The 2017 Queensland Music Awards (QMAs) were announced last night in Brisbane, and Violent Soho and Amy Shark sat as the night’s biggest winners – taking home Album of the Year for Waco and Song of the Year for “Adore”, respectively. Amy also took home best Pop Song and the Regional category for “Adore”, seeing her walk away with three trophies on the night.
Also of note, Employment Minister and Member for Brisbane Central Grace Grace with Lynn Thorpe, presented the celebrated $10,000 Billy Thorpe Scholarship, supported by the Queensland Government, to Ash Kerley of Brisbane two-piece band Marville.
Ms Grace congratulated Ash Kerley on taking out the award acknowledging she was a rising star who was already making her mark through her incredible music and support for young women in the music industry.
“Supporting Ash, and Queensland’s emerging talent, is critical to nurturing Queensland’s local contemporary music scene, and I delighted that the Billy Thorpe Scholarship will enable Ash and her band Marville to take their music and energy to the corners of the state with a planned a regional tour,” she said.
“It was a really difficult task to have to decide our top picks out of the pool of amazing entries. [There’s] so much great talent here in our Sunshine State.” Ben Ely (Regurgitator, Billy Thorpe Scholarship judge)
Kellie Lloyd, founding member of Screamfeeder and Scholarship judge, offered of the recipient, “I believe for Ash Kerley this will be a life and career changing moment. Ash is already the main driver behind the Girls Rock Australia program in Queensland, and this scholarship gives her an opportunity to take her loud guitars and the punk rock attitude of her band Marville to regional Queensland playing shows and doing workshops with young people as she goes. I do think Billy Thorpe would be very proud to know his legacy is being honoured in such a way with such a person.”
Other winners on the night included Cub Sport, Dami Im and Jarryd James, who won the people’s choice categories. Leanne Tennant, Halfway, Emily Wurramara and ROMY also took home genre awards, while Hey Geronimo won best video for “Boredom” and rising star Tia Gostelow won two awards for “Vague Utopia” and “State of Art” under the Folk and School categories, respectively.
Not to be outdone, The Amity Affliction also won two awards, for Best Export Achievement and Highest Selling Album. The full list of winners are below:
BLUES & ROOTS
Leanne Tennant “Gentle Annie”
COUNTRY
Halfway “Three In And Nothing But The Stars
ELECTRONIC /DANCE
Confidence Man “Boyfriend (Repeat)”
FOLK / SINGER-SONGWRITER
Tia Gostelow “Vague Utopia”
HEAVY
Lagerstein “Drink the Rum”
INDIGENOUS
Emily Wurramara “Ngayuwa Ngelyeyiminama (I Love You)”
JAZZ
Sean Foran “Une Fille”
POP
Amy Shark “Adore”
REGIONAL
Amy Shark “Adore”
ROCK
Good Boy “Poverty Line”
SCHOOLS
Tia Gostelow “State of Art”
URBAN
ROMY “Wild Heart”
VIDEO
Hey Geronimo “Boredom”
WORLD
High Life “Aware”
BOQ People’s Choice Most Popular Female
Dami Im
BOQ People’s Choice Most Popular Male
Jarryd James
BOQ People’s Choice Most Popular Group
Cub Sport
Export Achievement Award
The Amity Affliction
Highest Selling Single
The Veronicas “In My Blood”
Highest Selling Album
The Amity Affliction This Could Be Heartbreak
Album of the Year Award
Violent Soho WACO
Song of the Year Award
Amy Shark “Adore”
Billy Thorpe Scholarship
Marville
Grant McLennan Lifetime Achievement Award
Ritchie Yorke
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