The winners of this year’s Queensland Music Awards have been announced, with indie-pop trailblazer Sycco, hyperpop star Zheani and EDM luminary Hayden James taking home the biggest wins.
- READ MORE: Sycco: 19-year-old “COVID-baby artist” making sense of the world through effervescent indie pop
All three artists won two awards each – Sycco took home the gongs for Pop and Song Of The Year (both for ‘My Ways’), while Zheani scored the Heavy and Emerging Artist Of The Year awards (the former on account of ‘Fuck The Hollywood Cult’) and James, alongside Nat Dunn and Gorgon City, landed the Electronic and Regional/Remote titles for their collaborative track ‘Foolproof’.
Another big winner was The Jungle Giants, whose recent ‘Love Signs’ effort won the prestigious Album Of The Year designation. In the other genre-centric categories, WAAX took out the top prize in Rock with ‘Most Hated Girl’, while iiiConic landed the Hip-Hop title for ‘Okay’, and Miiesha topped the combined Soul/Funk/R&B category with ‘Made For Silence’.
Cloe Terare – who won last year’s Regional/Remote award – took out this year’s Billy Thorpe Scholarship. Through it, she’ll be awarded $10,000 to aide in her musical endeavours, as well as the opportunity to link up with a local producer to mint some new material, and get one-on-one advice from music industry mentors.
The 2022 QMAs saw several winners from last year’s event repeat their successes: last year, for example, Sycco notched both the Pop and Song Of The Year awards for her 2020 hit ‘Dribble’. Miiesha also took out last year’s Soul/Funk/R&B award as well, winning that one for her song ‘Twisting Words’.
It’s fitting, too, that The Jungle Giants won Album Of The Year, as the 2020 QMAs saw them win both awards that Sycco did this year and last (with the ‘Love Signs’ cut ‘Heavy Hearted’). They were nominated for the Pop award at last year’s QMAs (at the hand of ‘Sending Me Ur Love’) but, as you already know, lost out to Sycco.
The winners of the 2022 Queensland Music Awards are:
BLUES/ROOTS
Blues Arcadia – ‘Follow The Leader’
Freight Train Foxes – ‘Cardboard Satellites’
Mardi Wilson – ‘Salty’
Sue Ray – ‘Take Me Away’
CHILDREN’S
Angela Small – ‘Dino Boogie’
Fabulous Lemon Drops – ‘Dinosaur Boogie’
The Mini Moshers – ‘New Shoes’
The Wobble Bus – ‘It Hurts’
CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL
Australian Vocal Ensemble (AVÉ) – ‘Suburban’
Corrina Bonshek – ‘Dreams Of The Earth’
Danny Widdicombe – ‘Spiro’
Thomas Green – ‘Five Quick-Tempered Dances (Movement 3)’
COUNTRY
Brad Butcher – ‘Cutting People’s Grass’
Camille Trail – ‘I Know I’m Hard To Love’
Casey Barnes – ‘God Took His Time On You’
Hayley Marsten – ‘Drowning Myself’
ELECTRONIC
Golden Vessel – ‘Getforward’
The Jungle Giants – ‘Treat You Right’
Nat Dunn, Hayden James, Gorgon City – ‘Foolproof’
Sampology – ‘Running Around’
FOLK
Andrea Kirwin – ‘Beautiful Morning’
Asha Jefferies – ‘Crybaby’
Hollow Coves – ‘Blessings’
Tim Hart – ‘Steady As She Goes’
HEAVY
DZ Deathrays – ‘All Or Nothing’
Mass Sky Raid – ‘Arrows’
The Stranger – ‘Eleventh Hour’
Zheani – ‘F… The Hollywood Cult’
HIP-HOP
Creed Tha Kid – ‘Body’
DAY1 – ‘Limit’
iiiConic – ‘Okay’
Nebzy – ‘Catalyst’
INDIGENOUS
Beddy Rays – ‘Wait A While’
ELEEA – ‘Red Wine’
Jem Cassar-Daley – ‘Letting Go’
Sachém – ‘Motherland’
JAZZ
IMPULSE Orchestra – ‘Sonorous Figurine’
Luke Cuerel Quintet – ‘MARPG’
Milton Man Gogh – ‘See You Round The Traps (For John Condon)’
Valtozash – ‘Pedalling E’
POP
Asha Jefferies – ‘Crybaby’
Eves Karydas – ‘Lemonade’
The Jungle Giants – ‘Love Signs’
Sycco – ‘My Ways’
ROCK
Ball Park Music – ‘Sunscreen’
Hallie – ‘Babysitter’
Hope D – ‘Addict’
WAAX – ‘Most Hated Girl’
SOUL/FUNK/R&B
FELIVAND – ‘Where Were You’
iyah may – ‘XO Girl’
Miiesha – ‘Made For Silence’
Yb. – ‘Coffee Shop’
WORLD
Andrea Kirwin – ‘Firenze’
Day Of Embers – ‘Oceans Apart’
Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra – ‘Welcome To The Neighbourhood: Taiwan (就當家裡)’
Menaka Thomas – ‘On The Horizon’
YOUTH (AGES 10-17)
Abi Muir – ‘Still The Same’
Amy Elise – ‘Only 16’
Bella Mackenzie – ‘Ain’t For You’
Paulina – ‘Parasite’
REGIONAL/REMOTE
Miiesha – ‘Damaged’
Nat Dunn, Hayden James, Gorgon City – ‘Foolproof’
Sahara Beck – ‘Crave Me’
Tia Gostelow – ‘Valley Nights feat. Sahara Beck and Hope D’
VIDEO
Deena Lynch – ‘Who Died And Made You King?’ (Jaguar Jonze)
Jennifer Embelton – ‘Where Were You’ (Felivand)
Macario De Souza, Allan Hardy, Dayna Yates, Cam Pianta, Tyson Lloyd, Kelly Holden – ‘Every Single Time’ (Example feat. What So Not & Lucy Lucy)
Natalie Sim – ‘Astronaut’ (Jaguar Jonze)
2022 BILLY THORPE SCHOLARSHIP
Alex Edwards
CLOE TERARE
DENNIS.
Jem Cassar-Daley
SONG OF THE YEAR
Sycco – ‘My Ways’
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
The Jungle Giants – ‘Love Signs’
EMERGING ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Zheani
QMUSIC LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Dennis Conlin
HIGHEST SELLING ALBUM
Amy Shark – ‘Cry Forever’
HIGHEST SELLING SINGLE
Keith Urban – ‘One Too Many’ (featuring P!nk)
The winners for the QMAs’ 2022 People’s Choice Awards are:
METRO VENUE OF THE YEAR
The Fortitude Music Hall
HOTA Home of the Arts
The Junk Bar
Miami Marketta
Mo’s Desert Clubhouse
Lefty’s Music Hall
The Princess Theatre
Studio 188
The Tivoli
Tomcat Bar
The Triffid
The Zoo
REGIONAL VENUE OF THE YEAR
NightQuarter
Solbar
Eleven Dive Bar
Tanks Arts Centre
FESTIVAL OF THE YEAR
Agnes Blues, Roots & Rock Festival
Airlie Beach Festival of Music
The Birdsville Big Red Bash
Buskers By The Lake
Earth Frequency Festival
Hidden Lanes Festival
Jungle Love Festival
NOOSA alive!
Waghorn to West
Yonder