Amyl and The Sniffers and Ninajirachi lead ARIA Awards 2025 winners
Here, we recap all the winners and highlights from Australian music's night of nights
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IT’S A GOOD YEAR to be Amyl and The Sniffers. The Melbourne pub rock band arrived at the 2025 ARIA Awards – fresh off a triumphant European tour, mind you – with six nominations in major categories. By the end of the night, the four-man band walked away with four of the silver pyramid awards for Best Album of the Year, Best Group, Best Rock Album, and Best Cover Art for their album Cartoon Darkness. To top it off, Amyl and The Sniffers will be opening for AC/DC this Friday at Accor Stadium in Sydney.
As for the most nominated artist this year, dance-electronic DJ Ninajirachi came in with a record eight nods, winning Best Solo Artist, Breakthrough Artist, and Best Independent Release for her debut album I Love My Computer. (On the red carpet, Esquire spoke to the artist about her custom motherboard clutch.
Esquire Australia March 2025 cover star The Kid LAROI took home one of the night’s top honours: ‘Girls’ winning Song of the Year. Earlier this year, too, we profiled eight emerging Australian musicians to know, and one of them, Boy Soda, won Best Soul/R&B Release for his single, ‘Lil Obsession’.
The ARIA Awards 2025 have come and gone, but have proven to be a big year for the country’s promising young talent. Below, a recap of all the winners from the evening.
All the Aria Awards 2025 winners
- Album of the Year – Amyl and The Sniffers
- Song of the Year – ‘Girls’ by The Kid LAROI
- Best Solo Artist – Ninajirachi
- Best Group – Amyl and The Sniffers
- Michael Gudinski Breakthrough Artist – Ninajirachi
- Best Independent Release – Ninajirachi
- Best Adult Contemporary Album – The Second Act by Missy Higgins
- Best Blues & Roots Album – Live At The Hammersmith Apollo by The Teskey Brothers
- Best Children’s Album – Dance Island Party by Emma Memma
- Best Country Album – Backbone by Kasey Chambers
- Best Dance/Electronic Release – ‘DREAMIN’ by Dom Dolla
- Best Pop Release – ‘I’m Sorry, Now Say It Back’ by Thelma Plum
- Best Rock Album – Cartoon Darkness by Amyl and The Sniffers
- Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Album – Bodies by Thornhill
- Best Hip Hop/Rap Release – ‘Big Tidda’ by BARKAA
- Best Soul/R&B Release – ‘Lil Obsession’ by Boy Soda
- Best Video – ‘Dancing2’ by Keli Holiday
- Best Australian Live Act – Something To Give Each Other Tour by Troye Sivan
- Best Music Festival – Laneway Festival
- Best Classical Album – Piano Diary by Andrea Lam
- Best Jazz Album – Between Spaces of Knowing by Lucy Clifford
- Best World Music Album – Banbirrngu by Gurrumui
- Best Original Soundtrack or Musical Theatre Cast Album – How To Make Gravy
- Best Cover Art – Cartoon Darkness by Amyl and The Sniffers
- Best Engineered Release – ‘End of Summer’ by Tame Impala
- Best Produced Release – ‘End of Summer’ by Tame Impala
- Most Popular International Artist – Taylor Swift
- Best Use of an Australian Recording in an Ad – Fox League 2025: Our Greats by 3%
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