The Kid LAROI leads the nominations for this year’s APRA Music Awards, with Vance Joy coming in closely behind.
The annual APRA AMCOS-hosted awards, which celebrates songwriters and publishers who’ve accomplished great success in their fields, announced this year’s nominees today (April 7).
Having been crowned as Breakthrough Songwriter Of The Year in 2021, The Kid LAROI (aka Charlton Howard) leads this year’s slate with four nominations in three categories: Peer-Voted APRA Song Of The Year for ‘Stay’ (his collaboration with Justin Bieber), Most Performed Australian Work for ‘Without You’, and Most Performed Hip Hop/Rap Work for both ‘My City’ (a joint effort with OneFour) and ‘Without You’. Notably, the latter track makes Howard the only artist in this year’s nominations to earn two separate nods in the same category.
Vance Joy – who announced details of his third album today – follows with three nominations: Most Performed Australian Work and Most Performed Alternative Work for ‘Missing Piece’, and Most Performed Pop Work as a co-writer on ‘You’ with Benny Blanco and Marshmello.
Other notable nominees include Midnight Oil‘s Rob Hirst, who for the second year running, has been nominated for Peer-Voted APRA Song Of The Year with ‘First Nation’, which was co-written with and performed by Tasman Keith and Jessica Mauboy. In 2021, Hirst had taken out the Song Of The Year award for the Oils’ track ‘Gadigal Land’.
Additionally, rapper Genesis Owusu – who won the 2021 Australian Music Prize for his debut album ‘Smiling With No Teeth’, and the 2021 Vanda & Young Global Songwriting Competition for that album’s cut ‘Gold Chains’ – makes his debut appearance an APRA Music Awards shortlist with two nods. He’s in the running for Breakthrough Songwriter Of The Year and Peer-Voted APRA Song Of The Year for ‘The Other Black Dog’.
Across 12 categories appear an excellent representation of artists from genres like pop, rock, rap, R&B, country and more. The likes of Amyl And The Sniffers, Hiatus Kaiyote, Sycco, Tones And I, Amy Shark, The Rubens, Josh Teskey and Ash Grunwald, Fanny Lumsden, Peking Duk and Mashd N Kutcher are just a handful of the artists nominated for an award this year.
Find the full list of nominations below.
The awards ceremony will take place on Tuesday May 3 at Melbourne Town Hall. Proceedings will be co-hosted by Julia Zemiro and Jerome Farah. A playlist of all the nominees can be heard below.
The 2021 APRA Music Awards saw the likes of Tame Impala and Tones And I win big. Singer-songwriter Helen Reddy (who died in 2020) and Joy McKean (songwriter, wife and muse for Aussie legend Slim Dusty) were both revered at last year’s ceremony, each recognised with the Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services To Australian Music.
The 2022 APRA Music Award Nominees are:
Peer-Voted APRA Song of the Year
Midnight Oil feat. Jessica Mauboy & Tasman Keith – ‘First Nation’ (Rob Hirst / Tasman Keith)
Amyl and The Sniffers – ‘Guided By Angels’ (Fergus Romer / Amy Taylor / Bryce Wilson)
Hiatus Kaiyote – ‘Red Room’ (Paul Bender / Simon Mavin / Perrin Moss / Naomi Saalfield)
The Kid LAROI & Justin Bieber – ‘STAY’ (The Kid LAROI / Justin Bieber* / Isaac De Boni / Omer Fedi / Magnus Hoiberg / Michael Mule / Charlie Puth / Subhaan Rahman / Blake Slatki)
Genesis Owusu – ‘The Other Black Dog’ (Genesis Owusu / Michael Di Francesco / Andrew Klippel / Julian Sudek)
Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year
Budjerah
Genesis Owusu
Khaled Rohaim
Tyron Hapi and Harry Michael pka Masked Wolf
Sycco
Most Performed Australian Work
Tones And I – ‘Fly Away’ (Toni Watson)
Joel Corry feat. MNEK – ‘Head & Heart’ (Jonathan Courtidis / Joel Corry / Uzoechi Emenike / Neve Applebaum / Daniel Dare# / Robert Harvey / Kashif Siddiqu / Lewis Thompson)
Guy Sebastian – ‘Love On Display’ (Guy Sebastian / Julian Bunetta / Ian Franzino / Andrew Haas / John Ryan)
Vance Joy – ‘Missing Piece’ (Vance Joy / Joel Little)
The Kid LAROI – ‘Without You’ (The Kid LAROI / Omer Fedi / Blake Slatkin / Billy Walsh)
Most Performed Alternative Work
Amy Shark feat. Travis Barker – ‘C’Mon’ (Amy Shark / Travis Barker)
Dean Lewis – ‘Falling Up’ (Dean Lewis / Thomas Barnes / Hayden Calnin / Peter Kelleher / Benjamin Kohn / Philip Pleste)
The Rubens – ‘Masterpiece’ (Scott Baldwin / Elliott Margin / Samuel Margin / Zaac Margin / William Zeglis)
Vance Joy – ‘Missing Piece’ (Vance Joy / Joel Little)
Lime Cordiale – ‘Reality Check Please’ (Louis Leimbach / Oli Leimbach / David Haddad)
Most Performed Blues & Roots Work
Robbie Miller – ‘Catch Me’
Josh Teskey and Ash Grunwald – ‘Hungry Heart’
Ziggy Alberts – ‘Letting Go’
The Bamboos – ‘Power Without Greed’
Xavier Rudd – ‘Stoney Creek’
Most Performed Country Work
Seaforth – ‘Breakups’
Casey Barnes – ‘Come Turn Me On’
Fanny Lumsden – ‘Dig’
Amy Shark feat. Keith Urban – ‘Love Songs Ain’t For Us’
Brad Cox – ‘Short Lived Love’
Most Performed Dance/Electronic Work
Mashd N Kutcher feat. Dan Andrews – ‘Get On The Beers’
Joel Corry feat. MNEK – ‘Head & Heart’
David Guetta and SIA – ‘Let’s Love’
Peking Duk and The Wombats – ‘Nothing to Love About Love’
PNAU and Ladyhawke – ‘River’
Most Performed Hip Hop / Rap Work
HP Boyz – ‘Loyalty’
OneFour and The Kid LAROI – ‘My City’
Hooligan Hefs – ‘Send It’
ChillinIT feat. Lisi – ‘Stand For’
The Kid LAROI – ‘Without You’
Most Performed Pop Work
Cat & Calmell – ‘Dramatic’ (Cat Stratton / Calmell Teagle / Andrew Hopkins)
Tones And I – ‘Fly Away’ (Toni Watson)
Peach PRC – ‘Josh’ (Sharlee Curnow / Liam Quinn)
Guy Sebastian – ‘Love On Display’ (Guy Sebastian / Julian Bunetta / Ian Franzino / Andrew Haas / John Ryan)
Benny Blanco, Marshmello & Vance Joy – ‘You’ (Vance Joy / Benny Blanco / Marshmello / Caroline Pennell / Blake Slatkin)
Most Performed R&B / Soul Work
Budjerah – ‘Higher’ (Matt Corby / Budjerah)
Youngn Lipz –’How?’ (Filipo Faaoloii / Peter Klappas)
Miiesha – ‘Made For Silence’ (Miiesha Young / Lucian Blomkamp / Stephen Collins / Jordan Panasewych)
Becca Hatch – ‘Please U’ (Becca Hatch / Isaia Atoni / Jakiel Fuimaono / Jamie Muscat / Edward Tafa / Willie Tafa / Solo Toh)
Jerome Farah – ‘Vibrate’ (Jerome Farah)
Most Performed Rock Work
Jimmy Barnes – ‘Flesh And Blood’ (Jimmy Barnes / Mark Lizotte)
Spacey Jane – ‘Lots of Nothing’ (Ashton Hardman-Le Cornu / Caleb Harper / Kieran Lama / Peppa Lane)
AC/DC – ‘Shot In The Dark’
Gang of Youths – ‘The Angel of 8th Avenue’ (Dominik Borzestowski / Maxwell Dunn / Thomas Hobden/ Jung Kim / David Le’aupepe)
You Am I – ‘The Waterboy’ (Tim Rogers)
Most Performed International Work
Olivia Rodrigo – ‘drivers license’ (Olivia Rodrigo / Daniel Nigro)
Sigala & James Arthur – ‘Lasting Lover’ (James Arthur / Bruce Fielder / Lewis Capaldi / Luke Fitton / Benjamin Goldwasser / Jarl Hasselquist / Corey Sanders / Andrew Vanwyngarden)
Lil Nas X – ‘Montero (Call Me By Your Name)’ (Lil Nas X / Denzel Baptiste / David Biral / Omer Fedi / Rosario Lenzo)
Jason Derulo – ‘Take You Dancing’ (Jason Derulo / Teemu Brunila / Shawn Charles / Emanuel Kiriakou / Sarah Solovay)
Tiësto – ‘The Business’ (Tiësto / James Bell / Julia Karlsson / Anton Rundberg)