The hosts, nominees and top five for Peer-Voted APRA Song of the Year have been announced for the centenary edition of the 2026 APRA Music Awards, to be held on Wednesday, April 29 at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion.
This year’s Song of the Year top five features three previous winners from across the musical spectrum. 2025 winners Amyl and the Sniffers are nominated for the playfully controversial Jerkin’, which is also up for Most Performed Rock Work; multi-award-winner Paul Kelly, with nephew and first-time nominee Dan Kelly, for Rita Wrote A Letter, the long-awaited follow up to How to Make Gravy; and two- time-winner Kevin Parker for Tame Impala’s slacker-rock hit Loser.
The nominees for Most Performed Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Work are:
Title: All That I Remember
Artist: The Amity Affliction
Written by: Joel Birch* / Daniel Brown* / Joseph Longobardi / Jonathan Reeves
Published by: Concord Music Publishing ANZ*
Title: nerv
Artist: Thornhill
Written by: Jacob Charlton* / Benjamin Maida* / Ethan McCann* / Nicholas Sjogren* / Samuel Bassal
Published by: Concord Music Publishing ANZ*
Title: RAINDROP
Artist: Ocean Grove
Written by: Samuel Bassal* / Brent Hunter* / Luke Holmes
Published by: BMG*
Title: Sacred
Artist: Parkway Drive
Written by: Benjamin Gordon / Luke Kilpatrick / Jeffrey Ling / Winston McCall / Zachary Cervini* / Jordan Fish*
Published by: Kobalt Music Publishing / BMG*
Title: Tether
Artist: Make Them Suffer
Written by: Sean Harmanis / Jordan Mather / Nicholas McLernon
Published by: Sentric Music Publishing obo Cooking Vinyl Publishing
For more information, visit apraamcos.com.au/apramusicawards2026.
