King Stingray, the Yolŋu surf rockers hailing from north-east Arnhem Land, have won the prestigious $30,000 Australian Music prize (AMP) for their debut eponymous album.
Designed to be Australia’s answer to the UK’s Mercury prize, the AMP aims to “financially reward and increase exposure” for Australian musicians who release the “best contemporary music album in any one calendar year”.
The AMP has been won previously by artists including the Drones, Genesis Owusu, the Avalanches, Sampa the Great, Courtney Barnett and Augie March. It often goes to new acts, with eight of the 18 previous winners being debut albums.
King Stingray members Roy Kellaway and Dimathaya Burarrwanga accepted the prize in Sydney on Wednesday night.
“We’re so unbelievably stoked to have won the 18th AMP,” the band said in a joint statement.
“We had so much fun making this record and we just hope that listeners can hear the joy that we had making it, as well as feel the joy for themselves. It really means the world to us to hear people enjoying the album.”
King Stingray perform in both English and Yolŋu Matha, while combining funk, rock and manikay (Yolŋu ancestral song). They have deep ties to the revered music group Yothi Yindi: the band’s singer, Yirrnga Yunupingu, is the nephew of the Yothu Yindi leader, Dr M Yunupingu, and guitarist Kellaway is the son of Yothu Yindi’s bass player, Stuart Kellaway. Both men also play in Yothu Yindi.
“Most bands would be proud to have a collection like this on a greatest hits album,” Guardian music critic Andrew Stafford wrote in his review of the album. “This is not a revival act. Everything here sounds contemporary, by a band living their own dream, radiating with happiness and infectious enthusiasm.”
King Stingray’s debut has been a hit in Australia, reaching No 6 on the Aria charts and being nominated for five Aria awards, winning the breakthrough artist category.
The album was crowned winner of the AMP from 490 eligible albums released in 2022. The judging panel, made up of more than 30 music industry figures including musicians and critics, nominated 98 of those, then whittled that long list down to a nine-album shortlist.
King Stingray’s debut was up against Foreign Language by 1300; Everything Is Dangerous But Nothing’s Surprising by Body Type; Running With The Hurricane by Camp Cope; Pre Pleasure by Julia Jacklin; Amateurs by Laura Jean; The Real Work by Party Dozen; As Above, So Below by Sampa the Great; and A Colour Undone by Tasman Keith.
“King Stingray’s debut album didn’t jump out at me immediately, unlike some of the other records on what is an incredible shortlist of nine,” judge and Grinspoon frontman Phil Jamieson said.
“Over time, I began to admire the beauty, joy and deft instrumental manoeuvres; a record full of bloody gorgeous arrangements! Turns out, I am a sucker for a debut – it’s my favourite album of the crop.”
