Here Are The First Winners For The 2018 ARIA Awards

Today’s 2018 ARIA Awards nomination event has seen the announcement of the winners of this year’s Artisan, Fine Arts and Best Comedy categories. 

To read the full list of nominees announced at today’s event head here

The legendary Gurrumul has been posthumously honoured with wins for both Best Cover Art and Best World Music Album for his album, Djarimirri (Child of the Rainbow). The cover was designed by fellow musician and graphic designer Caiti Baker. 

Gurrumul has been nominated for a total of seven awards this year, including nominations for Apple Music Album Of The Year, Best Male Artist, Best Independent Release, Engineer Of The Year and Producer Of The Year.

Burke Reid has won the Engineer Of The Year award for his work on Courtney Barnett’s Tell Me How You Really Feel. Reid has beat Amy Shark’s I Said Hi, Ball Park Music’s Good Mood, Gurrumul’s Djarimirri (Child of the Rainbow) and Jack River’s Sugar Mountain for the award.

Dann Hume & M-Phazes have taken out the Producer Of The Year award for their work on I Said Hi, beating Ball Park Music for Good Mood, Courtney Barnett, Dan Luscombe & Burke Reid for Tell Me How You Really Feel, Michael Hohnen for Djarimirri (Child of the Rainbow) and Tash Sultana for Flow State. 

Moving onto the Fine Arts Awards, Best Classical Album has gone to Slava Grigoryan for Bach Cello Suites Volume II. This is Grigoryan’s fourth ARIA win from a total of 17 nominations across his own solo work, as a member of the Grigoryan Brothers and his collaborations with other artists.

Jonathan Zwartz has won Best Jazz Album for Animarum, his first win from two ARIA Award nominations. 

Best Comedy Release has gone to Bridie & Wyatt from Tonightly With Tom Ballard for their song Sex Pest. They beat Akmal Saleh, Aunty Donna, Lawrence Mooney and Luke Heggie for the award. 

The 2018 ARIA Awards, hosted by Keith Urban, will take place on Wednesday 28 November at The Star Event Centre in Sydney and will be shown on the Nine Network. Read the full list of nominees here.