This piece is housed on the entertainment website Music Love - a platform for women, by women
and about women in music.
It's ARIA Awards time! Last year
Music Love was there to cover all the women in music winners and nominees, and
here we are, ready to go again. Fenella Henderson-Zuel was at the Art Gallery
of NSW in Sydney for the nomination announcements, as well as the winners for
the Artisan and Fine Arts Awards.
The ARIA Awards
offer a chance to celebrate the achievements of some amazing women in music,
but also a chance to wonder if their absence from certain categories indicates
that women don’t make rock, adult contemporary or dance music – the categories
where women received no nominations. Or perhaps the powers that be just aren’t
recognising it.
Whatever the case,
of the more than 70 acts up for awards this year as announced at a ceremony at the
NSW Art Gallery on Tuesday, 29 women were among the list of nominees for the
mainstream awards – including mixed and all female groups as well as soloists.
Aside from that there were 42 women – not including the members from the Sydney
and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras - who were nominated for the Fine Arts and
Artisan Awards of which the winners were announced today.
One such was
multiple ARIA Award winner Katie Noonan, who today took home the Best
World Music Album Award for her collaboration with Karin Scahupp, Songs of the Latin Skies, took the
opportunity during her speech to “fan the flame” of women in the industry.
She pointed out
that it was the first time either she or Schaupp had won an ARIA with another
woman and finished by commenting that it “would be nice to see a woman on the
ARIA board”.
Noonan, who has won
previously for Best Jazz Album and been nominated for Best Classical album, had
to learn Portugese for Songs of the Latin Skies and believes that learning and
experimenting is the key to becoming a better musician.
“Getting out of your comfort
zone if really important to being a human being in general,” she tells Music
Love, “but particularly as an artist. You need to challenge yourself and not
rest on your laurels.”
Riding high in the
nomination leader board were Amy Shark and Jessica Mauboy, each boasting six
nominations. Although Mauboy missed out on Best Original Soundtrack for her
work on the TV show The Secret Daughter,
she will go up against Shark for Best Female Artist and Best Pop Release. Shark
is also in good company in the Breakthrough Artist category, where she is
nominated alongside Tash Sultana and Tkay Maidza.
Sia is also making
her presence felt with five nominations, including Best Female Artist, Best
Independent Release and the publicly voted Best Video & Song Of The Year.
Tash Sultana isn’t far behind, with four nominations including Best Blues &
Roots Album and Best Australian Live Act.
Climbing the awards
ladder is Julia Jacklin, a newer ARIA face but already nominated for Best
Female Artist and Best Cover Art. Having just finished a year of touring
overseas and getting ready to head out again next month, Jacklin revealed that
being unable to listen to Australian radio while travelling meant she was
almost unaware of the success she was receiving locally.
Jacklin has been
focusing on touring internationally, telling Music Love, “You can tour [in
Australia] but you can’t play that many shows because it’s a pretty small
country. You do have to leave for a long time.”
The fantastically
named all-female band All Our Exes Live In Texas have
received their first nomination for Best Blues & Roots Album and consider
it an extra achievement to have done so with minimal support from local radio.
Vocalist and guitarist Katie Wighton considers the nomination and the
recognition that comes with it to be a bonus after spending the past few years
on tour just to raise the funds for their debut album When We Fall, released
earlier this year with crowd funding support.
“I genuinely never
thought I’d be in this position,” says Wighton.
Bandmate Hannah
Crofts (vocals & ukulele) considers the time they spent on the road
essential not just for finance but in helping to choose the songs for an album.
“When we write a
song, we need to play it for six months before we go into the studio with it,”
Crofts explains to Music Love. “We have to learn to love it and then record
it.”
Former The Voice
contestant Vera Blue is returning to the ARIA
Awards after performing Papercuts, her #1 single with Melbourne rapper Illy, at
last year’s ceremony. This year she is nominated for Best Pop Release and is
looking forward to attending alongside performers she has long admired.
Working with
artists like Illy and Empire of the Sun’s Nick Littlemore (on The 2 Leaves
Project) has allowed Blue to explore what music has to offer and to find her
groove in electronic folk.
“I’m open to doing
so many different things,” Blue tells Music Love. ‘[The collaborations] have
opened my eyes to so many different musical genres and what we can do with
music.”
The ARIA
Awards will be held in Sydney on November 28. Details
here
Keep scrolling for a full list of women who are
winners and nominees.
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