It was that time of the year again - the night of night's for Australia's music industry.
What a night it was for the the 25th anniversary ARIA awards at Sydney's Olympic Park last night.
There were so many highlights.
How about Gotye (one of my favorites) winning three gongs, and then of course Prime Minister Julia Gillard (always looking for a bit of good PR) inducted Kylie Minogue into the ARIA Hall of Fame.
Minogue was sincere in her thanks to the he ARIA board for "an incredible honour", saying "I'm a very proud Australian and tonight's award means so much to me". No, Dannii didn't win anything, before you ask.
PM Gillard met Minogue for the virgin time earlier this year while over in Japan while they were special guests at the Australian embassy fund-raising dinner for the tsunami disaster, advised Minogue was "a special Australian" who would take her "rightful place alongside music legends like Joan Sutherland and John Farnham and Paul Kelly" in the Hall of Fame. Nice words of support from PM Gillard, but how much of a music history expert is she? Maybe more than most people know...brave of her to wear the music expert hat.
It was quite a stand out year for Australian music.
Perhaps the biggest success story of the year, at least in the eyes of mass media was, Bruges-born Melbourne artist Gotye (Wally De Backer). They snatched ARIAs for best male artist, best pop release and best single of the year for the massively popular Somebody that I Used to Know, featuring New Zealand-born Kimbra. Kimbra, not to be outdone, snatched her first ARIA for best female artist for her debut album, Cameo Lover.
Featured performances were by Gotye, Kimbra and Boy & Bear, winning an impressive five ARIA awards for self-produced debut album Moonfire, including album of the year.
Guy Sebastian got the ARIA award for highest-selling single for his number one song Who's That Girl.
Sebastian thanked his pregnant wife Jules after picking up his award.
"I couldn't do what I'm doing without her, she's a great chick," he told the press.
Three-time ARIA-award winners the Living End performed brilliantly and won best rock album (The End is Just the Begin-ning Repeating) and most popular Australian live artist, as voted by the public).
The Wiggles got top honours for Children's Favourite, and also skipped into the Hall of Fame and collected the best children's album award for popular Ukulele Baby!
Legendary Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist Billy Thorpe was posthumously recognised for his final piece of work, Tangier. We wonder who will get the award next year, but it's quite likely too early to tell. Thorpe's wife, Lynn, and daughters Lauren and Dusty, collected the award, and fans and media lapped it up.
A bush tucker bag of celebs, including Delta Goodrem, Stevie Nicks, Missy Higgins, Iva Davies, former ARIA Hall of Fame inductee Chrissy Amphlett, actor Noah Taylor and Joel and Benji Madden presented awards.
Goodrem, who won seven ARIAs way back in 2003, put on a star performance and touching tribute to performing artists who we lost over the awards' rich 25-year history.
Western Australia's Drapht, opened the night, snatching best urban album for The Life of Riley.
Drapht thanked Gotye, who also snatched awards for producer of the year, best video and engineer of the year when nominations were announced earlier this month, for "not making a hip-hop album this year" - an insider award type of scenario.
Past ARIA winner Kasey Chambers added to her list of ARIA awards, winning her ninth best country album award for Little Bird.
"We said that if I get this one he'll have to get the one in Tamworth (Golden Guitar award) so we've made that stick," Chambers told journalists following her win.
Last year's winner of best rock album, Birds of Tokyo, won this year's publicly voted most popular Australian artist award, which holds a lot of street cred.
Art vs Science won best independent release for The Experi-ment and Front End Loader won its first ARIA award for best hard rock/heavy metal album, Ritardando.
Highest-selling album went to X-Factor winner Altiyan Childs for his self-titled debut and Guy Sebastian took out the highest-selling single for Who's That Girl.
2011 ARIA Award Winners...
ALBUM OF THE YEAR - Boy & Bear, Moonfire
SINGLE OF THE YEAR - Gotye, Somebody That I Used to Know (featuring Kimbra)
BEST MALE ARTIST - Gotye, Somebody That I Used to Know (featuring Kimbra)
BEST FEMALE ARTIST - Kimbra, Cameo Lover
BEST GROUP - Boy & Bear, Moonfire
BREAKTHROUGH ARTIST (ALBUM) - Boy & Bear, Moonfire
BREAKTHROUGH ARTIST (SINGLE) - Boy & Bear, Feeding Line
BEST INDEPENDENT RELEASE - Art vs Science, The Experiment
BEST ADULT ALTERNATIVE ALBUM - Boy & Bear, Moonfire
BEST ADULT CONTEMPORARY ALBUM - Billy Thorpe, Billy Thorpe's Tangier
BEST BLUES & ROOTS ALBUM - The Audreys, Sometimes the Stars
BEST CHILDREN'S ALBUM - The Wiggles, Ukulele Baby!
BEST COMEDY RELEASE - Hamish & Andy, Celebrating 50 Glorious Years
BEST COUNTRY ALBUM - Kasey Chambers, Little Bird
BEST DANCE RELEASE - Cut Copy, Zonoscope
BEST HARD ROCK/HEAVY METAL ALBUM - Front End Loader, Ritardando
BEST POP RELEASE - Gotye, Somebody That I Used to Know (featuring Kimbra)
BEST ROCK ALBUM - The Living End, The Ending Is Just the Beginning Repeating
BEST URBAN ALBUM - Drapht, The Life of Riley
HIGHEST SELLING ALBUM - Altiyan Childs, Altiyan Childs
HIGHEST SELLING SINGLE - Guy Sebastian, Who's that Girl (featuring Eve)
BEST CLASSICAL ALBUM - Sally Whitwell, Mad Rush: Piano Music of Philip Glass
BEST JAZZ ALBUM - Elixir featuring Katie Noonan, First Seed Ripening
BEST ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK/CAST/SHOW ALBUM - Chris Lilley, Angry Boys - Official Soundtrack Album
BEST WORLD MUSIC ALBUM - Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, Rrakala
BEST MUSIC DVD - AC/DC, AC/DC - Live at River Plate
BEST COVER ART - Alter, for Cut Copy, Zonoscope
BEST VIDEO - Natasha Pincus for Starkraving Productions, for Gotye, Somebody That I Used to Know (featuring Kimbra)
ENGINEER OF THE YEAR - Francois Tetaz, for Gotye, Somebody That I Used to Know (featuring Kimbra)
PRODUCER OF THE YEAR - Wally De Backer, for Gotye, Somebody That I Used to Know (featuring Kimbra)
2011 PUBLIC VOTED ARIA AWARD WINNERS
MOST POPULAR AUSTRALIAN ARTIST - Birds of Tokyo
MOST POPULAR INTERNATIONAL ARTIST - P!nk
MOST POPULAR AUSTRALIAN LIVE ARTIST - The Living End
Websites
ARIA Awards
Australian Recording Industry Association
Sydney Olympic Park
Eva Rinaldi Photography Flickr
Eva Rinaldi Photography