It was indeed a night of celebrations at last night’s 2005 ARIA Awards. Out of the 28 categories, and a huge 31 nominations for EMI artists, EMI Music Australia reigned supreme, with 10 ARIA Awards going to Missy Higgins, Keith Urban, End of Fashion, Jet and The Go-Betweens.

After winning the ARIA award for Best Video for their hit single ‘O Yeah’, hot newcomers End of Fashion took home another award on the night for Breakthrough Artist – Single for ‘O Yeah’.

Meanwhile internationally acclaimed ‘The Go-Betweens’ finally achieved ARIA recognition when they won the first ARIA award of their 25 year career for Best Adult Contemporary Album. Robert Forster and Grant McLennan are currently touring in Germany but were thrilled to hear that they had won the award for their highly-acclaimed ‘Oceans Apart’ album.

Keith Urban, who achieved the second highest number of nominations by EMI artists won an ARIA for Best Country Album, and following their huge wins of 2004, Australia’s favourite rock and rollers Jet picked up an award for Best Music DVD for Right Right Right!

Missy Higgins, however, was the star of the show, taking home 5 awards out of 7 nominations for her debut album ‘The Sound of White’, which has just been certified 8 x Platinum (560,000 sales). Missy also delivered a stunning performance of her single of the same name, ‘The Sound of White’, and went on to collect awards in the following categories:

• Album of the Year – ‘The Sound of White’
• Best Female Artist
• Best Pop Release – ‘The Sound of White’
• Breakthrough Artist – Album
• Highest Selling Album
  

“We are completely blown away by this great result,” said John O'Donnell, Managing Director of EMI Australia. “It is a victory for real artists, artists who write and perform music that makes a genuine connection with people. Congratulations to Missy Higgins and to all of our winning artists.”