Teen sensation Gabriella Cilmi capped off a meteoric rise to the top at last night’s ARIA Awards, taking home all six of the awards she was nominated for.
The 17-year-old Melbournian was named best female artist, and breakthrough artist for her single “Sweet About Me” and breakthrough artist – album for Lessons to be Learned. Gabriella’s debut single was also judged the year’s highest selling single, and single of the year. The album Lessons to be Learned was named best pop release.
Gabriella looked stunning in metallic gold and bronze dresses, and she performed brilliantly, but I don’t think she’ll win any awards for public speaking.
“It’s actually really cool to be here in a room full of people who kind of inspire me and make music too, so you know, yeah,” Gabriella jabbered in one of her excruciating acceptance speeches.
“I’d like to say thank you again to my mum and my dad who kind of let me travel across the other side of the world to make a record, and um, yeah, cool, thank you!”
International pop star Pink was billed as the night’s showstopper, but honestly I thought her performance of “So What” was pretty average. She might have run around a lot and projected a lot of energy, but it was at the sacrifice of the vocals.
For me Pink was outshone by Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, who delivered an exquisite song from his award-winning album Gurrumul. The album took home the titles of best world music album and best independent album, and quite rightly so. His music transcends language, forcing you to focus on the melody and passion of his words. This simplicity and sheer beauty was a welcome antidote to Pink’s posturing.
Sydney electro duo The Presets bagged a hat-trick. They were named best group, while their album Apocalypso was named best dance release and album of the year.
Nick Cave was a surprise winner, named as best male artist. Less surprising was the fact that he didn’t show up to collect the gong.
Delta Goodrem was another no-show, although she did record a message thanking us for making her self-titled third record the highest-selling album of the year.
Two folks were thrilled to be there were Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson. The husband and wife team couldn’t be happier for their collaboration Rattlin’ Bones to be named best country release.
The Living End, The Panics, The Audreys, Silverchair and Powderfinger, and comedian Shaun Micallef also took home awards on the Australian music industry’s night of nights.
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