As predicted, Tones & I snagged two of the night’s biggest honours, nabbing the Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year and Peer-Voted Song of the Year for her astronomical breakout ‘Dance Monkey.’ In case you’ve missed it, ‘Dance Monkey’ just surpassed a billion views on YouTube last week, as well as notching up over 1,500,000,000 plays on Spotify alone. That’s a whole lot of zeros.
Adelaide hip-hop stalwarts Hilltop Hoods also swept the evening, taking home awards for Songwriters of the Year and Most Performed Urban (yuck) Work for ‘Leave Me Lonely.’ It caps off what might have been Hilltop Hoods most successful year in their career to date after making ARIA chart history with six consecutive #1 albums as well as supporting Eminem at his record breaking MCG show.
Elsewhere, rising artist KIAN, who you might remember for winning Triple J Unearthed High back in 2018, won Most Performed Australian Work and Most Performed Alternative Work for ‘Waiting’. Other award winners included John Butler Trio, Dean Lewis, Hayden James, Jimmy Barnes and Sia, who won Most Performed Australian Work Overseas for her 2016 song ‘Cheap Thrills’, which means she’s now won this award three years straight – for the same song. How weird is that?
Check out the full list of winners over at APRA’s website.
