Kid Laroi becomes youngest ever song of the year winner at APRA awards

Teenager Charlton Howard – better known as The Kid Laroi – became the youngest ever winner of APRA’s song of the year award when his hit Stay, co-written with Justin Bieber, collected the country’s top prize for songwriters and publishers in Melbourne on Tuesday night.

The 18-year-old Kamilaroi man, who hails from Waterloo, near Redfern, in Sydney, was the big winner at the annual Australian Performing Rights Association’s awards, also collecting prizes for songwriter of the year and most-performed hip hop/rap work for Without You.

The Wiggles were popular recipients of the Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music at last night’s APRA Awards, held at Melbourne Town Hall.Credit: Tony Mott

Howard was in Los Angeles, ahead of an Australian tour that will bring him home later this month. “I really appreciate the support,” he said while accepting the awards via video link. “And I want to give a quick shout out to the fans back home.”

Though primarily a celebration of Australian songwriting and recording, the awards this year found room for two major international artists on the winners’ lists: Canadian Justin Bieber, Howard’s co-writer on Stay; and Englishman Ed Sheeran, who shared the award for most-performed country work with Amy Shark, for her track Love Songs Ain’t For Us.

The 40th annual awards, presented at Melbourne Town Hall and hosted by Julia Zemiro, Eddie Perfect and Jerome Farah, acknowledged Genesis Owusu as breakthrough songwriter of the year, while also celebrating some veterans of the Australian music industry, including the Wiggles and AC/DC.

But if there had been an award for most remarkable stayer it might have gone to Toni Watson, aka Tones and I. Her smash hit Dance Monkey was released in May 2019, won song of the year in 2020, and was on Tuesday crowned most performed Australian work overseas.

Still dancing: Tones and I picked up yet another award for her 2019 track Dance Monkey.Credit:

Watson also won most-performed pop work for her more recent track Fly Away.

Forty years after AC/DC collected an APRA for their song Highway To Hell, guitarist and songwriter Angus Young and his late brother Malcolm were named winners of the most-performed rock work for Shot In The Dark, from last year’s Power Up album.

The Wiggles were another hugely popular award recipient, receiving the Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music from veteran musician and songwriter Ross Wilson.

Vance Joy and Joel Little picked up the award for most-performed alternative work for Joy’s Missing Piece, and the songwriting partnership between Matt Corby and Budjerah won most-performed R&B/soul work for Budjerah’s Higher.

Amy Shark’s Love Songs Ain’t For Us, co-written with Ed Sheeran, won APRA’s most performed country work.Credit: Tony Mott

The ceremony also featured plenty of live music, including a tribute to the late Chris Bailey in which Sydney band the Hard-Ons, now fronted by Tim Rogers, performed Bailey and Ed Kuepper’s song Know Your Product. Bailey, who fronted legendary Brisbane rock band The Saints, died on April 9.

Other entertainment included live performances of this year’s song of the year nominees, with Mindy Meng Weng’s version of the Hiatus Kaiyote song Redroom, Cookin’ On 3 Burners with Kylie Auldist and APRA nominee Tasman Keith performing Midnight Oil’s First Nation, and Tones and I’s impressive take on the Amyl and the Sniffers song Guided By Angels.

The Living End’s Chris Cheney also joined local R&B artist Kye and Indigenous rapper Dallas Woods on a mash-up of AC/DC’s Back In Black, the title track of the 1980 album that has sold more than 50 million copies around the world.

Peer-Voted APRA Song of the Year
Title: STAY
Artist: The Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber

Songwriter of the Year
The Kid Laroi

Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year
Genesis Owusu

Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music
The Wiggles

Most Performed Australian Work
Title: Head & Heart
Artist: Joel Corry (featuring MNEK)

Most Performed Alternative Work
Title: Missing Piece
Artist: Vance Joy

Most Performed Blues & Roots Work
Title: Letting Go
Artist: Ziggy Alberts

Most Performed Country Work
Title: Love Songs Ain’t For Us
Artist: Amy Shark (featuring Keith Urban)

Most Performed Dance/Electronic Work
Title: Head & Heart
Artist: Joel Corry (featuring MNEK)

Most Performed Hip Hop/Rap Work
Title: Without You
Artist: The Kid Laroi

Most Performed Pop Work
Title: Fly Away
Artist: Tones And I

Most Performed R&B/Soul Work
Title: Higher
Artist: Budjerah

Most Performed Rock Work
Title: Shot in the Dark
Artist: AC/DC

Most Performed Australian Work Overseas
Title: Dance Monkey
Artist: Tones And I

Most Performed International Work
Title: Lasting Lover
Artist: Sigala and James Arthur