House of Assembly Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1) 55 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Grievance Debate South Australian Music Awards South Australian Music Awards Ms HOOD House of Assembly Adelaide Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (15:32): I rise to speak about the South Australian Music Awards that I had the privilege of attending last Thursday evening. We know the enormous value that music contributes to our state both in economic gains and also, importantly, in the vibrancy, energy, character and culture that it brings to our community, in particular our CBD. That is why only a couple of months ago we stood together as we announced we had saved the Crown and Anchor, an icon of South Australia's music scene. On Thursday night, the beloved Cranker took out best music venue at the SA Music Awards at the Dom Polski Centre. They were in incredible company, with other CBD venues UniBar, Hindley Street Music Hall, the Grace Emily and Ancient World also nominated. I thank all those venues for the support they give our live music scene. We boast some incredibly and enormously talented artists here in South Australia, and we were fortunate enough to hear them perform at the SA Music Awards, including West Thebarton, My Cherie, Guy Sebastian and Sons of Zoku. In particular, I mention Guy Sebastian. He was inducted into the South Australian Music Hall of Fame. He joins the likes of Cold Chisel, Paul Kelly and Humphrey B. Bear. From Salisbury East to becoming the very first winner of Australian Idol, Guy Sebastian has gone on to receive hundreds of nominations, top the charts, receive numerous awards and also undertake some really important charitable work. Thank you so much to Guy for being such an amazing ambassador for South Australia. He performed on the night, which was just amazing. I am glad he was an inductee of the SA Music Hall of Fame, as his young son, as he was saying, got a bit confused and told his teacher he was off to Adelaide because dad was being 'abducted' into the Music Hall of Fame, so I am glad he was inducted in the end. I want to shout out to other award winners on the evening. For the special awards: the International Collaboration Award went to Dr Oliver Fartach-Naini; the Community Achievement Award, Sisters of Invention—their acceptance speech just brought tears to my eyes; they are absolutely beautiful; the Emily Burrows Award went to aleksiah—that was one of four awards she won on the evening. I highly recommend going on Spotify and streaming her stuff. I have been playing her song Fern on repeat for weeks; and the Neville Clark Award went to Matt Stanisowsky and Joshua Rocca. Other awards were: Best Song, Ceiling Fan by Swapmeet who are absolutely adorable and I love them; Best New Artist, aleksiah; Best Regional Artist, DEM MOB, who are absolutely brilliant; Best Group, Teenage Joans; Best Solo Artist, aleksiah again; Best Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Artist, our incredible Electric Fields; and Best Release, Oxalis by Swapmeet. The Industry Awards were: Best Studio, Forest Range Studio—congratulations; Best Large Music Festival went to Adelaide Beer & BBQ Festival, with the Best Regional Music Festival also being won by the Mount Gambier Beer & BBQ Festival—go the South-East; Best Small Music Festival went to Space Jams; Best Studio Engineer/Producer, Lucinda Machin; Best Live Technician, Luke Hancock; Best Manager, Rachel Whitford; Best Live Music Venue, as I mentioned, Crown and Anchor; Best Cover Art, Aysh Field for Coldwave, No Conflict; Best Music Video, Bryce Kraehenbuehl for LOLA, Game Over; Best Music Photograph, Deb Kloeden from The Empty Threats—we used to live in the same town of Naracoorte, so congratulations, Deb; and Best Music Educator, Annie Siegmann. For the most popular awards, I will try to run through them as quickly as I can: Blues and Roots, the Honey Badgers; Country Artist, Brad Chicken & The Bootstraps; Electronic Artist, Jane Doe; Experimental or Art Music Artist, Sons of Zoku; Folk Artist, Maisie B; Heavy Artist, The Munch; Hip Hop Artist, J-MILLA; Jazz Artist, Adam Page; Pop Artist, aleksiah—there she is again; Punk Artist, Teenage Jones; Rock Artist, West Thebarton; and Soul, Funk or R'n'B Artist, Ukulele Death Squad—great name. Congratulations to all the award winners. It was such a special opportunity to recognise, promote and celebrate excellence in South Australia's contemporary music industry, and reinforce Adelaide's status as the nation's first and only UNESCO City of Music. The Malinauskas government is committed to the ongoing development of the state's music industry through its dedicated Music Development Office, and I wish to acknowledge the efforts of Music SA's CEO Christine Schloithe, Chair John Glenn—congratulations—and to my friend, Gareth Lewis, and Elly Wright for running the event, it was a fantastic evening, and to everyone who came out and supported the nominees. Once again, congratulations to the award winners and finalists. Last but not least, thank you to those South Australians who stream the music of SA artists, buy their records, wear their merchandise and, importantly, attend their gigs.