The 2021 ARIA Awards are set to take centre stage on November 24, and as we inch closer to the biggest event in Australian music, the performer lineup has been announced. The singers set to take the stage are Amy Shark, RÜFÜS DU SOL, Genesis Owusu and the biggest name of all the Kid LAROI.
Celebrating a record-breaking year, the Sydney-raised, Los Angeles-based performer has experienced great success in 2021, leading the Billboard charts in the US and topping the charts in Australia along with it.
The 18-year-old hip-hop artist is not only performing but is also entering the ARIA Awards with four nominations.
Presenting the awards this year are Troye Sivan, Lime Cordiale and The Wiggles, plus Ed Sheeran will appear for a special video tribute to Michael Gudinski, the late chairman and founder of the Mushroom Group, who passed away in March at the age of 68.
Sheeran will be presenting the inaugural Michael Gudinski Breakthrough Artist award, which honours the industry legend and his “immense and irreplaceable contribution to signing, developing and championing Australian artists and music locally and internationally,” said a statement from ARIA.
The new category is just one of the many changes at this year’s ARIA Awards. The latest instalment will be streamed live to a global audience via YouTube, through a partnership with YouTube Music. And in more progressive news, the organisers for the star-studded event have decided to ditch gender-based categories.
Despite the event being entirely digital, ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd said it will still be a celebration of “an incredible year of creativity, dedication and perseverance.”
“Our focus is about, in a year when we can’t be together in a big room with a big audience and stage,” Herd told Billboard. “We still want to give the nominees and winners this year as much attention and focus on their work as much as we could. That’s been our guiding light.”
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