Four ARIAs for Tones and I as ex-busker’s streets now paved with gold
Put simply, no other Australian artist in pop music history has had a debut year like Tones and I | WINNERS LIST
One year ago, few people other than those wandering the streets of Byron Bay in northern NSW had heard the music of a singer-songwriter named Toni Watson, who performs as Tones and I.
Today, the accolades for the former busker are flowing just as fast as global plays of her signature song, which recently passed one billion streams.
READ MORE: Byron busker sweeps ARIAs | ARIAs ceremony as it happened | Dance Monkey smashes records for Tones and I | Dance Monkey takes Tones and I from the streets of Byron Bay to the world
At the 2019 ARIA Awards on Wednesday, Watson walked away with four wins from eight nominations, including best female artist, best pop release and best independent artist. As well, she was named breakthrough artist. No surprise there; the adjective is entirely apt for what Watson has achieved.
Put simply, no other Australian artist in pop music history has had a debut year like hers. She has broken through in such a manner that lends itself to superlatives. Nobody saw her coming and, now that she’s here, Watson has established herself as an artist of extraordinary power in a remarkably short time.
The 26-year-old might have netted even more ARIAs but for one small problem: her published works to date consist of only six songs, all released this year.
Central to Watson’s rise from anonymity to ubiquity is her global hit, Dance Monkey. Issued in May, the three-minute earworm hooks listeners within moments of its opening bars, thanks to the singer’s unusual vocal style set against tinkling keyboard notes.
It smouldered on the chart for eight weeks before reaching No 1 in August. That conflagration has yet to be extinguished: since then, it simply hasn’t moved. For 17 weeks and counting, Dance Monkey has been the most popular song in the country.
In an era where most of the ARIA singles chart is calculated through streams from music subscription services such as Spotify and Apple Music, it has become increasingly rare for local artists to reach the top. In 2017, for instance, no Australian artist reached No 1 on the ARIA singles chart. Last year, only two acts managed the feat: 5 Seconds of Summer, a Sydney-born pop group now based in the US, and Sydney pop singer-songwriter Dean Lewis.
Unprecedented domestic success aside, Watson’s Dance Monkey is perhaps even more impressive for having ignited a firestorm overseas, too. It has reached No 1 in 19 countries, including Britain, Germany and France.
While the unusual quality of her voice has turned heads worldwide, Watson’s oddities extend to subverting or outright opting out of many of the aspects of pop stardom followed by her peers and forebears. Other than her straight blonde hair, any emphasis on her physical appearance is minimised as much as possible. Her preference for puffy jackets, tracksuits and daggy baseball caps is on display in each press photograph and public performance.
In the music video for Dance Monkey — which has amassed 227 million YouTube views — she dresses in costume as an elderly man, a look she reprised for her ARIA Awards performance.
The sum of all this is a clear breaking of the mould of traditional pop singers, where an emphasis on an artist’s appearance and public image sometimes can gloss over shortcomings in musicality or songwriting ability.
With Watson, however, the focus to date has always been on the song — or the six of them we’ve heard so far, anyway. Key to her ability to exert control over such decisions is the fact she is an independent artist beholden to no one other than herself.
Her work is released through indie label Bad Batch Records and distributed by Sony Music. That small deal aside, Tones and I is supported by a small, nimble team, whose sound advice has played a part in her remarkable story so far.
Although this undoubtedly has been the year of Tones and I, the annual ARIA Awards — held at The Star in Sydney, and broadcast on the Nine Network and streamed live globally via YouTube — contained several other fascinating subplots starring artists young and old.
Pop singer-songwriter Lewis won album of the year for his debut, A Place We Knew. That decision contained echoes of last year’s major winner, pop singer-songwriter Amy Shark, whose debut album made a big impression locally. As well, Lewis was named best male artist, beating competitors including Guy Sebastian, who otherwise was occupied with hosting the awards and closing the night with a performance of his song Choir.
Sebastian’s Choir also was named song of the year and video of the year in the public-voted awards, while Adelaide hip-hop trio Hilltop Hoods was voted best Australian live act and US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift was voted best international artist.
Vocal group Human Nature became the newest inductee into the ARIA Hall of Fame, and the quartet performed a medley of hits spanning its 30-year career.
In one of the night’s bigger surprises, Melbourne blues quartet the Teskey Brothers was named best group ahead of more established acts such as Hilltop Hoods, Birds of Tokyo and 5 Seconds of Summer. The group’s second album, Run Home Slow, also was successful in the blues and roots category.
Sydney artist Sampa Tembo, who performs as Sampa the Great, became the first woman to take home the hip-hop award. Her single Final Form came out ahead of acts such as Hilltop Hoods in a category previously known as best urban release.
Best rock album went to Melbourne act Amyl and the Sniffers, Sydney group Northlane received best hard rock/heavy metal album and Morgan Evans was named best country album for Things That We Drink To.
Paul Kelly’s 24th studio release, Nature, was named best adult contemporary album, taking his career ARIA tally to 15. Nature was only the second LP in the singer-songwriter’s long career to reach No 1 on the ARIA album chart yet, unusually, Kelly accepted the award as the current No 1 album holder, thanks to his newly released compilation Songs from the South 1985-2019.
Given Dance Monkey’s unprecedented 17 weeks atop the singles chart and Kelly’s third chart-topping collection, it was a curious bit of synchronicity for both current No 1 titleholders to take home awards. Yet despite the almost four-decade age gap that separates Watson and Kelly, there was something satisfying about seeing both of them honoured in the same place, on the same night.
Kelly released his debut single in 1979 and won 58 ARIA nominations across his career, making him the most nominated Australian artist since the awards began in 1987. He was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1997.
Watson has not yet celebrated one calendar year since the release of her debut single, Johnny Run Away, issued in March. It’s barely six months since Dance Monkey was made public. Earlier this year, Watson was charting a course familiar to every artist: she wrote some songs she liked, then recorded and released them into the world, and hoped other people would like them, too.
Given all that has happened since, and how swiftly and dramatically she began crashing into uncharted territory, perhaps it’s too soon to start thinking too far ahead. But when she gets a moment to pause and reflect on this most remarkable of years, perhaps, in Kelly, Watson will find a long-lasting songwriting career worth aiming her sights on next.
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2019 ARIA winners
Album of the year Dean Lewis, A Place We Knew
Male artist Dean Lewis
Female artist Tones and I
Pop release Tones and I, Dance Monkey
Dance release Rufus Du Sol, Solace
Group The Teskey Brothers
Breakthrough artist Tones and I
Hip-hop release Sampa the Great, Final Form
Soul/R&B release Kaiit, Miss Shiney
Independent release Tones and I
Rock album Amyl and the Sniffers, Amyl and the Sniffers
Australian live act Hilltop Hoods
Adult contemporary album Paul Kelly, Nature
Country album Morgan Evans, Things That We Drink To
Hard rock/heavy metal album Northlane, Alien
Blues & roots album The Teskey Brothers, Run Home Slow
Children’s album Dan Sultan, Nali & Friends
Comedy release Arj Barker, Organic
Video Guy Sebastian, Choir
Song of the year Guy Sebastian, Choir
Jazz album Kate Ceberano and Paul Grabowsky, Tryst
International artist Taylor Swift
Music teacher of the year Antonio Chiappetta, St Andrews College, Marayong
Cover art Emilie Pfitzner for Thelma Plum, Better In Blak
Engineer of the year Sam Teskey
Producer of the year Dann Hume
Classical album Paul Kelly, James Ledger, Thirteen Ways to Look at Birds
Original soundtrack or musical theatre cast album Various artists, The Recording Studio, ABC
World music Melbourne Ska Orchestra, One Year of Ska
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