State Champ Radio australian music prize
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Ninajirachi’s I Love My Computer wins the 21st Australian Music Prize, celebrating the outstanding Australian album of original work for the past year.
The Australian musician’s debut full length album, issued by Nina Las Vegas’ NLV Records, was announced Thursday afternoon as the 2025 AMP champ, as decided by a music industry panel.
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With the victory spoils, Ninajirachi (real name: Nina Wilson) collects A$50,000 ($32,000) in prize money, courtesy of headline sponsor Soundmerch.
“Thank you so much to the Australian music prize for awarding me this year, this truly means a lot to me!! I’m so proud to have produced an Australian album,” she comments in a statement. “I Love My Computer drew from my growing up on the central coast and the Australian dance music I heard in my childhood. To sincerely contribute to the awesome story of Australian music was one of my highest hopes. I hope I can keep making albums and telling stories forever. Thank you so much, I’m so honored to receive this award.”
The AMP could trigger a gold rush for Ninajirachi in the month of November — Ausmusic month, the annual celebration of Australian music and its creators. The 26-year-old songwriter, producer, DJ and artist will compete for a leading eight trophies at the annual ARIA Awards, where she’s nominated for album of the year, best solo artist, the Michael Gudinski breakthrough artist, best independent release, best dance/electronic release and more.
Modeled on the U.K.’s Mercury Prize, the AMP launched in 2005 as a platform to “discover, reward and promote new Australian music of excellence,” and is today recognized as the most prestigious national award for the album format.
Also shortlisted for the AMP were LPs by Tropical F*** Storm, Folk B**** Trio, Mudrat, and others released during the period Oct. 1, 2025 to Sept. 30, 2026.
Earlier in the three-stage judging system, a longlist of 465 eligible albums was boiled down to 50 nominees, focusing on creative merit over mainstream popularity. The final shortlist of nine was announced last month.
Previous winners include efforts byThe Avalanches, Sampa the Great (twice), Gurrumul, A.B. Original, Courtney Barnett and last year’s recipient, Kankawa Nagarra for Wirlmarni.
The 22nd Soundmerch AMP is open for Australian artist albums released from Oct.1, 25 to Sept. 30, 2026.
Soundmerch Australian Music Prize 2025 shortlist:
Bleak Squad — Strange Love
Divide And Dissolve — Insatiable
Floodlights — Underneath
Folk B**** Trio — Now Would Be A Good Time
Mia Wray Hi — It’s Nice To Meet
Mudrat Social — Cohesion
Ninajirachi — I Love My Computer
Ruby Gill — Some Kind Of Control
Tropical F*ck Storm — Fairyland Codex
Albums by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Amyl and The Sniffers, Dirty Three and Hiatus Kaiyote are among the finalists for the 20th annual Australian Music Prize, announced Thursday, Nov. 14.
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The 2024 shortlist features nine albums chosen from a pool of 600, and culled down from a total of 46 nominated records released across the past year by Australian musicians.
This year’s list sees veteran performers such as Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds making the list thanks to their 18th album Wild God. In the two-decade history of the prize, Cave has been nominated four times, including for 2016’s Skeleton Tree, 2019’s Ghosteen, and his 2021 collaboration with Warren Ellis, Carnage.
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Punk outfit Amyl and The Sniffers make another appearance on the shortlist, with third album Cartoon Darkness providing them their third nomination to date. Meanwhile, Melbourne neo-soul quartet Hiatus Kaiyote are nominated for Love Heart Cheat Code, their second nomination after 2021’s Mood Valiant.
First-timers such as Grace Cummings and Rowena Wise also make the list thanks to their Ramona and Senseless Acts of Beauty records, respectively. Australia’s First Nations community are recognised by way of Walmatjarri Elder Kankawa Nagarra’s Wirlmarni and Dobby’s Warrangu; River Story.
Two of the shortlisted albums from this year’s list are also up for ARIA Awards later this month, including Dobby’s record, which is in contention for Best World Music Album, and Audrey Powne’s From the Fire, which is in the running for Best Jazz Album.
Spearheaded by founder and prize director Scott Murphy, previous AMP recipients include Sampa the Great (twice), the Avalanches, Courtney Barnett, the late Gurrumul, King Stingray, and most recent champions RVG.
“On behalf of The AMP, SoundMerch, our industry partners – and the Aussie music industry as a whole, I sincerely thank our judges for their donation of time, expertise – and passion!” said Murphy. “It’s no easy task reviewing over 600 albums and choosing to highlight just 9.”
The winning album will be announced at an event held at APRA AMCOS on Wednesday, Dec. 4. The winning artist will take home a A$50,000 ($32,000) cash prize, courtesy of headline sponsor SoundMerch.
“Thank you to everyone for their support. It means a great deal to us to be recognised by AMP,” Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds said in a statement.
“We are grateful to be shortlisted for this prize,” echoed Amyl and The Sniffers’ Dec Mehrtens. “Australian music is dear to our hearts, and we are incredibly proud to be able to create and perform the music we make.”
2024 AMP shortlist:
Audrey Powne – From the FireAmyl and The Sniffers – Cartoon DarknessDobby – Warrangu; River StoryGrace Cummings – RamonaHiatus Kaiyote – Love Heart Cheat CodeKankawa Nagarra – WirlmarniNick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Wild GodRowena Wise – Senseless Acts of BeautyDirty Three – Love Changes Everything
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