Paul Kelly, Troye Sivan among song of the year nominees at 2024 APRA Music Awards
Paul Kelly’s song in support of a Yes vote for the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum is among the APRA Award nominees for the most coveted prize in Australian songwriting | READ THE FULL LIST
Paul Kelly’s song in support of a Yes vote for the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum is among the nominees for the most coveted prize in Australian songwriting.
Kelly’s song, titled If Not Now, is a finalist for peer-voted song of the year at the annual APRA Music Awards, to be held on May 1 in Sydney.
Arranged as a folk song around strummed acoustic guitar, voice and a sparkling lead guitar riff, If Not Now begins with Kelly singing: “It’s a splinter in the mind, a whisper in the heart / A feeling something’s missing, some crucial little part / It’s business that’s unfinished, a reckoning that’s due / If not now, then when? If not us, then who?”
If Not Now was released on September 1 – six weeks before the voice referendum, which was defeated – and had its live debut with his band at Brisbane Festival soon after.
Near the song’s end, Kelly interpolates a key lyric from Wide Open Road, a song by Perth alternative rock act The Triffids.
As a result, the band’s late frontman David McComb is listed as a co-writer, and a posthumous nominee for the APRA Award, following his death in 1999, aged 36.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Kelly said: “The expression ‘If not now, then when’ has a long provenance. It is first attributed to the Jewish religious leader Hillel the Elder around 2000 years ago. He said ‘If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?’ ”
Kelly, 69, continued: “More recently, Anthony Albanese said a number of times during last year’s referendum ‘If not now, then when? If not us, then who?’ I come from folk music. I just pick things up and pass them on.”
The Melbourne-based artist has twice won peer-voted song of the year at the APRAs, which are hosted by music rights organisation APRA AMCOS.
In 1991, he was a co-writer on Yothu Yindi’s award-winning song Treaty, and in 2018 he won with Firewood and Candles, co-written by Billy Miller. As well, two other Kelly songs have been short-listed for song of the year: How To Make Gravy (1998) and With the One I Love (2019).
Fellow nominees for song of the year include Rush by Troye Sivan, co-written with Styalz Fuego, which earned four trophies at the ARIA Awards last year: best solo artist, public-voted song of the year, and two artisan awards for its engineer and producer Fuego, aka Kaelyn Behr.
Sivan, 28, said in a statement: “I’m so honoured with this, especially the fact that it comes from songwriting peers, and I am proud to be part of the Australian songwriting and the Australian music community. Growing up here I think about important Australian songs over the years that have somewhat shaped me into the person that I am today, so the idea that maybe Rush is going to be that for someone down the line, that makes me very, very proud.”
Other contenders in the category include Therapy by Budjerah (co-written by Sarah Aarons and Ajay Bhattacharyya); The Worst Person Alive by G Flip (co-written with Aidan Hogg); and Letting Go by Angie McMahon.
“I have been so blown away by people connecting to this song,” said McMahon, 29. “When we play it live, the catharsis is huge and joyful. Together we’re yelling that it’s okay to make mistakes and it feels like we’re all accepting each other and witnessing our growth. That’s what I want to see more of in the world. This song is better because of the people who are yelling it along with us.”
Los Angeles-based songwriter Sarah Aarons led with three nominations for Budjerah’s song Therapy, including most performed Australian work and most performed pop work.
The winners will be announced at ICC Sydney on May 1 at an event hosted by Tom Gleeson.
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