2026 ARIA Awards Nominations Revealed As Tame Impala And Genesis Owusu Lead A Huge 40th Anniversary Field
Australia’s Biggest Music Awards Are Turning 40 — And The 2026 Nominee List Is Massive
From Tame Impala To Taylor Swift: The Biggest Names In The 2026 ARIA Awards Nominations
The nominations for the 2026 ARIA Awards have officially been revealed, with Genesis Owusu and Tame Impala leading the field on eight nominations each as Australia's biggest music awards prepare to celebrate their 40th anniversary.
They are followed by Ecca Vandal with seven nominations, while Baker Boy, BOY SODA, G Flip, Miss Kaninna and Ninajirachi have each collected five. DMA’S, Dom Dolla and Troye Sivan have four nominations apiece.
The scale of the nomination list sets up a significant anniversary edition of the awards, with established Australian names competing alongside emerging artists, internationally successful performers and some of the biggest acts currently appearing on global streaming platforms.
The winners will be announced on Wednesday, 18 November 2026, when the ceremony returns to Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion on Gadigal land. ARIA says artists will be recognised across 29 categories, with the show broadcast on 10 and streamed through Paramount+.
Genesis Owusu And Tame Impala Lead With Eight Nominations Each
At the top of the 2026 field are two artists whose careers have developed in very different directions but who now share the highest nomination count.
Genesis Owusu has secured eight nominations after the release of his third album, REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE.
His nominations include Album of the Year, Best Solo Artist, Best Independent Release, Best Alternative Release and Best Australian Live Act, alongside recognition for the project's video, cover art and production.
It continues an already substantial ARIA history for Owusu.
ABC notes that his first two records both won Album of the Year, giving the 2026 nominations added weight: another strong result would extend one of the most notable recent runs at the Australian awards.
Tame Impala, meanwhile, also enters the ceremony with eight nominations.
Kevin Parker's project is nominated for Album of the Year, Best Solo Artist, Best Pop Release, Best Dance/Electronic Release, Best Alternative Release and Song of the Year, with Parker additionally recognised in the engineering and production categories.
The nominations follow the release of Tame Impala's fifth studio album, Deadbeat, and the success of Dracula.
ARIA says Dracula spent 18 weeks inside the Top 10 of the ARIA Singles Chart and reached number four, making it Parker's highest-charting single.
That means the 2026 awards are not simply a contest between two artists with large nomination totals. They also bring together two significant strands of modern Australian music: Genesis Owusu's genre-blurring alternative work and Tame Impala's increasingly global psychedelic, electronic and pop reach.
Ecca Vandal Is Close Behind With Seven
One nomination behind the joint leaders sits Ecca Vandal, who has collected seven nominations.
Her second album, Looking For People To Unfollow, places her among the Album of the Year contenders while also contributing to nominations across several other categories.
ARIA describes Vandal's recent period as one involving international festival appearances and performances including Coachella, while her music continues to combine elements of punk, hip-hop, neo-soul, metal and alternative music.
That diversity is reflected in the nominations themselves.
Vandal appears in Album of the Year, Best Solo Artist, Michael Gudinski Breakthrough Artist, Best Independent Release and Best Alternative Release, among other categories listed by ARIA.
Her seven nominations make her one of the central figures of the 2026 ceremony rather than simply an outsider behind the two eight-time nominees.
Album Of The Year Could Be One Of The Night’s Biggest Categories
The five nominees for Album of the Year are:
BOY SODA — Soulstar
DMA’S — DMA’S
Ecca Vandal — Looking For People To Unfollow
Genesis Owusu — REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE
Tame Impala — Deadbeat
It is a category that captures the wider shape of this year's nominations particularly well.
Tame Impala and Genesis Owusu enter with the joint-highest overall nomination totals, Ecca Vandal sits immediately behind them, while BOY SODA and DMA’S are also among the most nominated artists of the year.
Rather than having one obvious artist dominating almost every headline category, the 2026 field spreads recognition across several different parts of the Australian music industry.
Best Solo Artist Has A Deep Nominee List
The Best Solo Artist category is even broader.
Nominees include Baker Boy, BOY SODA, Ecca Vandal, G Flip, Genesis Owusu, Matt Corby, Miss Kaninna, Ninajirachi, Tame Impala and Troye Sivan.
The category brings together artists working across electronic music, alternative, hip-hop, pop, R&B and other genres.
Several are also appearing repeatedly elsewhere in the nominations.
Baker Boy, BOY SODA, G Flip, Miss Kaninna and Ninajirachi have all secured five nominations in total, making the upper end of the 2026 field considerably wider than just the two artists at the top.
Song Of The Year Features Some Of Australia’s Biggest Current Artists
One of the categories likely to attract substantial public attention is Song of the Year.
The nominees are:
FISHER — Blackberries
G Flip — Bed On Fire
Keli Holiday — Dancing2
Lithe — Cannonball
Ocean Alley — Love Balloon
Royel Otis — car
Sonny Fodera — Think About Us
Tame Impala — Dracula
The Kid LAROI — A COLD PLAY
Vance Joy — Divine Feelings
Song of the Year is one of the awards decided through public voting, giving listeners a direct role in the result.
That creates a different dynamic from categories determined through the industry's voting processes because streaming popularity, fan mobilisation and large online audiences can all become particularly visible during the voting period.
Taylor Swift, BTS And Harry Styles Feature In The International Category
The nominations also extend beyond Australian artists.
The Most Popular International Artist category contains a major collection of global names:
BTS
Ed Sheeran
Harry Styles
Morgan Wallen
Noah Kahan
Olivia Dean
Olivia Rodrigo
Sabrina Carpenter
sombr
Taylor Swift
The category is also publicly voted.
For an Australian awards ceremony, its presence gives ARIA a way to reflect what Australian listeners are consuming internationally rather than limiting the event solely to domestic releases.
It also adds some of the world's largest music fanbases to the wider ARIA voting conversation.
Fans Can Vote In Four Categories
Public voting has opened across four categories:
Best Australian Live Act
Song of the Year
Best Video
Most Popular International Artist
Voting runs from 24 September until 9 November 2026 through Spotify and the ARIA website, according to ARIA.
The integration with Spotify continues a partnership designed to bring fans directly into the awards process.
ARIA's nomination event was scheduled for 24 September, with the organisation confirming that the eventual winners would be crowned on 18 November.
Best Australian Live Act Includes A Strong Touring Field
The nominees for Best Australian Live Act include:
Baker Boy
BOY SODA
Dom Dolla
G Flip
Gang Of Youths
Genesis Owusu
Hilltop Hoods
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
Ninajirachi
Paul Kelly
This category gives the awards another dimension beyond recorded releases.
It recognises touring and live performance during a period in which Australian artists continue to compete for audience attention across festivals, arenas, theatres and international circuits.
Alternative Music Returns To The ARIA Categories
One notable change in 2026 is the return of Best Alternative Release, which ARIA says is appearing for the first time since 2016.
The nominees are:
Ecca Vandal — Looking For People To Unfollow
Gang Of Youths — Things Take Time
Genesis Owusu — REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE
Meg Mac — It’s My Party
Tame Impala — Deadbeat
The category is especially significant because three of the year's most nominated artists — Ecca Vandal, Genesis Owusu and Tame Impala — appear together.
It also underlines how difficult it can be to place many contemporary Australian artists inside a single traditional genre.
Australian Music Veterans Remain Part Of The Picture
The nominations are not solely focused on emerging or recently dominant acts.
ARIA specifically highlights established Australian names including Kylie Minogue, Paul Kelly, Keith Urban, Vika & Linda and Hilltop Hoods among the 2026 nominees.
Keith Urban is nominated in Best Country Album for Flow State, while Paul Kelly appears in Best Adult Contemporary Album with Seventy and in the public-voted live category.
Kylie Minogue's Tension Tour//Live 2025 is nominated for Best Pop Release.
That cross-generational mix fits naturally with the ceremony's 40th-anniversary theme.
The ARIA Awards Are Celebrating 40 Years
The 2026 ceremony marks 40 years of the ARIA Awards, giving this year's event a broader historical significance.
The anniversary celebrations began earlier in the year with a special ARIA Hall of Fame event at Carriageworks in Sydney.
Six Australian acts were inducted: Gurrumul, Jenny Morris, Kate Ceberano, Spiderbait, The Living End and Vika & Linda.
The main awards ceremony now continues that anniversary by placing artists with decades of history alongside musicians whose careers are still accelerating.
ARIA chief executive Annabelle Herd said the nominees represent four decades of Australian music and its ability to reach international audiences, while Spotify Australia and New Zealand managing director Mikaela Lancaster highlighted the role of discovery and global exposure in the awards partnership.
When And Where Are The 2026 ARIA Awards?
The 2026 ARIA Awards will take place on Wednesday, 18 November 2026 at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney.
The ceremony will be shown on 10 and streamed on Paramount+, with additional performances and moments due to appear through ARIA's official YouTube presence.
By then, public voting will have closed and the unusually competitive nomination field will finally be converted into winners.
The headline entering the ceremony is clear: Tame Impala and Genesis Owusu lead with eight nominations each, Ecca Vandal follows with seven, and an unusually broad group of Australian artists sit just behind them.
But the bigger picture may be more interesting.
Forty years after the first ARIA Awards, the 2026 nominations stretch from Australian music institutions to emerging names, electronic producers, alternative artists, pop stars, Indigenous performers and musicians with increasingly international careers.
That makes the November ceremony more than an anniversary celebration. It is also a snapshot of what Australian music looks like four decades into the ARIA era — and which artists may define what comes next.
