Tears, Cheers & Trophies: Here Are The Highlights From The 2017 ARIA Awards

There's big nights and then there's big nights. As the music industry nurses a collective hangover this morning, we take a look at the highlights of the 2017 ARIA Awards.

the jess mauboy/peking duk mash-up

Mauboy's stunning rendition of her track Fallin' was enough, she could have stopped and we would have been content there. Then Peking Duk appear and they bust out a massive version of Stranger. And then, fireworks shoot out of a guitar. We are officially Peking Duk crispy after being cooked by that performance.

#ARIAs: @jessicamauboy & @pekingduk perform Fallin/Stranger pic.twitter.com/BnegYawl4A
— ARIA (@ARIA_Official) November 29, 2017

Gang Of Youths' Best Group acceptance speech

When Sydney's Gang Of Youths got up to accept their first award of the evening (they took home a total of four of their eight noms), it was pretty clear what it meant to them. Catch the full speech below but our favourite line is definitely "to the haters online, go fuck yourselves" from the wonderful Dave Le'aupepe.

Jimmy Barnes taking out Best Children's album

Yep, we're serious. Barnes also won our award for Cutest ARIAs Ever by bringing along his grandson — who inspired the album — to accept the award and do press with him.

Lorde being a damn lord

There's really not much more you can say about Lorde's performance. She just killed it.

Amy Shark taking home two awards and generally just being a great person

Shark took home the awards for Breakthrough Artist and Best Pop Release. When Shark appeared backstage to chat with the media, she told the room "I get to be a full-time musician now!" with a laugh. Catch her Best Pop Release acceptance speech below.

The ARIAs riding on the horses, yeah yeeeahhhhh

Fittingly, Aussie legend Daryl Braithwaite was inducted into the ARIA Hall Of Fame for his illustrious solo career (it's actually Braithwaite's second time round for the Hall Of Fame after being inducted with Sherbet in 1990). Of course, a performance of Braithwaite's mega-hit The Horses was mandatory and Braithwaite being joined by Guy Sebastian and Vera Blue topped off the track.

When Darryl Braithwaite is inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame, there's only one thing to do... #ARIAs pic.twitter.com/xavrGA6ecR
— Channel 9 (@Channel9) November 28, 2017

High Voltage

In the space of a month, we lost two pioneering Australian musicians, brothers George and Malcolm Young. Jimmy Barnes took the lead on a very fitting tribute with AC/DC's High Voltage, which was co-written by Malcolm and produced by George.

AB Original nailing the whole night

AB Original have taken home just about every award they've been nominated for this year with their powerful debut album Reclaim Australia. The duo won out Best Independent Release and Best Urban Release and jumped up on stage with Paul Kelly and Dan Sultan for their rendition of Kelly's Dumb Things.