★★★★★ 0/5

The 2010 ARIA Awards

Last night's ARIA Awards, ambitiously presented on the Opera House forecourt, were an exercise in how not to stage a live awards show.

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Gosh that was awkward….

I love award nights for the times when they veer off script. But last night’s ARIA Awards seemed so far off-script I was praying it would get back on it.

FremantleMedia Australia broadcast the 2010 event from the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House. It has previously staged Australian Idol finales there before. Apparently it’s uber-cool. But while it works great for pre-show entertainment and Red Carpet, it just makes me wish they had booked  the Concert Hall instead.

Indoor events on a stage may be very traditional, but they are a lot more focussed than the scary montage I watched last night. A relaxed show also lends itself to moments of chemistry. The only chemistry I saw last night was Myf Warhurst awe-struck by Silverchair’s Chris Joannou.

Now I understand why Jimmy Barnes had criticised the event in the lead-up to the event, likening it to trying to recreate a Countdown concert instead of it actually being about the industry.

Last night the industry was left to wander around sipping a glass in the wind on the steps of the Opera House. Cheers for your year in music, guys. Have another bubbly.

On the positive side, most of the performances were entertaining -and that can’t have been easy in an outside broadcast. Washington turned it on with a performance practically channelling Marilyn Monroe’s “Diamond are a Girl’s Best Friend”. Guy Sebastian’s closing number “I Like It Like That” continues to show his versatility. Dan Sultan was a great fit with INXS.

But the hosts weren’t given enough to distinguish themselves from presenters. Natalie Bassingthwaighte spent the whole night yelling.

And where do we start with the Presenters? Awkwardly staged like gatecrashers, they were frequently shot from low angles with shadows cast everytime somebody moved. Bob Katter (calling them the “ARIARIAs”) took forever to announce a winner. The Church’s Steve Kilbey took longer still, until somebody off camera told him to get on with it. Lara Bingle’s contibution was to ask Jason Derulo “How are you?” The kids from Operator Please seemed a bit dazed by the autocue.

And Jessica Mauboy? Calling “Debut” as “De-butt” was bad enough once. What the hell, let’s do it a second time. The word “rehearsal” springs to mind, Jess…

Things were also awkward when winners had to make their way to a point somwhere in the crowd to receive their trophy. There were issues assembling winners to face the camera. It was worse when people tried to slink away after speeches. A couple of cutaways didn’t help.

Marcia Hines acknowledged the passing of James Freud. What a shame all we saw was a long-distance shot on a screen (not even acknowledging any of his music). Nobody remembered Dame Joan Sutherland and we’re at the bloody Opera House. A crime.

The big winners of the night were Angus and Julia Stone (they thanked their dog… bit of a change from thanking God), Washington, Powderfinger and The Temper Trap who each received two trophies.

After last year’s disappointing ARIAs on Nine, it was a shame this felt more like an ARIAs-progressive dinner. It paled beside ARIAs that were produced by Roving Enterprises, and reminds us how creative some awards can be: Kid’s Choice Awards, anyone?

Finally, Modern Family‘s Eric Stonestreet politely kept up the enthusiasm, but couldn’t help but admit he really wanted to be on the stage of the Sydney Opera House.

We’re with you on that one, Eric.

108 Responses

  1. I watched about 10 mins and couldn’t handle it anymore…
    What an absolute disgrace of an awards show! It made Gretel Killeen hosting of the logies look like a masterpiece.

    Totally agree re Natalie B’s Yelling!

    Riki Lee your pathetic attempt at humour with actor Eric Stonestreet was possible the most embarrassing thing i have ever seen! Truely truely awful!

    Still cringing at the thought of it!

  2. The biggest loser is ……Fremantlemedia – someone should be fired for this debacle. If you were a Network exec you could never trust them on a big event again, and you’ve got to keep looking across the road at Shine wondering if all the talent went with the Fennesseys. That ARIA mess was unprofessional and unforgivable.

  3. @Jason D. says: November 8, 2010 at 8:56 am : “The whole ARIA awards are a farce. Take the “Best Single” award which was won by Angus & Julia Stone for “Big Jet Plane”. What is the criteria for the award, it certainly isn’t sales because it only peaked at #33”

    Umm…. maybe the criteria was for “best”? Just because something sells in big numbers doesn’t automatically mean it’s the best and vice versa.

  4. i didn’t see the show last night and now after reading that review I am wishing i did! I mean…Bob Katter? “De-butt”? Lara Bingle? Ricki Lee doing limp wristed gay jokes? What a confusing mess. And Carmen Electra? who cares??

    I bet all those Rove bashers are now wishing he was on board to save the show?

  5. I think they should bring the Aria’s down to Melbourne. We are the arts/ music/ culture capital of this country and change our street names to famous local musicians (ACDC lane). The Myer Music Bowl for example is a location they should consider for and ‘outdoor’ event like this, not steps…
    It really felt like they were making it up as they went along but knowing the weather stalled any rehearsal makes me cut them a little slack.

  6. The performances we’re great. shame about the trainwreck production by Ch10. It looked more like a Drunk presenters-fest at times and unfunny antics/commentary by Rebel Wilson.

  7. I love music but this was a disaster. I didn’t mind Nat Bass. She was probably yelling because she couldn’t hear above the buzz of the audience. Dylan Lewis is a fruit loop that shouldn’t be hosting anything. Rebel Wilson was great.

  8. This is what happens when a music awards show is produced by non-music-lovers. Totally failed to capture the spirit of australian music. So many people on screen who have no understanding or interest in the artists and music being awarded, and the result is a farce.

  9. The ARIA Awards is supposed to be an event that’s all about Australian music, for Australian musicians and the industy as voted by their peers. Its not supposed to be for the fans, or the kids, or the TV audience or whatever – we have the MTV Awards and Kids Choice for public popularity contests, and they do them well. The ARIAs is an industry event and should stay that way. Since when did Channel 10 or any network for that matter get the right to hijack the event and make it a cheap, classless TV show? It was a train wreck last night, and heads should roll. The ARIAs need to go back to their roots, respecting and rewarding the music industry and its achievements.

  10. I didn’t mind it to be honest. Although I would have preferred an indoor show.
    This seemed more like an Idol finale. The 2 presenters per award banter was very awkward most of the time.

    Roving Enterprises did a great job before.

  11. Shockingly, embarrasingly horrible. I have no idea what the production company were thinking. They should be forced to apologise to the artists, the awfulcue-driven presenters (well, ok, maybe not Nat Bass’ lungs), the music industry and anyone who survived watching the entire broadcast.

    I’ve seen school awards nights better managed and hosted.

  12. In a TV landcsape where every major show is formulaic, this is the inevitable result TV execs and production companies get. I agree with every comment made here, but would add there was simply no relationship between the audience/viewers and the presenters/hosts. No TV talent is nurtured or allowed to perform in this country, there are simply no vehicles for them outside of 20 second reality show links or a game show, so we get hacks like the ‘names’ chosen to present last night. There appears to be fidelity or awareness of what is good TV talent anymore – Dylan is great but has always been his best solo, similar with Rebel I’d say. This ‘put a guy and a girl together’ coloring in style producing is pathetic, but its the industry that reality TV and the execs who have commissioned it deserve.

  13. Oh dear … I actually felt sorry for Lara Bingle completely losing the power of speech but whose idea was it to invite Bob Katter along? Just appalling. At least the live performances were (on the whole) fantastic, considering the very trying conditions.

    Scrap the ARIAS as a television broadcast and just have a classy ceremony for the artists … @JB, those were the days when the industry rocked up to the Regent Hotel – no cameras (thank God!) and no media. I saw and did some things I’ll never forget!

  14. I managed to watch just 25 minutes of the ARIAs this year (from just before Birds Of Tokyo’s performance until halfway through Washington’s time onstage) before I’d had enough and changed the channel. The awards ceremony used to be a true highlight of my year, but last night was just an utter shambles – a travesty and an insult to Australian music. Thank you Ever so much for ruining the ARIAs, FremantleMedia. Thank you Ever so much.

  15. Last night probably set the Australian music and tv industry back 20 years. I feel sorry for the likes of Powderfinger who put in the hard yards over the last 15 or so years only to be given awards, that they thoroughly deserve, like it was at a giant backyard party and not get properly applauded and recognised by their peers. The only redeeming feature of the night were the fantastic live performances from the artists, not that I saw all of them, as I turned the tv off at 10pm in disgust.

  17. I completely agree David, that was the most awkward and porrly organised awards ceremony I have ever seen. It was trying to be a party that appeals to the younger generation, but I’m 19 and it didn’t appeal to me at all! And Jessice Mauboy incorrectly calledTame Impala’s album Innerspeak (it’s Innerspeaker – yes I’m being pedantic). So many lame sex jokes too

  18. It completely didn’t work. It just seemed so amateurish. Also I think it diminished the winners receiving their awards, instead of getting them on a stage in front of their peers they get handed their award in a crowd of random people.

  23. Shadows everywhere. Looked like they were in the carpark of a pub somewhere. No where near as well produced as 9’s last year. Maybe someone cut the production budget back very recently…hmmmm.

  24. I agree David! When awards shows are criticised for being bad, i’m usually the one who asks ‘why? I didn’t think it was so bad?!?’

    But last night’s ARIA Awards were the worst I had ever seen. It looked extremely awkward and waaaaay to casual for Australia’s largest music awards night. It was somewhat disrespectful.

    I think there was a point when members of Powderfinger were going to accept an award and they were so stiff and acted as if they didn’t care so in that sense, blame could be put on the attitude some acts showed.

  25. Hi David,

    I agree – and awards shows are something we can’t seem to get right. That said, I thought the RockWiz presentation of the ARIA Hall of Fame awards was terrific. Renegade Films (and whoever else is behind RockWiz) did a great job.

    I think ARIA could do worse than to ask them to do the whole thing next year.

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