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The Guardian - AU

Entertainment

Steph Harmon and Australian Associated Press

AB Original named songwriter of year at Apra awards

AB Original have been named songwriter of the year at the Apra awards in Sydney, making history as the first Indigenous artists and the first hip-hop artists to win the gong.

Trials and Briggs – Ngarrindjeri and Yorta Yorta men respectively – were honoured at the annual songwriting awards for their debut album, Reclaim Australia: a politically charged record that won them two Arias in November and two gongs in August at the National Indigenous Music awards.

“We stands on the shoulder of dudes like Archie Roach and my good friend Dr G Yunupingu,” Briggs said. “We’re able to stand on the platform they created so we can come out and be the artists we want to be, and make the record we wish we had when we were kids.”

The duo’s sometime collaborator Paul Kelly took home the song of the year award for his tune Firewood and Candles, which he co-wrote with the former Ferrets frontman Billy Miller.

The song appears on Kelly’s latest album Life Is Fine, which was his first to hit the No 1 spot on the Australian charts, and which was described by the Guardian critic Andrew Stafford as a record that recaptures the energy of his early days.

Attendees were encouraged to wear “a touch of purple” to show their support for NOW Australia: a national campaign spearheaded by the journalist Tracey Spicer to end sexual harassment, intimidation and abuse in Australian workplaces. Spicer and the Preatures frontwoman Isabella Manfredi co-presented an award, and used their time at the podium to draw attention to the campaign – but for the most part, the #MeToo conversations that have been swirling in the industry were kept off stage.

Tracey Spicer and Isabella Manfredi. Photograph: Tony Mott

Midnight Oil were given the Ted Albert award for outstanding services to Australian music, recognised not just for their music but for their social and political contribution. Peter Garrett and Rob Hirst used their speeches to draw attention to the plight of the Murray-Darling, coal seam gas mining and race relations in Australia.

“We still live in a lucky country, but in a country and a world where there is much unfinished business,” Garrett said. “We still prostrate ourselves pathetically before the English crown, and deny Aboriginal and Islander people a voice and a real justice for the act of English dispossession. The planet is on fire.

“There are a sea of troubles to oppose – and there always regretfully will be. Yet as songwriters and performers we have experienced the incalculable privilege of being free, as the artists of today and tomorrow must also be free.”

The breakthrough songwriter of the year went to 23-year-old Sarah Aarons, who co-wrote the US No 1 song Stay by Zedd, featuring Alessia Cara. She has also written with artists including Flume, Demi Lovato and Bishop Briggs.

The Gold Coast musician Amy Shark won pop work of the year for her track Adore, and the dance duo Peking Duk and the producer M-Phases both won two awards.

The best part of the Apras are always the performances, during which Australian artists cover their peers, putting their own spin on the songs nominated for song of the year. Tim Minchin’s performance of Firewood and Candles was the highlight this year, described by Kelly as “rambunctious”; other performers included Ben Abraham and All Our Exes Live in Texas with a rendition of Jessica Mauboy’s Fallin’, and No Mono’s take on Gang of Youths’ What Can I Do If the Fire Goes Out.

Closing the night, a super group featuring Suze DeMarchi and Baby Animals, Adalita and Isabella Manfredi paid musical tribute to Midnight Oil.