Oztix | News | Aqua Samples & Genre-defying Artists: We Look At The Stats Behind This Year's APRA Awards

The APRA Music Awards are only a week away and it's looking to be a big year with Briggs hosting and Kate Miller-Heidke curating the musical performances for the virtual awards ceremony.

Nominees across the categories this year include the likes of Ruel, Peking Duk, Hilltop Hoods, John Butler, Birds Of Tokyo, Sarah Aarons and more, while Thelma Plum, Guy Sebastian, Tones & I, The Teskey Brothers and 5 Seconds Of Summer are up for the coveted Song Of The Year award.

Here, we take a deep dive and look at some of the facts and figures behind this year's event.

The genre-defiers

Sarah Aarons is nominated for Most Performed Urban Work for her contribution on Hilltop Hoods' Exit Sign feat. Illy & Ecca Vandal, as well as being nominated for Most Performed Country Work for Girl (performed by Maren Morris). Aarons has also previously been nominated for Most Performed Rock Work for Never Ever (performed by The Rubens) and Most Performed Dance Work for The Middle (performed by Zedd, Maren Morris & Grey), which she took out last year, and the Breakthrough and Songwriter Of The Year categories.

Aarons is joined by Alex Burnett who is this year nominated for his contribution to Thelma Plum's Song Of The Year nominated track Better In Blak. Burnett has previously been nominated for Most Performed Urban Work for Act Your Age by Bliss N Eso feat. Bluejuice, Most Performed Rock Work for Under Your Skin by Dan Sultan and Most Performed Dance Work for Something About You by Hayden James.

The most nominated artist is...

Tones & I! The Melbourne via Byron Bay artist - real name Toni Watson - has picked up four nominations, including Breakthrough Songwriter Of The Year, Song Of The Year, Most Performed Australian Work and Most Performed Pop Work for her track Dance Monkey. This secures Watson the title of most nominations for a first-time nominee too.

READ MORE: What Does It Take To Turn A Catchy Track Like Dance Monkey Into A Bonafide Mega-hit? Tones & I's Team Tell Us

The youngest nominee is...

Ruel - who is nominated for the Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year award - is just 17, making him just a fraction older than KIAN who is nominated in the Most Performed Australian Work and Most Performed Alternative Work categories for his track Waiting.

Doubling down

Impressively Tones & I, Thelma Plum and The Teskey Brothers are nominated in both the Breakthrough Artist and Song Of The Year categories.

Artists with the most nominations over the years

Garth Porter has amassed an impressive amount of nominations over the years since his first nomination with Lee Kernaghan's Boys From The Bush. The former Sherbet member and now long-time Kernaghan collaborator has been nominated 19 times - all in the Country Work category - since 1993. This year he's nominated for his work on Kernaghan’s Backroad Nation, once again in the Most Performed Country Work category.

John Butler - who is nominated this year for Most Performed Blues & Roots Work for Just Call - has been nominated 16 times since 2004 when his breakthrough hit Zebra picked up a Song Of The Year nomination. Most Performed Blues & Roots Work is the most-nominated category for Butler with ten nods, while he's also been up for Most Played Australian Work twice and Song Of The Year four times.

Aus hip hop legends Hilltop Hoods have picked up 15 nominations since 2005 following their nomination for track The Nosebleed Section (the track was actually a Most Performed Dance Work nominee as it was prior to the creation of the Most Performed Urban Work section). The Adelaide trio have also been nominated for Most Played Australian Work once and 13 times in the Most Performed Urban Work category. This year they're nominated for Most Performed Urban Work twice with their tracks Exit Sign (feat. Illy & Ecca Vandal) and Leave Me Lonely.

Guy Sebastian has been nominated 14 times since 2005 - including four times for Most Performed Australian Work, three times for Most Performed Urban Work, twice for Song Of The Year and five times for Most Performed Pop Work - while this year he's up for three awards for his track Choir (Song Of The Year, Most Performed Australian Work and Most Performed Pop Work). Just behind Sebastian is Birds Of Tokyo, with the Perth band having been nominated 12 times since 2013, which includes seven times for Most Performed Rock Work, twice for Song Of The Year, twice for Most Performed Australian Work and now once for Most Performed Alternative Work for Good Lord.

Reunited

Lee Kernaghan, Colin Buchanan and Garth Porter took out the award for Most Performed Country Work in 1999 for Kernaghan's Hat Town. They're nominated in the category once again this year for Backroad Nation, marking their ninth nomination over 21 years together.

Longest time between nominations

Jack Glass picked up a nomination for Sunlight by his group Bag Raiders in 2012 and now is back in 2020 with a nomination for his co-write on Hayden James' track Better Together which is up for Most Performed Dance Work.

Host with the most (wins, that is)

As this year's host, Briggs - who won Songwriter Of The Year alongside Trials as their duo AB Original in 2018 - joins both Colin Buchanan and Missy Higgins as the only other APRA Music Awards hosts to have won an award as well. Buchanan won for the aforementioned Hat Town while hosting the event in 1999, while Higgins hosted in 2010 after winning Breakthrough Artist and Song Of The Year in 2005.

Credit where credit is due...

There's a stack of samples included in this year's nominations. 5 Seconds Of Summer's Teeth - which is up for Song Of The Year - also sees Evan Rogers and Carl Sturken credited for the interpolation of the melody from Shut Up & Drive (the song was made famous by Rihanna in 2008) during the bridge. Additionally, the song also credits the members of New Order for elements of their track Blue Monday.

Peking Duk’s Sugar feat. Jack River (nominated for Most Performed Dance Work) gives a nod to Danish group Aqua and their 1997 track Doctor Jones, while Hilltop Hoods' use a sample of Richard Berry's Have Love, Will Travel which features on the Most Performed Urban Work nominated track Leave Me Lonely.

The 2020 APRA Music Awards will take place on Monday 25 May, with the virtual red carpet kicking off from 6.30pm and the awards ceremony beginning at 7pm. Head here for more info.