, Blue & Lonesome
The Weeknd, Starboy
