2023 AAM Award Winners Announced

The Association Of Artist Managers (AAM) Awards are dedicated to the managers behind your favourite Australian acts and their live shows, including Lime Cordiale, Gretta Ray, Sampology, Hoodoo Gurus, Blusher, Casey Barnes, and more.

At a ceremony held in Sydney today, the winners of this year’s AAM Awards have been revealed, showcasing the enormous amount of work that goes into making Australian music shine.

Andrew Stone (Lime Cordiale, Teenage Dads, Casey Barnes) won the Manager Of The Year Award for his work at Chugg Music. 

Powerhouse Management’s Charlotte Reid is the Breakthrough Manager Of The Year (Blusher and Gretta Ray, who she co-manages with Jamie-Rose Fowler), while Jane Slingo of Young Stranglers has been presented with the Community Engagement Award with a roster including Sampology and Middle Name Dance Band.

“Chugg Music started with Andrew, Chuggi, Sheppard and ourselves all growing together,” Lime Cordiale’s Oli and Louis Leimbach offered in a statement. 

“Our relationship with Andrew is strongest today, probably due to the shit we’ve been through together. The biggest lesson we learnt together was to stop caring about what the industry thought of us and started focusing purely on our core fanbase. And that’s when the industry started to pay attention.”

The brothers continued, “Louis and I are at a point with Andrew where we make all of our decisions together and are constantly learning from each other. We can call each other for whatever reason and are truly great mates."

Gretta Ray commented about Reid, “Working with Charlotte over this past year has been enormously fulfilling and motivating for me as an artist. 

"Her commitment to my project’s vision, her unmatched organisational skills, consistent communication and reliability, as well as her admirably calm demeanour when navigating any given situation has made me feel incredibly secure.”

Ray added, “I really feel that Charlotte has my back, and not only wants what’s best for the project, but what’s best for me as an individual. She has breathed new life into my project of 7 years, and I am so proud to work with her and to be a part of Powerhouse Management’s roster. Her winning this award is hugely deserved, and no doubt her biggest slay yet!”

Michael McMartin OAM of Melody Management was presented the Legacy Award by Frontier Touring for decades of work. Not only is McMartin the founder of the AAM Awards, which began in 2007, but since 1985, managed the careers of Hoodoo Gurus, Charles Fischer and Wayne Connelly, as well as founding independent record company Trafalgar Records in 1971.

Ricky Simandjuntak of When Worlds Collide won the award of the Patron’s Gift. Simandjuntak has a track record of discovering Sampa The Great, developing global pop star The Kid LAROI, and discovering, developing, and managing Australia's most culturally impactful rap group ONEFOUR.

Lastly, the APRA/AMCOS Lighthouse Award recipient was revealed to be Simone Ubaldi of Sundowner Artists. Ubaldi was the recipient of the Manager Of The Year Award last year and manages the careers of Amyl & The Sniffers, Grace Cummings, Nice Biscuit, Baby Cool and Girl & Girl.