tame impala
Australian punks Amyl and The Sniffers have taken out the song of the year at the 2025 APRA Music Awards, held Wednesday (April 30) at Melbourne Town Hall.
The Melbourne group received the coveted peer-voted award for their track “U Should Not Be Doing That,” which was released as the lead single for their 2024 album Cartoon Darkness. The record itself became the group’s second consecutive release to hit No. 2 on the ARIA charts, while the single received a nomination for best video at the 2024 ARIA Awards.
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The award caps off an impressive run for the four-piece, having recently wrapped up two weekends at Coachella as part of their North American tour, and taking out both best live act and best LP/EP at the 2025 Rolling Stone Australia Awards.
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Troye Sivan, meanwhile, was named songwriter of the year, just shy of the one-year anniversary of “Rush” being named song of the year at the 2024 ceremony.
“Songwriting is my favorite thing that I get to do. I think it’ll be something that I do for the rest of my life,” Sivan said of his win. “I feel like it’s, one of the greatest gifts that I was born with. Not even the ability to write a good song, just the ability to create at all.”
While Otis Pavlovic and Royel Maddell of Royel Otis received the emerging songwriter of the year award just months after winning four trophies at the ARIA Awards, Tame Impala frontman Kevin Parker emerged as the night’s big winner, being honored in the categories of most performed Australian work and most performed pop work.
In both instances, Parker’s win was for Dua Lipa‘s “Houdini,” which he co-wrote alongside Lipa and international writers Caroline Ailin, Danny Harle and Tobias Jesso Jr. Released in November 2023, the single topped the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, and reached a respectable No. 11 on the Hot 100.
Sia‘s “Unstoppable” was named most performed Australian work overseas, while Tate McRae’s “Greedy” took out most performed international work. King Stingray, Ziggy Alberts, Make Them Suffer, Kaiit, Lithe, and Dom Dolla also emerged victorious in their respective genre categories, while Kylie Minogue took out the previously-announced Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music.
The 2025 edition of the APRAs cemented “another huge year for Australian music, both at home and overseas,” comments APRA AMCOS CEO Dean Ormston.
“It’s heartwarming to see so many first-time winners this year, showcasing the incredible breadth of talent Australia produces, and it’s a testament to the opportunity of Australia becoming a global songwriting powerhouse,” he added.
“With an election just days away, we hope that both sides of government can see the immense talent we have here, and the opportunities to build a stronger, fairer, more vibrant future for Australian music, recognising our music as the global cultural powerhouse and valuable export that it so clearly is.”
Established in 1982, the Australasian Performing Right Association’s annual songwriters’ ceremony is one of the Australian music industry’s most treasured events, a worthy counterpart to Britain’s Ivor Novello Awards.
Full List of 2025 APRA Music Awards winners:
Peer-Voted APRA Song of the Year
Title: U Should Not Be Doing ThatArtist: Amyl and The SniffersWriters: Declan Mehrtens / Fergus Romer / Amy Taylor / Bryce Wilson
Songwriter of the Year
Writer: Troye SivanPublisher: Universal Music Publishing
Emerging Songwriter of the Year
Writers: Otis Pavlovic & Royel Maddell (Royel Otis)Publishers: Kobalt Music Publishing obo Ourness Songs
International Recognition Award
Keanu Torres (Keanu Beats)
Most Performed Australian Work
Title: HoudiniArtist: Dua LipaWriters: Kevin Parker / Dua Lipa*^ / Caroline Ailin / Daniel Harle / Tobias Jesso Jr.^Publishers: Sony Music Publishing / Warner Chappell Music* / Universal Music Publishing^
Most Performed Australian Work Overseas
Title: UnstoppableArtist: SiaWriter: Sia Furler / Christopher Braide*Publishers: Sony Music Publishing / Concord Music Publishing ANZ*
Most Performed Alternative Work
Title: ParadiseArtist: CoterieWriters: Brandford Fisher / Conrad Fisher / Joshua Fisher / Tyler Fisher / Robby De Sa*Publishers: Concord Music Publishing ANZ / Sony Music Publishing*
Most Performed Blues & Roots Work
Title: New LoveArtist: Ziggy AlbertsWriter: Ziggy AlbertsPublisher: Kobalt Music Publishing
Most Performed Country Work
Title: Take Forever (Hally’s Song)Artist: Cooper AlanWriters: Kylie Sackley* / Timothy Cooper^ / Justin Morgan+Publishers: I Love You More Music Worldwide* / BMG^ / SHOUT! Music Publishing+
Most Performed Dance/Electronic Work
Title: Saving UpArtist: Dom DollaWriters: Dominic Matheson / Clementine Douglas* / Toby Scott^ / Caitlin Stubbs^Publishers: Sony Music Publishing / Mushroom Music Publishing* / Kobalt Music Publishing^
Most Performed Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Work
Title: EpitaphArtist: Make Them SufferWriters: Sean Harmanis / Nicholas McLernon / Jordan Mather / Alexandra Reade / Jeff DunneCooking Vinyl Publishing
Most Performed Hip Hop / Rap Work
Title: Fall BackArtist: LitheWriters: Josiah Ramel* / Omid KhasrawyPublisher: Concord Music Publishing ANZ obo Boss Level*
Most Performed International Work
Title: Greedy Artist: Tate McRae Writers: Tate McRae / Amy Allen* / Jasper Harris^ / Ryan TedderPublishers: Sony Music Publishing / Warner Chappell Music* / Concord Music Publishing ANZ^
Most Performed Pop Work
Title: HoudiniArtist: Dua LipaWriters: Kevin Parker / Dua Lipa*^ / Caroline Ailin / Daniel Harle / Tobias Jesso Jr.^Publishers: Sony Music Publishing / Warner Chappell Music* / Universal Music Publishing^
Most Performed R&B / Soul Work
Title: SpaceArtist: KaiitWriters: Kaiit Waup / Jake Amy / Anthony Liddell / Jaydean Miranda / Justin Smith
Most Performed Rock Work
Title: Through The TreesArtist: King StingrayWriters: Theo Dimathaya Burarrwanga / Roy Kellaway* / Campbell Messer / Yirrŋa Gotjiringu Yunupingu* / Yimila Gurruwiwi / Lewis StilesPublisher: Sony Music Publishing*
Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Service to Australian Music
Kylie Minogue
Licensee of the Year
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Tame Imapala mastermind Kevin Parker has further diversified his role within the music industry, this time launching a new musical “ideas machine”.
Dubbed Orchid, the new device is less of an instrument and more of a digital polysynthesizer designed for musicians and producers to explore new ideas.
Per a press release, the way Orchid works is “by employing a unique chord logic system, combined with a multitude of ways to shape and alter the chords to maximize creative musical expression”.
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“All this is brought into sonic existence by a lush and powerful 16-voice polyphonic synth engine with onboard ambience and modulation FX, plus a separate bass synth engine solely for bottom end,” it continues.
Designed by Telepathic Instruments co-founder Ignacio Germade, Orchid largely operates as a chord generating system. A ’70s-styled product video shows Orchid in action and illustrates how an operator can choose a root note from its single-octave keyboard, and utilise a its eight “chord-type selecting and chord modifying keys”.
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Put simply, hitting the ‘E’ on the keyboard and the ‘Minor’ chord modifying key will provide an E minor chord, with the ability to modify it further.
Orchird also utilises a patent pending voicing system which uses a rotary encoder to “re-pitch and re-position chords”, ultimately expanding the chords’ potential outside of the 12 keys found on the unit. The Strum, Slop, Arpeggiator, Pattern and Harp performance modes also add versatilty to the way the aforementioned chords are ‘played’ by the user as well.
“While other chord generators deliver a static and rigid outputting platform, Orchid paints a new landscape,” the press release adds.
Orchid is set to be released in December, with 1,000 units made available to US buyers at a cost of $549. A wider launch will follow in 2025.
Parker’s Tame Impala project last released an album in 2020, with The Slow Rush peaking at No. 3 on the Hot 100 – one position higher than its Platinum-selling predecessor, 2015’s Currents.
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