Albums by Sampa the Great, Julia Jacklin, King Stingray and Tasman Keith have been named finalists for the 18th Annual Australian Music Prize, with details announced this week.
Also included in the hunt are long plays by 1300, Body Type, Camp Cope, Laura Jean, and Party Dozen.
The final winner will be announced in Sydney on March 1st and the champion will receive a cash prize of A$30,000 ($21,000), courtesy of main sponsor Soundmerch.
Sales and chart positions are irrelevant to the results. What matters is the artistry of the entry.
AMP Founder and Awards Director Scott B. Murphy said: “It’s incredibly diverse and once again truly captures the world’s best music. A huge thank you to the Soundmerch AMP jury team. Their donation of time and passion is much more than most people realize. It’s a big one.”
Sampa the Great is shaped by AMP.
The Zambian-born, Botswana-raised, Melbourne-based hip-hop artist received a prestigious award for his mixtape in 2017. bird and bee9and again in 2020 return, becoming the first and only artist to win the prestigious award twice. Sampa achieved another world first record in 2020 when she was named as her first-ever BET Amplified Global Artist.
Modeled after the UK’s Mercury Music Prize and Canada’s Polaris Prize, AMP aims to identify and reward outstanding creative Australian albums over the past year.
The nine shortlisted recordings were drawn from a longlist of 490 eligible Australian albums for release in 2022, all of which were independently reviewed by a panel of music experts.
This year, domestic affiliates of EMI, Virgin and Island are joining to sponsor the Shortlist by contributing A$3,000 ($2,100) each to the fund pool.
Genesis Owth critically acclaimed collection toothless smile Last time, he won the award, beating recordings by Nick Cave, Hiatus Kaiyote and others.
Shortlist for the 18th Annual Soundmerch AMP:
1300 – foreign language
Body type – Everything is dangerous but nothing surprising
Camp Corp – run with a hurricane
Julia Jacklin – pre-pleasure
King Stingray – King Stingray
Laura Jean – amateur
party dozen – real job
Sampa the Great – as above, as below
Tasman Keith – canceled color