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Ninajirachi / Photo – Billy Zammit

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The winner has been announced for the 21st SoundMerch Australian Music Prize (AMP), Australia’s most prestigious award recognising and honouring the creative accomplishments of Australian musicians! This year’s winner is Ninajirachi with ‘I Love My Computer’.

“Thank you so much to the Australian music prize for awarding me this year, this truly means a lot to me!! I’m so proud to have produced an Australian album. I Love My Computer drew from my growing up on the central coast and the Australian dance music I heard in my childhood. To sincerely contribute to the awesome story of Australian music was one of my highest hopes. I hope I can keep making albums and telling stories forever. Thank you so much, I’m so honoured to receive this award.” – Ninajirachi

Ninajirachi has been awarded a $50,000 prize money and joins previous winners including Kankawa Nagarra (2024), RVG (2023), King Stingray (2022), Genesis Owusu (2021) and The Avalanches (2020).  The prize is widely recognised as the most prestigious award for Australian recording artists and Australia’s most coveted accolade in the music community.  Ninajirachi exploded on the Australian music scene this year with her track ‘F**k My Computer’, the hard-driving electronic precursor to her winning album ‘I Love My Computer’. Hailing from the Central Coast, Ninajirachi has been making music for over a decade and drew attention from the industry with her track ‘Glass’, one of the Unearthed High finalists. ‘I Love My Computer’ includes catchy, glitchy, sweet yet explosive tunes, including ‘iPod Touch’, ‘Delete’ and ‘All I Am’, which have garnered millions of streams across platforms. With a tour kicking off end of November across Australia, New Zealand and the USA where she is set to play Coachella. With 8 ARIA Award nominations, Ninajirachi can now add 21st SoundMerch Australian Music prize winner to her fast-growing accolades.

“The AMP process favours originality and Nina’s album is certainly that! I thank the team of judges who have put so much effort into choosing ‘I Love My Computer’ as our 21st winner – the Shortlist was very strong so choosing a winner wasn’t easy.” – Scott B Murphy, Founder/Prize Director

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The finalists included:

Ninajirachi “I Love My Computer” – WINNER
Folk Bitch Trio “Now Would Be A Good Time”
Floodlights “Underneath”
Mudrat “Social Cohesion”
Bleak Squad “Strange Love”
Tropical Fuck Storm “Fairyland Codex”
Ruby Gill “Some Kind Of Control”
Mia Wray “hi, it’s nice to meet me”
Divide & Dissolve “Insatiable”

The AMP works via a 3 Stage judging system with a panel of established musicians, music retailers and music media listening to every eligible album.  Each judge must agree to listen to randomly assigned albums, in full, at least once before filing a judgment. They must also agree to notify AMP administration of any personal and/or business connections to the artists who have eligible albums. In stage 2, the panel of judges listens to the nominated albums and works with the Prize Director to determine which albums will form the Shortlist (9 albums). Finally, in stage 3, the panel of judges meet, face-to-face, to decide on one winner.

Launched in 2005, The AMP celebrates a milestone of existing to discover, reward and promote new Australian music of excellence. The inaugural album and artist to win was ‘Wait Long By the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By’ by The Drones. This year’s award ceremony will be hosted by Ryan Clapham (Dobby), a previous shortlisted artist and current judge.

The list of albums nominated for this 21st prize can be found here

Ninajarichi will be awarded the prize tonight at the Awards Ceremony

The AMP is generously supported by sponsorship from industry businesses to cover running costs and the prize money. Sponsors include JB Hifi, Mushroom Music, EMI and Sony. Soundmerch for the 5th consecutive year continues as the principal sponsor of the prize, paying the winner the $50,000 cash prize. For the second year, the AMP has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia. This strategic investment supports The AMP’s efforts in platforming new Australian music to growing audiences.  The award ceremony will be held tonight.

The 21st SoundMerch AMP Awards is in partnership with SoundMerch and supported by the Australian Government through Music Australia.

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AMNPLIFY – DB