ARIA Awards winners for 2020: Tame Impala, Sampa the Great
The 2020 ARIAs were a hodgepodge of prerecorded performances and live crosses to presenters and award winners.
If for no other reason, the 2020 ARIA Awards will be remembered for its absences. No red carpet. No rowdy audience. And no celebratory afterparties running long into the night.
Instead, once the virtual event ended, for the artists involved it was a matter of either turning off the TV or YouTube and partying in your own bubble if you’d had a win, or perhaps turning in early if you hadn’t.
Hosted by pop singer-songwriter Delta Goodrem live from The Star in Sydney, the annual celebration of musical excellence was a hodgepodge of prerecorded performances and live crosses to presenters and award-winners. The evening closed with a tribute to another notable absentee, Helen Reddy, the Melbourne-born superstar who died in September, aged 78.
In honour of the I Am Woman singer-songwriter, a troupe of the nation’s greatest living female singers — including Goodrem, Kate Ceberano, Marcia Hines, Christine Anu and Jessica Mauboy — joined forces on stage for a socially distanced cover of Reddy’s signature song while backed by a “virtual choir” on the screen behind them.
The night’s biggest winner was Tame Impala, the Fremantle-based solo project of multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker, who took home five awards including album of the year, best rock album, engineer of the year and producer of the year for The Slow Rush.
With four albums to his name since 2010, 34-year-old Parker has now won the major award for album of the year on three occasions — a strike rate that might be unmatched in ARIA history.
Confusingly, though, Tame Impala was also named best group for the third time, despite it being a solo project everywhere but in the live arena, where Parker is joined by four bandmates.
Folk singer-songwriter Archie Roach was named best male artist and received the award for best adult contemporary album for Tell Me Why, as well as being inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.
Melbourne-based artist Sampa the Great took home three awards for best female artist, best hip-hop release and best independent release, while Sydney sibling duo Lime Cordiale received only one award — for breakthrough artist — from their eight nominations.
The virtual event format meant the inclusion of prerecorded performances from artists based overseas such as Billie Eilish, Sia and Sam Smith made much more sense than in any ordinary year. But 2020 hasn’t been one of those.
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