Nominees announced for the 2012 APRA Music Awards
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
The countdown to Australia’s biggest celebration of songwriting has begun. APRA (Australasian Performing Right Association) is proud to announce this year’s bevy of brilliant nominees for the APRA MUSIC AWARDS, to be held on Monday 28th May at Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre. Celebrating its 30th year in 2012, the annual night of nights for Australian songwriters will honour the rich talent of music composers, lyricists and songwriters who have achieved the highest performances of their work over the previous year.
Today we announce nominated songwriters across nine categories that cover a wide spectrum of genres including rock, urban, dance, country, blues and roots, as well as the contenders for the coveted peer-voted APRA SONG OF THE YEAR. The nominees include a roll call of some of Australia’s finest contemporary songwriters, led by Lanie Lane who in her first APRA outing leads the tally with four nominations. Other nominees include Wally de Backer (Gotye), Kimbra, Paul Ridge (Drapht), Daniel Rankine, Matt Corby, Boy and Bear, Marvin Priest, Daniel Merriweather, Charlie Yunupingu and David Yunupingu, Shane Nicholson and many more.
Without further ado, the nominees are…
The current King and Queen of pop (and winners of last year’s ARIAs for Best Male and Female Artist) Gotye and Kimbra have both been nominated for Australia’s peer-voted music award, APRA SONG OF THE YEAR* (*see eligibility criteria below). Wally de Backer (Gotye) receives a nod for his worldwide number-one smash Somebody That I Used To Know, which in addition to the vocal stylings of Kimbra, features a sample of Luiz Bonfa’s classic song Seville. Hot on the heels of winning the International Songwriting Competition Kimbra is also recognised in the APRA SONG OF THE YEAR category for her catchy pop tune Cameo Lover from the debut album Vows. Recently signed to Atlantic and
Elektra records, burgeoning Sydney artist Matt Corby is nominated for his work Brother, taken from the Platinum-selling EP Into the Flame, while Lanie Lane has well and truly rung our bells with her nominated song (Oh Well) That’s What You Get (Falling In Love With A Cowboy). Rounding out the nominees for APRA SONG OF THE YEAR is Adelaide four piece The Beards for their biased and brutally honest plea, You Should Consider Having Sex With A Bearded Man, written by Joel McMillan.
The nominees for MOST PLAYED AUSTRALIAN WORK cover genres of rock, dance and pop and include Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know, a track that has sold more than five million copies worldwide and is taken from the 3 x Platinum-selling album, Making Mirrors. Offspring of
reggae royalty Marvin Priest has been nominated alongside co-writers Antonio Egizii and David Musumeci for the dance floor hit Own This Club. Previous APRA winners of Dance Work of the Year from 2009 The Potbelleez and Justin Shave have received a nomination for From
The Music, as have proponents of powerful melodic rock Birds of Tokyo for their uplifting track Wild At Heart. Indie favourites Jebediah are nominated in the MOST PLAYED AUSTRALIAN WORK category for She’s Like A Comet, a song that won the award for Most Popular Single at the 2011 WAMi Awards, and which was selected as a finalist in the International Song Contest, Rock Category.
The Potbelleez and Justin Shave clock up their second nomination for their number one single From The Music for DANCE WORK OF THE YEAR** (see eligibility criteria below), while the track Finally See Our Way from previous APRA nominees Art Vs Science is also in the running. Bag Raiders’ Christopher Stracey, Jack Glass and UK producer Daniel Black are nominated for the effervescent summer hit Sunlight, and the international influence continues with a nomination for Titanium, performed and written by French house star David Guetta and Sia Furler with co-writing from Giorgio Tuinfort and Nick Van De Wall (aka Afrojack). Finally Cassie Davis and Sean Ray Mullins, aka Snob Scrilla, are
nominated for DANCE WORK OF THE YEAR for the Havana Brown-performed track We Run The Night.
Proving that even cowgirls get the blues, Lanie Lane has dominated the BLUES & ROOTS WORK OF THE YEAR with a further two APRA MUSIC AWARD nominations with What Do I Do, and (Oh Well) That’s What You Get (Falling In Love With A Cowboy). Newcomers Thomas
Busby and Jeremy Marou of Busby Marou are nominated for the dreamy Biding My Time. Multiple ARIA Award winners The Waifs are recognised for Falling, alongside Charlie Yunupingu and David Yunupingu who wrote the celebratory song Compass from Saltwater Band’s album Malk.
The competition in URBAN WORK OF THE YEAR heats up, with return APRA nominees Bliss n Eso recognised for Reflections and Drapht (Paul Ridge), with co-writers Daniel Rankine and Darren Reutens, nominated for Sing It (The Life Of Riley). Own This Club by Marvin Priest, Antonio Egizii and David Musumeci receives its second nomination, while the track Simple Man, performed by Diafrix and Daniel Merriweather, written by Khaled Abdulwahab (MC Azmarino), Kaelyn Behr (Styalz Fuego), Glen Christiansen (Ptero Stylus), Mohame Komba (MC Momo) and Daniel
Merriweather is also nominated. Featuring the vocals of Josh Pyke, hip-hop tale of disaffection Throw It Away has earned a nomination for writers 360 (Matthew Colwell) and Kaelyn Behr.
Shane Nicholson leads the nominations for COUNTRY WORK OF THE YEAR with his songs Bad Machines and Famous Last Words, while his partner and multi-award-winning songstress Kasey Chambers is nominated for her track Beautiful Mess. The country contenders continue with
O’Shea nominated for Meant To Be, a song penned with Grammy Award winner Kim Carnes of Bette Davis Eyes fame. Golden Guitar winners Jetty Road and Canadian co-writers Chris Burke-Gaffney and Keith MacPherson are nominated for Serves You Right.
In the category of ROCK WORK OF THE YEAR both Birds of Tokyo and Jebediah garner secondary nominations for their respective works Wild At Heart and She’s Like A Comet. Previous winners of Rock Work of the Year (2010), Eskimo Joe are nominated this time for Love Is A
Drug from the band’s fifth studio album Ghosts of the Past, and Shannon Noll with co-writers Benji and Joel Madden and Lindsay Rimes are honoured for the redemptive rock-pop crossover Switch Me On. The final contender for ROCK WORK OF THE YEAR is Shaun Diviney of
recently disbanded Short Stack for Heartbreak Made Me A Killer.
Skyler and Stefan Gordy (LMFAO) and co-writers David Listenbee (aka GoonRock) and Peter Schroder are nominated for INTERNATIONAL WORK OF THE YEAR for the party rock anthem Party Rock Anthem, which struck a chord in Australia where the track spent
ten weeks at Number 1. Maroon 5’s smash Moves Like Jagger, written by Adam Levine and international dream-team of super producers Benjamin Levin (aka Benny Blanco), Ammar Malik and Johan Schuster (aka Shellback) received a nomination, as did the record-breaking worldwide hit Rollin In The Deep, penned by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth. Final contenders for INTERNATIONAL WORK OF THE YEAR are Neon Trees and co-writer Tim Pagnotta for the lusty new-wave pop track Animal, along with Jessie J (Jessica Cornish) with Lukasz Gottwald, Claude Kelly and Bobby Ray Simmons Jr (aka B.o.B) for their the UK Number 1 smash Price Tag.
The award for BREAKTHROUGH SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR recognises emerging songwriters and is determined by the APRA Board of Writer and Publisher Directors. In 2012 the esteemed nominees include Killian Gavin, Jonathon Hart, Timothy Hart, David Hosking and Jacob Tarasenko from the multi-ARIA-Award-winning Sydney quintet Boy & Bear. Also with a chance for the winner’s podium for
BREAKTHROUGH SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR is Lanie Lane, rounding out her nominations tally with her fourth nod. Also in the running are 2012 Song of the Year nominees Kimbra and Matt Corby, as well as Urban Work nominees Drapht (Paul Ridge) and co-writer Daniel Rankine.
The recipient of the celebrated SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR category will be announced at the APRA Music Awards. This prestigious award, as determined by the APRA Board of Writer and Publisher Directors, is awarded based on the body of work of a songwriter or group of songwriters in the previous calendar year. Previous recipients include some of Australia’s finest songwriters including Daniel Johns, Julian Hamilton, Angus and Malcolm Young, Paul Kelly, Bernard Fanning, Neil Finn and last year’s recipients Angus and Julia Stone.
The 2012 recipient of the TED ALBERT AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING SERVICES TO AUSTRALIAN MUSIC will receive a special presentation on the night. In addition to the above awards, the winner in the category of MOST PERFORMED AUSTRALIAN WORK OVERSEAS will be announced at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre gala on Monday 28th May.
APRA is also excited to announce that in honour of the APRA MUSIC AWARD’S 30th year, the evening’s hosting duties will be overtaken by the duo of Higgins and Biggins – Missy Higgins and Jonathan Biggins! Entertainer extraordinaire Jonathan Biggins returns with his cutting satirical stylings and will be held to account by multi-award-winning Australian songstress, Missy Higgins. Higgins has recently released her new single Unashamed Desire from forthcoming album The Ol’ Razzle Dazzle, and will take to the APRA stage ahead of her tour that kicks off on the 1st of June.
And finally, the 2012 APRA MUSIC AWARDS will be filmed by subscription television partner MAX for a special that will be broadcast exclusively
on MAX on TUESDAY 12TH JUNE at 8.00PM along with an encore presentation at 10.30am on THURSDAY JUNE 14TH. Featuring exclusive interviews from the red carpet and backstage, as well as a wrap up of all the award winners, this is a special broadcast not to be missed! MAX is available on FOXTEL and AUSTAR.
For more information on each of the nominees, check out the APRA Music Awards site.
You can also watch some exclusive interviews and video clips of the nominees here.
APRA sends hearty congratulations to all the nominees for the 2012 awards. For the complete list of nominees and eligibility criteria please see below.
CATEGORIES FOR 2012 APRA MUSIC AWARDS
Song of the Year
Most Played Australian Work
Most Played Australian Work Overseas – no nominees, winner announced on the night
International Work of the Year
Country Work of the Year
Blues & Roots Work of the Year
Urban Work of the Year
Dance Work of the Year
Rock Work of the Year
The APRA Board of Writer and Publisher Directors determine the following:
Songwriter of the Year
Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music
Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year
2012 APRA MUSIC AWARDS
Monday 28th May
Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre
Hosted by Jonathan Biggins and Missy Higgins
*Eligibility for APRA Song of the Year is determined by:
- All songs written by an APRA member and released in the preceding calendar year are eligible for consideration.
- The song must have been written principally (i.e. minimum 50% share) by an APRA writer member that has their principal residence in Australia.
- The songs are voted by APRA members (songwriters) making this a 100% peer-voted music award.
**Works of the Year categories are based on statistical analysis. Criteria is determined by:
- All songs written by an APRA member and released in the period July 2010 to December 2011 are eligible for consideration.
- The song must have been written principally (i.e. minimum 50% share) by an APRA member that has their principal residence in Australia
- Nominations are derived from broadcast performance activity including radio, television and online.
Full list of nominees with bios can be found here >>
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