2011 J Award winners

Wed 30th Nov, 2011 in Local News

Gotye has won the J Award for album of the year beating the likes of Kimbra, The Middle East and The Jezabels for the prize.

Accepting the award Wally De Backer joked that the win overshadows his six recent ARIA award wins – “This is so much cooler than a pointy metal thing. Every album on that list is so good I feel thoroughly undeserving … Without [triple j] hardly any interesting music would even get a shot in Australia or beyond. It’s a good 10 or 11 years since I started sending demos to everybody at triple j and I really have everyone there to thank for listening to my music.”

Past J Award best album winners include Tame Impala, Sarah Blasko, The Presets, PNAU, Hilltop Hoods and Wolfmother.

Earlier in the awards ceremony Ball Park Music were welcomed to stage at the Oxford Art Factory in Sydney as “Brisbane legends” and accepted the award for Unearthed Artist of the Year with a speech that mocked an absent band member for missing the ceremony to catch an Elton John gig instead. While video of the year went to Emma Tomelty for her work on the flash mob inspired work on Hermitude’s Speak Of The Devil clip.

J Award winners in bold

Album of the Year

Big Scary – Vacation
Papa vs Pretty – United in Isolation
Kimbra – Vows
Gotye – Making Mirrors
Art vs Science – The Experiment
The Middle East – I Want That You Are Always Happy
Ball Park Music – Happiness and Surrounding Suburbs
The Jezabels – Prisoner
Architecture In Helsinki – Moment Bends
Drapht – Life of Riley

Unearthed Artist of the Year

San Cisco
Lanie Lane
Husky
Emma Louise
Ball Park Music

Music Video of the Year

Children Collide – Loveless (Directed by David Michôd)
Gotye (featuring Kimbra) – Somebody That I Used To Know (Directed by Natasha Pincus)
Bluejuice – Act Yr Age (Directed by Samuel Bennetts)
Hermitude – Speak Of The Devil (Directed by Emma Tomelty)
Art vs Science – A.I.M. FIRE! (Directed by Spod)