Home › Multilingual Archive Index › J Award

J Award

The J Award is an award given by influential Australian youth radio station Triple J to Australian Album of the Year. It is judged by a panel of members of the music industry, led by Richard Kingsmill. The award was inaugurated in 2005, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the station's establishment.

To be eligible for entry in a particular year, an album must be released (either independently or through a record label) between December the previous year to November that year. All albums sent to Triple J for airplay consideration will also be automatically considered for the award. Nominations are chosen by Triple J management and are released through-out the year. Nominations tend towards artists releasing breakthrough albums rather than already well-established musicians.

2005 award

Nominations

In order of announcement of nomination:

• Lior - Autumn Flow
• Downsyde - When the Dust Settles
• Ben Lee - Awake is the New Sleep
• Cog - The New Normal
• Architecture in Helsinki - In Case We Die
• The Beautiful Girls - We're Already Gone
• The Drones - Wait Long By The River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By
• Faker - Addicted Romantic
• The Panics - Sleeps Like a Curse
• Gyroscope - Are You Involved?
• Pivot - Make Me Love You
• Clare Bowditch - What Was Left
• The Herd - The Sun Never Sets
• Wolfmother - Wolfmother
• Bernard Fanning - Tea and Sympathy

Winner

• Wolfmother - Wolfmother

2006 award

Nominations

In order of announcement of nomination:

• Augie March - Moo, You Bloody Choir
• The Living End - State of Emergency
• Hilltop Hoods - The Hard Road
• Gotye - Like Drawing Blood
• The Grates - Gravity Won't Get You High
• The Sleepy Jackson - Personality - One Was A Spider, One Was A Bird
• Dan Kelly & the Alpha Males - Drowning in the Fountain of Youth
• Bob Evans - Suburban Songbook
• Macromantics - Moments in Movement
• Sarah Blasko - What The Sea Wants, The Sea Will Have
• SubAudible Hum - In Time For Spring, On Came The Snow
• Blue King Brown - Stand Up

Winner

• Hilltop Hoods - The Hard Road

2007 award

Nominations

In order of announcement of nomination:

• The John Butler Trio - Grand National
• Josh Pyke - Memories & Dust
• Silverchair - Young Modern
• The Vasco Era - Oh We Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside
• Architecture in Helsinki - Places Like This
• British India - Guillotine
• Midnight Juggernauts - Dystopia
• Katalyst - What's Happening
• Urthboy - The Signal
• The Panics - Cruel Guards
• Grinspoon - Alibis & Other Lies
• Bumblebeez - Prince Umberto and the Sister of Ill
• PNAU - PNAU

Winner

• The Panics - Cruel Guards

2007 Unearthed Awards

A second category was introduced to Triple J's annual J Award in 2007, with the Triple J judges now looking back over the winners of site competitions over the year and awarding the Triple J Unearthed J Award to the best and most promising artist. Triple J Unearthed marked its first anniversary with over 10,400 artists live on the site, 80,000 registered users, 1.6 million tracks downloaded and 3.9 million tracks streamed. The Unearthed J Award is awarded to an Unearthed artist who has demonstrated the most musical growth and shows the greatest potential to make a contribution to the Australian music industry.

Five nominees were selected from the past year of Unearthed competition winners, since the launch in August 2006 through to July 2007. The nominees were:

• Cuthbert and the Nightwalkers from New South Wales who won the 2007 The Great Escape, who have subsequently supported Kate Miller-Hiedke, Old Man River and The Paper Scissors. The band released their debut album Love Needs Us on the Warner Music label.
• Hip Hop artists Illzilla who won the 2006 Falls Festival and then played at the Pyramid Rock Festival. They have also supported acts such as Astronomy Class and played at the finals of the DMC Championships.
• Western Australia's Institut Polaire who won the Perth Big Day Out. They have since signed to Sydney's Popfrenzy Records releasing their first EP The Fauna and the Flora. They have toured twice nationally in the past year, supporting international acts The Clientele (UK), Camera Obscura (UK), and WA tour supports with New Buffalo.
• Leroy Lee from New South Wales who won the support slot for NSW leg of Missy Higgins' national tour.
• Young and Restless from Canberra who won the 2006 Homebake Festival. They have since toured across the country with the Erase Errata (USK), Cansei de Ser Sexy (Brazil) and Love Is All (Sweden). They have also signed with local independent label, Dot Dash Recordings, releasing their self-titled debut album in mid-July, 2007, then embarking on a successful headline tour of their own.

Winner

• Young and Restless

2008 award

Nominations

In order of announcement of nomination:

• Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
• The Presets - Apocalypso

External links

• Official website