Snubs & Surprises: 2025 ARIA Awards

The hangovers have cleared. The cleanup, complete. And the 2025 ARIA Awards are in the books.

The Australian recorded music industry’s annual night is the curtain call on the year in music, a fancy party in Sydney as the baking hot summer makes its predictable entrance.

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It’s a good — no, great — time of year. AC/DC is currently in the market, playing stadiums. Oasis and Metallica have been, and rocked. Lady Gaga and Ed Sheeran are coming. The festivals circuit will swing in the weeks ahead.

The ARIAs, presented at the historic Hordern Pavilion, which last year celebrated its 100th anniversary, was a goal-scoring celebration for Amyl and The Sniffers. The punk rock outfit converted four of their six nominations, including the coveted album of the year, for Cartoon Darkness. This was the year Amy Taylor ruled at Glastonbury, and scored nominations at the Grammys and Brit Awards. In years to come, they’ll remember 2025 as the year their respective lives changed.

Ninajirachi entered the ARIAs race with a leading eight nominations, and she didn’t go home disappointed, by collecting three trophies, including the Michael Gudinski newcomer award.

Fellow production masterminds Kevin Parker and Dom Dolla collected two pointy awards each.

Not every artist got what they’d hoped, or deserved. And some got the surprise of a lifetime. Billboard remembers the surprises and the snubs from the 2025 ARIA Awards.

Surprise: BARKAA

If a hero had to be selected from the 2025 ARIA Awards, it was BARKAA. The Indigenous artist won for best hip hop/rap release with Big Tidda (Big Apples Music / Island Records Australia / Universal Music Australia), beating out a stacked field that included Hilltop Hoods, Miss Kaninna, ONEFOUR and the Kid LAROI. The roar of approval from the audience was immense, and BARKAA’s acceptance speech was honest and real. “Still can’t believe I can now say I’m an ARIA award winning rapper, the first Aboriginal woman to ever win this award,” she writes on social media. “Hip-hop raised me and hip-hop saved me and this is BIGGER THAN ME! My purpose was to come out here and put on for BLACK WOMEN, to be that representation like my sisters who have paved the way before me, to be able to do what I’m doing.” She’s nominated in the First Nations category for the NSW Music Prize, to be unveiled next week.

Snub: Hilltop Hoods

The Hilltop Hoods aren’t just a hip-hop group. They’re Aussie rap royalty. Hailing from Adelaide, the Hoods are on a wild winning streak. Suffa, Pressure and DJ Debris debuted at No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart in August with Fall From The Light (Island Records Australia / Universal Music Australia), their sixth consecutive leader, and seventh overall. With this feat, the Hoods established an ARIA record for chart leaders by an Australian group, ahead of AC/DC, Powderfinger, Cold Chisel, Silverchair, and the rest. They couldn’t however, extend on their tally of 10 career ARIA Awards on Wednesday night, despite reeling in five nominations.

Surprise: Amyl and The Sniffers

Amyl and The Sniffers cleaning up with four ARIA Award wins wasn’t a surprise, not to the industry. But it was to them. The much-loved punk rock outfit always keeps it real, Amy Taylor always speaks her mind, and with best group and best album honors, for Cartoon Darkness (Amyl and The Sniffers / Virgin Music Group), Amyl and The Sniffers were the dominant force at this year’s ceremony. Bass player Gus Romer was both a surprise and a snub; he failed to take the stage when his band won for album of the year. “Looks like we lost the bass player,” Taylor joked. “It happens a lot, he’s replaceable, don’t worry about it.” It’s official: Amyl and The Sniffers are national treasures.

Snub: Royel Otis

After dominating the 2024 ARIA Awards with four wins, Royel Otis might’ve expected the good times to roll on. The Sydney duo of Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic collected four nominations this time, off the back of their sophomore album Hickey (Ourness / Capitol Records), which cracked the ARIA top 10, emulating the chart success of their debut, Pratts & Pain. Royel Otis had the top-ranked homegrown recording on triple j’s Hottest 100 countdown in January, with a cover of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s “Murder on the Dancefloor” coming in at No. 2, and Hickey single “Moody” topped Billboard’s Adult Alternative Airplay Chart in July of this year. On Wednesday night, those four ARIA Award nominations came to nought.

Surprise: Ninajirachi

With eight nods, the night was all set up for Ninajirachi. As the house lights went up, the EDM artist (real name: Nina Wilson) had her hands full with three heavy ARIA trophies. That’s quite a haul, and it comes after she collected the Australian Music Prize and triple j’s J Award for I Love My Computer (NLV Records). Ninajirachi could see the irony in winning the Michael Gudinski breakthrough artist award; the Central Coast-raised creative released her first record eight years ago, as a teen. Good things do come to those who wait, and Ninajirachi can now claim to be an overnight success, a decade in the making. She’s nominated in two categories for the NSW Music Prize, to be announced next week.

Snub: RÜFÜS DU SOL

Electronic music was pumping at the ARIA Awards, as Ninajirachi and Dom Dolla scored five awards between them. RÜFÜS DU SOL bagged four nominations for 2024’s Inhale / Exhale (Rose Avenue Records / Warner Music Australasia), their fifth studio album. The collection opened its account at No. 3 on the ARIA Chart, continuing a podium finish for all their recordings: Atlas (2013), Bloom (2016) and Surrender (2021) went to No. 1 in 2013 and Solace peaked at No. 2 in 2018. RDS have won four career ARIA Awards, they have a Grammy Award in their safekeeping (and they can add another, for best dance/electronic album next February), and they’re currently touring the country. The 2025 ARIA Awards just wasn’t their night.

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