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Aria Awards 2020: Stars get set for ARIA Awards like no other

The Australian music industry’s night of nights will be unprecedented, with live overseas performances among many other changes.

Cameron Adams and Jonathon Moran
less than 2 min read
November 25, 2020 - 10:38PM
News Corp Australia Network
ARIA Awards 2020: Tame Impala win Album of the Year (Nine)

The 2020 ARIA Awards will be very on brand for 2020.

The event is happening at the Star in Sydney, but there will be no audience present due to COVID-19 restrictions.

While Delta Goodrem will host the event in person, several performances and presenters will either be pre-recorded or appearing virtually.

Sydney’s Lime Cordiale top the nominations list with eight nods for their No. 1 album 14 Steps to a Better You. Western Australia band Tame Impala, fronted by Kevin Parker, have seven nominations - the ARIAs taking place on the day Tame Impala scored two Grammy nominations for next year’s awards.

Zambian born, Melbourne based musician Sampa the Great is up for six ARIA awards - she made history last year as the first woman of colour to win an ARIA award in the hip hop category.

Breakthrough Indigenous artist Miiesha and Sydney band DMA’s both received five nominations, with rock band Violent Soho scoring four.

Delta, Amy Shark, Jessica Mauboy, Emma Watkins, Christine Anu, Kate Ceberano, Tones And I, Montaigne, Marcia Hines and the McClymonts will perform a tribute to the late Helen Reddy.

Other performers tonight include Amy Shark, Archie Roach (with Paul Kelly), Lime Cordiale and Tame Impala, while Billie Eilish and Sam Smith are performing live from overseas.

Presenters include Kylie Minogue, Sia, Robbie Williams, Mick Fleetwood and Tim Minchin.

Coverage kicks off at 4.30pm with the red carpet and pre-show, with the main event at 7.30pm.

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Zoe Smith

It's been a night like no other. Thanks for joining our coverage of the 2020 ARIA Awards.

And Album of the Year goes to...

David Aidone

And we made it folks. Through some awkward moments and some amazing ones. Keith Urban presented Tame Impala with Album of the Year for The Slow Rush.

It was a bit of a fizzer of an acceptance speech, with canned audience and then background noiseon his end drowning him out.

"Thank you, this is amazing," Parker said.

"Put Aussie music at the top of your playlist," host Delta Goodrem said signing off.

Then it was over to Julia Gillard to introduce the tribute to Helen Reddy.

Gillard said she watched Reddy and was "carried away by her power and potential".

"I want to acknowledge the strong women who have come before me, who stand beside me and he ones I look forward to meeting, the women of our future."

Then it was Jess Mauboy, Delta, Kate Ceberano, Tones And I, Amy Shark, the McClymonts, Emma Wiggle, Marcia Hines, Christine Anu, Montaigne and an array of female singers via Zoom belting out feminist anthem I Am Woman.



– Cameron Adams

Song of the Year

David Aidone

The night's major public voted award is Song of the Year, which used to be voted by the industry.

Artists with big fanbases can blitz here and indeed the winner is 5 Seconds of Summer with Teeth.

Their Zoom link was so bad most of the acceptance speech was lost, but we heard "We can't get wait to get back down under where we belong."

– Cameron Adams

Best Female Artist

David Aidone

Tim Minchin and Kate Ceberano teamed up to present Best Female Artist and dropped an F bomb.

"One upside of having no international travel is that those Aussie acts that usually tour overseas are going to be stuck here and the international acts that usually come here will be staying over there," Cebrano said.

"Booya. Which means 2021 could be the best year for home grown music ever. So, don't forget, when the venues start opening up and gigs start going on sale…," Minchin said.

"Do please by a f—–g ticket," Cebrano added.

"That's right by a f–king ticket," Minchin said.

Continuing the night's nice surprises, Sampa the Great won.

"I've done my best to represent who I am and who I'm going to be and show the beautify of where I'm from," Sampa said.

"Women deserve to be applauded (whether they are) of different shapes, sizes and race, I'm honored to be able to be applauded as well."

– Cameron Adams

Best Male Artist

David Aidone

After Hamish Blake dropped some gags and got some canned laughter – because things weren't awkward enough – he's in charge of presenting the award for Best Male Artist.

And it's Archie Roach's big night – he noted to be "inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame is enough for me. It's great to even be nominated in these awards, they're the pinnacle of what we do as recording artists."

– Cameron Adams

Best Rock Album

David Aidone

Another international guest – Mick Fleetwood – dials in to present the ARIA Award for Best Rock Album.

You could argue that The Slow Rush is the least 'rock' album Tame Impala have released. And albums by Cold Chisel and Violent Soho it beat were actual rock albums. But hey.

Kevin Parker, making the most of his video link from Perth: "Rock and roll is a crazy thing in 2020, it's an interesting beast, but there's so much amazing rock and roll music being made in Australia right now. I'm so happy to be one of the people holding the torch."

While the full In Memoriam segment aired in the pre show section only on YouTube, the televised ARIAs at least paid tribute to five acts we've lost over the last year, Max Merritt, Don Burrows, Bones Hillman, Greedy Smith and Helen Reddy.

– Cameron Adams

Archie Roach becomes ARIA legend

David Aidone

Rapper Briggs inducted Archie Roach into the ARIA Hall of Fame.

"Once again a Blak fella was going above and beyond to educate the rest of Australia," Briggs said.

"He created a path and we had a benchmark to strive for."

Paul Kelly said "he's a great storyteller but I think he's also one of Australia's great soul singers."

Roach, with Paul Kelly and Paul Grabowsky, performed his classic Took the Children Away, recorded on Tuesday in Warrnambool, in front of his family and friends.

It was nice to hear a live, genuine audience on the ARIAs.

And it's incredible seeing Indigenous music given such a long and uninterrupted platform on commercial television.

Roach said "You never really think much about getting awards when you perform and write songs. Paul Kelly was there from the beginning, I don't mean when man finally walked on both legs, not that far back, but from the beginning of my music and recording career."

– Cameron Adams

Breakthrough Artist, Best Hip Hop Release

David Aidone

Tones And I, with her cap pulled down and casting a shadow over her face, announces Best Breakthrough Award, a gong she won last year.

Picture: Getty Images

It's the first win for Lime Cordiale, who had the most nominations of the night. Breakthrough is a funny one, they've been making music for over a decade and are on their second album.

They've joined the ranks of people now openly taking the piss out of the fact they're standing in frontof nobody, what else is there to do?

Picture: Getty Images


There's always drama when overseas acts perform at the ARIAs, and here's the first – Sam Smith filmed in London. They need to get some big names to get TV ratings and at least Sam's performance of Diamonds looks high-tech, filmed at Abbey Road.

Last year the ARIAs rightfully copped grief for not airing the Best Hip Hop Release in the main show, when Sampa the Great made history as the first woman to win the category.

They said they needed to do better, and they did with the award upgraded.

Sampa the Great won again and dropped an incredible speech.

"This award means a lot to me," Sampa said. "Hip hop has been redefined in the last five to ten years. Young black artists, young coloured people, keep bringing the stories to the forefront because now we get to see a side of Australia that was never shown. Sending all my love to black women who are in hip hop. It often feels isolated and masculine, you can step into whatever genre and be you."

– Cameron Adams

Best Pop Release

David Aidone

Sydney band Lime Cordiale put themselves on mainstream radars with a live performance of Robbery.

Then it's time for Sophie Monk, who knows how to take the piss out of herself, introducing – virtually – Kylie Minogue to hand over the Best Pop Release gong.

Something went awry with the fake applause and there seemed to be canned laughter in the background as Kylie appears. Sheesh.

Best Pop Release is a confusing category as it mixes songs and albums and people from all genres, but then again pop is an incredibly broad term. So even though Tame Impala's Lost in Yesterday was up for Best Pop from an album up for Best Rock, it's Amy Shark who wins this with the single Everybody Rise. She beat out Sia's Together, Troye Sivan's In a Dream EP and Lime Cordiale's 14 Steps to a Better You album.

"Isn't tonight full of surprises," Shark says as she accepts her award.

Picture: Getty Images

– Cameron Adams

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Original URL: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/aria-awards-2020-stars-set-for-unprecedented-aria-awards/live-coverage/4cb3af34021be5a42d55f63330969a15