APRA Awards accolades for Sia, Lorde, Birds of Tokyo and more

The winners of the 2014 APRA Music Awards have been unveiled with Sia named songwriter of the year for a second year in a row.

The prestigious peer voted APRA Song of the Year has been awarded to Vance Joy for the folk-pop instant classic Riptide. The song also won Pop Work of the Year.

The Most Played Australian Work of 2013 was Lanterns by Birds of Tokyo, which was also named the Rock Work of the Year. The songwriting collaboration of Bliss n Eso and Bluejuice (with co-writer Alexander Burnett) took the Urban Work of the Year category for Act Your Age.

Lee Kernaghan, Colin Buchanan and Garth Porter won the Country Work of the Year with Flying With The King, Kernaghan’s personal tribute to Slim Dusty. The Dance Work of the Year category was picked up by Flume for Holdin’ On.

John Butler received Blues & Roots Work of the Year for Only One. This is John’s fourth win in this category, making him the most successful Blues & Roots songwriter in Australia. For the second year in a row, Wally De Backer and Luiz Bonfa have won Most Performed Australian Work Overseas for Somebody That I Used To Know (featuring Kimbra).

In honour of their exceptional accomplishments, songwriters Ella Yelich-O’Connor (Lorde) and Joel Little were the recipients of the inaugural Outstanding International Achievement Award. These New Zealand based songwriters have already been recognised with two Grammy Awards, a Silver Scroll, a Billboard Music Award and an ASCAP Pop Award.

The APRA Board of Directors has named songwriter Louis Schoorl the Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year. The prolific songwriter has collaborated with acts like 360 and Daniel Johns, Taylor Henderson and Jessica Mauboy. He wrote or co-wrote 88 songs in 2013 alone, including Jai Wateford’s Your Eyes. Co-written by Schoorl 1.5 million people viewed the performance on the X-Factor Grand Final.

Pharell Williams, Robin Thicke and Clifford Harris took International Work of Year Award with their hit, Blurred Lines. Lindy Morrison OAM was presented the Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music by fellow Go-Betweens member and long-time friend Amanda Brown.