0/5

Gallery: What we nearly missed at the ARIAs

The 22nd ARIAS was a very straight-laced event. But if you didn't blink there were a few live telly moments worth another mention.

ARIAs night belonged to Gabriella Cilmi and The Presets, in a very straight-laced event.

Pity Nick Cave wasn’t there to ruffle a few feathers.

Rove managed a cute “subliminal” dig just towards the end. But if you didn’t blink there were a few live telly moments worth another mention.


Here’s a few:

Gabriella Cilmi pokes her tongue out at cameras. What else is there left to say when you’ve just won your sixth gong?

Natalie Bassingthwaighte proves the Bedazzler is making a comeback.

Brian McFadden telling James Kerley “it’s more comfortable to receive” than to give. “And when you receive you just get a bigger, bigger smile on your face.”

I can hear The Veronicas singing. But where the hell are they?

Gabriella Cilmi is escorted by security from her front table to the stage. Just to make sure she doesn’t get lost?

Richard Wilkins is one of the first to give Cilmi a standing ovation (James Tobin was close by too).

A guy with a lanyard nearly passes himself off as all three members of The Living End.

Axle Whitehead is so behaved he didn’t even try to make a joke.

Sam Sparro stumbles during Black and Gold.

And Vodafone crashes Motorola’s party.

Press Release:
The winners of the 2008 ARIA Awards, proudly presented by Motorola, have been announced and pop and electronic dance music have ruled the day in the form of multiple winners GABRIELLA CILMI and THE PRESETS. They join an eclectic group of ARIA Award recipients who include THE LIVING END, KASEY CHAMBERS and SHANE NICHOLSON, NICK CAVE and GEOFFREY GURRUMUL YUNUPINGU, THE PANICS and BLISS N’ ESO, among others.

In what is an extraordinary success story, vocal powerhouse GABRIELLA CILMI, a pop singer who had yet to emerge on the Australian music landscape this time last year, has taken out an incredible 6 ARIA Awards on the back of her debut album,Lessons To Be Learned, and her breakthrough smash hit single, Sweet About Me. The Melbourne-born, London-based Cilmi has received ARIA Awards in the categories of BEST FEMALE ARTIST, BREAKTHROUGH ARTIST – SINGLE (Sweet About Me),BREAKTHROUGH ARTIST – ALBUM (Lessons to be Learned), BEST POP RELEASE (Lessons to be Learned), HIGHEST SELLING SINGLE (Sweet About Me) and the coveted ARIA Award for SINGLE OF THE YEAR for Sweet About Me. With the world at her feet, GABRIELLA CILMI’s ARIA Awards triumph is nothing short of a phenomenal achievement for the Dandenong girl who has just celebrated her 17th birthday.

Electronic duo THE PRESETS has also had a cracking year with the release of their widely acclaimed second album Apocalypso. They fought off stiff competition in the prestigious categories of ALBUM OF THE YEAR and BEST GROUP to take out both for the hugely popular Apocalypso. The album has also seen THE PRESETS receive the pointy trophy in the category of BEST DANCE RELEASE taking their tally to 3 ARIA Awards (plus 2 ARIA Artisan Awards, including Producer of the Year for Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes). The self-produced Apocalypso, which spawned the gritty hit single My People, has sealed THE PRESETS as Australia’s premiere electronic act.

The extraordinary rise of the gifted GEOFFREY GURRUMUL YUNUPINGU continues with 2 ARIA Awards to his credit. Adding to the Award he received at the ARIA Fine Arts Awards for BEST WORLD MUSIC ALBUM, he has received the ARIA Award in the category of BEST INDEPENDENT ALBUM for his breathtaking solo debut album Gurrumul.

Viva La Rock! THE LIVING END has walked away with the ARIA Award for BEST ROCK ALBUM for the scorching White Noise – their fifth full length album and arguably their most successful to date. Also storming home with an ARIA Award, on the back of last year’s rock epic Dig, Lazarus Dig!!!, an album recorded with his band THE BAD SEEDS, is NICK CAVE. The prophet of Australian rock n’ roll, and 2007 ARIA Hall of Fame recipient, has been named BEST MALE ARTIST, an Award he also received in 2001.

Energetic hip-hop three piece BLISS N’ ESO has scored the ARIA Award for BEST URBAN ALBUM for Flying Colours. Recorded at the famous Sing Sing studios in Melbourne, the album demonstrates Bliss N Eso’s artistic growth and evolving maturity, both through lyrics and production in what is widely regarded as their best and most dynamic work to date.

Receiving their first ever ARIA Award is THE PANICS, who have taken home the ARIA Award in the category of BEST ADULT CONTEMPORARY ALBUM for their infectious debut Cruel Guards. The album, which has received a heap of critical praise, also took out the coveted 2007 J Award.

Popular Melbourne outfit THE AUDREYS have won their second ARIA Award, again in the category of BEST BLUES AND ROOTS ALBUM. Their second album When The Flood Comes has been described as ‘”Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant”(Daily Telegraph, Sydney) and “Gorgeous” by music bible, Rolling Stone.
The songwriting partnership of KASEY CHAMBERS & SHANE NICHOLSON has proved to be a winning combination with the duo receiving an ARIA Award in the category of BEST COUNTRY ALBUM for their outstanding release Rattlin’ Bones. And the divineDELTA GOODREM has added to her trophy cabinet by receiving the ARIA Award for HIGHEST SELLING ALBUM for her chart topping, smash hit, self-titled long player.

The DVD release from last year’s massive Across The Great Divide tour, featuring rock heavyweights POWDERFINGER andSILVERCHAIR, has received the ARIA Award in the category of BEST MUSIC DVD.

The wonderful WIGGLES have received the ARIA Award in the category of BEST CHILDREN’S ALBUM for their delightful toe-tapping kid’s CD You Make Me Feel Like Dancing.

And last but certainly not least, the inimitable SHAUN MICALLEF has taken out the ARIA Award for BEST COMEDY RELEASE for his long player with the equally long title – The Expurgated Micallef Tonight: The Very Best of Shaun Micallef’s Short-Lived but Brilliant Tonight.

Again highlighting the depth and diversity of talent across all genres of the Australian music community, ARIA congratulates all winners in the 2008 ARIA Awards, proudly presented by Motorola.

33 Responses

  1. I thought the ARIA’s were pretty entertaining – there is no way Cilmi deserved 6 awards for one song that she couldn’t even sing live though! Can anyone tell me if she wrote the music or lyrics to the song or is she just another industry plant?

    Loved the Presets – awesome costumes – it’s about time we had some fun put back into the dance scene!!

  2. Hamish and Andy are hellish. Why does every gag begin with the ugly one going “uhhhhhhhm” while the horse-faced one one giggles like an imbecile? Or am I missing the point? Is that their shtick – imbecillic giggling like a couple of tits in a pit. I mean, you know, God bless Rove for bringing to the fore such phenomenonally middle of the road, bland powerhouses for a defiantly dozing Aust of a Sundee evening. Of everything I know to be true, I know this; of all the people on telly, Hamish and Any are most definitely two of them. No matter what anyone says. Pete Hellier’s one as well, I spose. Someone “in the biz” once told me Hellier writes all his own stuff. I.. was.. gobsmacked. Remember when he went to that house in which two gay Melbourne men lived, live on TV, and said “If these walls could talk”? I laughed so hard my skin fell off . Where would this country be without Rove standing by his “technically it’s a tv program” machine, farting out solid programming like the ARIAS. He’s like a modern day Steve Vizard in the body of Daryl Somers, that Rove. If Rove were a children’s toy, he’d be a beige balloon you can’t inflate. If Rove were a cereal, he’d be half-grain. If Rove were a hair-care product, he’d have very little hold, but you could buy him everywhere, including petrol stations. And if Rove were a tv host, he’d be Rove f**king McManus.

  3. @ali

    “Hamish and Andy need to stick to their radio show. They’re just not funny or entertaining on TV.”
    What about Hamish on Thank God You’re here and Spicks and Specks? I know that the Arias wasn’t their best perfomance but it was still pretty good. They are better when they are not tied to a script or an autocue.

  4. Erm, platinum (or triple) as a percentage of our population works out the same as it does in America, so it’s exactly equally as impressive (or unimpressive).

  5. Gabriella Cilmi wasn’t an Idol or on Idol, she just performed on Idol tonight as a one-off and was given a framed record for sales of “Sweet About Me”. Idol winners tend to get shafted by the ARIA voters anyway.

  6. lol Neon
    Triple Platinum? This isn’t America, Platinum Sales isn’t a million, here in Australia, Platinum is 70,000 sales 🙂 and a Gold album? A humble 35,000
    So Deltas hugely selling album? Sold just under 220,000 copies. That’s not even a quarter of what her first album sold. From 1st to 3rd album the decline is drastically steep. Hence Delta’s acceptance speech made a reference to “buying”, she knows her album sales are extremely low. If the board just extended the voting period 3 months so the awards were every say 15-16 months? For this year in particular The Veronica’s would have out sold Delta by a third. But unfortunately that’s not how it works (and understandably so)
    And yeah, I know Depeche Mode Ive seen them twice once here and the other time in Berlin, I see absolutely no similarity at all, different structures, social expressions and the Presets will never be in the same category as Martin Gore.

    Gabriella did great, lets see what happens when she fully realizes that our industry has a very very low ceiling….

  7. … Gabriella Cilmi was an Idol? That explains why she’s so bad and how she won then. I’m with Veee about Operator Please. I’m not a fan of them, but they certainly have more talent than Cilmi. They’re also teenagers and have done incredibly well for themselves without the aid of a rigged television show. They’re a perfect example of how you should become big – your own way like The Living End or The Presets. That way you’ll never be labeled a pretender… like the Idols.

  8. I thought The Living End did a great job performing, as always. Unfortuately, they set a high standard. I was disapointed with Pink…I don’t know what I was expecting but if certainly wasn’t the performance she gave.

Leave a Reply