australian music prize

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