The Star rolled out a huge, long red carpet (orange actually) for the creme de la creme of the music industry for the ARIA 2019 awards.
There were not many punk/rock outfits with most female artists opting for glamorous ballgowns, sequinned dresses and stylish pants suits.
Because there seemed to be a complete replacement for last year’s nominees I confess that I did not recognise most of the artists who posed in front of the media wall. This included this year’s four time Aria award winner Tones and I’ claiming Arias for Best Female Artist, Best Pop Release, Breakthrough Artist and Best Independent Release. A year ago, using her real name, Toni Watson, she was busking in Byron Bay. Symptomatic of the way one can achieve recognition as an artist she put her songs on the internet and almost instantly shot to fame. Her song ‘Dance Monkey’ gathered one billion streams locally.
On the other side of the music spectrum the Teskey Brothers, who have toiled away for years in pubs, won Best Blues and Roots album.
A group which got their start at a Sydney School’s Spectacular concert as teenagers and then went on to conquer Las Vegas and the world , Human Nature, were inducted into the ARIA Hall Of Fame.
Promoter Michael Chugg received the ARIA Industry Icon award.
Guy Sebastian was a Fan Voter Winner for Best Video and Song of the Year for the song ‘Choir’.
In this category there was even an award for The Music Teacher Of The Year Antonio Chiappetta of St Andrews College, Mariyong NSW.
