The Kid Laroi, Tones And I Rule 2022 APRA Awards

Lars Brandle
·3 min read
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With a hattrick of wins, The Kid Laroi led from start to finish as the APRA Music Awards returned to Melbourne on Tuesday night (May 3). The teenage superstar has rolled in a purple patch the likes of which few artists see. Now based in Los Angeles, the Sydney-raised artist led the singles and albums charts in the U.S. and Australia in 2021, and, along the way, logged a record-setting stay at the summit of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Stay,” his collaboration with Justin Bieber.

For the second straight year, Tones And I won a pair of APRAs, on this occasion for most performed pop work (“Fly Award”) and most performed Australian work overseas (“Dance Monkey”).

Another two-time winner was John Courtidis, who collected the most performed Australian work and most performed dance / electronic work for his contributions to “Head & Heart,” the dance hit performed by Joel Corry featuring MNEK. The song was recently inducted into  APRA AMCOS’ The 1,000,000,000 List, the PRO’s elite who’ve notched one billion streams for one of their works.

The treasures keep coming, this time with the APRAs breakthrough songwriter of the year. The album, he told the audience, “was a deeply personal project for me. I used it as an individual in the process of catharsis and therapy,” as did many others, his growing pile of awards would suggest.Other winners on the night included Amy Shark, Vance Joy, Joel Little, AC/DC’s Angus & Malcolm Young, Budjerah, Matt Corby and Ziggy Alberts, while legendary kids’ entertainers the Wiggles were feted with the Ted Albert Award, a prestigious honor from the APRA board of directors which acknowledges a group or individual who has contributed immensely to Australian music.

Daddy Cool and Mondo Rock frontman and co-founder Ross Wilson presented the accolade to the OG Wiggles, referring to the veteran artists as the “Fab Four for under 5s,” and pointing out they’re the only act to be inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame and also lead the triple j Hottest 100, which they did in January with a cover of Tame Impala’s “Elephant.”

The 40th annual APRA Awards rocked out with a musical tribute to the late punk legend Chris Bailey, as You Am I frontman led the Hard-Ons with a blistering show-closing performance of the Saints’ classic “Know Your Product.”

Established in 1982, the Australasian Performing Right Association’s annual songwriters’ ceremony is one of the Australian music industry’s most treasured events.

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