On the trainwreck that was this years Aria Awards

I don't know how many of you watched the Aria's on Sunday night, but i was one of the unfortunate ones who preceeded to watch the Australia Music Industry's "night of nights". Despite Megan Washington's amazing live performance and Dan Sultan and INXS performance, the evening was a trainwreck.

Held at the Sydney Opera House, the event looked more like an awkward afterparty rather than an award show, and as Marieke Hardy points out in her excellent piece in the Drum the Aria's on sunday night were more about a 'tv show' than an awards night. Instead of promoting the wonderful talent this country has the aria's turned into a cross-promotional event for channel 10. Why was Laura Bingle presenting an award? Why was Carmen Electra?

From Ricki-Lee's inapproriate hand gestrures to guest Eric Stonestreet( from Modern Family, on Channel Ten ), to Jessica Maouboy misprounouncing 'debut' twice, to the presenters chasing down the winners, including Bernard Fannings awesome "What did we win" comment", the whole event was a schmozzle.

The only thing that made the night was the amount of shout outs Triple J got for supporting up and coming artists in Australia. The night is meant to be a celebtration of our music industry, but instead was a celebration of cross promotion.

We should be showcasing the great new talents in this country, while Angus and Julia Stone, Dan Sultan, Washington, Sia and Birds of Tokyo were all recognised, the event was less about them and more about sponsors. There was no mention of Boy and Bear, barely a mention of Dan Kelly and Cloud Control. No Sparkadia and no Miami Horror. All great up and coming artists that we should be promoting. I vote for triple j and abc to host next years arias, bring it back to the music.

Apologies about the rant but it is upsetting as a fan and supporter of local Australian music to see the Aria's fall apart like this. In the meantime, have a look at Boy and Bear, Dan Kelly, Sparkadia and Miami Horror on my next few post. All awesome Aussie acts that we should support.