Tones and I, Hilltop Hoods dominate songwriting awards

Australian singer-songwriter Tones and I has continued her winning streak, taking out the coveted song of the year gong at the APRA Music Awards with chart-busting hit Dance Monkey.

Tones and I, whose real name is Toni Watson, also won the breakthrough songwriter award at the ceremony, which is presented by the Australasian Performing Right Association and was held online on Monday evening.

“As an artist, we don’t get recognised a lot of the time as songwriters but as an artist
that does write my music, I want to say thank you,” the Victorian-born Byron Bay resident said in her acceptance speech.

Dance Monkey, released in May last year, catapulted Watson to global fame. The pop song has been streamed more than 7 billion times and reached the top of the charts in 45 countries. Watson claimed three ARIA awards last year.

Hilltop Hoods took home the evening's other big award, songwriter of the year, and also claimed the title of most performed urban work for their hit Leave Me Lonely.

The group has been nominated for 15 APRA awards and their 2020 wins takes their total haul to six. It is only the second time a hip hop artist or group has won the songwriter of the year award after A.B Originals won in 2018.

Hilltop Hoods' Matt Lambert said the win demonstrated how opinions about Australian hip hop had changed.

"When a lot of Oz hip hop jumped off to start with, it was pretty maligned by the community; it is nice that all that time later that is being pushed back," Lambert said.

"Any time that sort of a serious body takes hip hop culture seriously, it obviously helps give it more integrity and more respect as an art form; it is helpful in that respect."

The other APRA winners included Kian Brownfield, 17, who won the most performed Australian work and most performed alternative work awards for his song Waiting.

Morgan Evans won most performed country work with his song Young Again, and Hayden James took home most performed dance work for his song Better Together featuring Running Touch. In the pop category, Dean Lewis’ hit 7 Minutes was named most performed work while Jimmy Barnes and Troy Cassar-Daley won most performed rock work for Shutting Down Our Town.

The awards were held online for the first time due to coronavirus restrictions, with nominees asked to record an acceptance speech ahead of time as if they had won awards.

Pre-recorded performances came from John Butler, Mama Kin, Kira Puru, Mo’Ju, William Crighton, Nikki Costa and Justin Stanley. The Dawn of May provided a cover of Dance Monkey from New York.