Curated playlist
APRA Award winners
- Bruno MarsBruno Mars was five years old when he wet himself on a Honolulu stage in the middle of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love." His parents wondered whether they were making a mistake by putting him in front of crowds. He never…
- AC/DCAC/DC is an Australian rock band, and its name began as a label on a household appliance. When Malcolm and Angus Young were hunting for a name, their sister Margaret pointed to a symbol printed on the AC adapter of her sewing machine.…
- AdeleA friend posted Adele's three-song class demo on Myspace, and a record label phoned.
- Joni MitchellAfter a 2015 brain aneurysm, Joni Mitchell relearned guitar at living room jam sessions. Brandi Carlile organized them.
- Pharrell WilliamsPharrell Williams, the American musician, songwriter, record producer and fashion designer, was once behind a startling share of the songs on the radio. An August 2003 survey cited by The Age found that his production duo, the Neptunes,…
- Dua LipaIn the week beginning the 15th of May 2020, Dua Lipa's album Future Nostalgia sat at number one on the UK chart with only 7,317 sales. No chart-topping album this century has sold fewer copies in a single week. That modest number belongs…
- SiaSia Kate Isobelle Furler, the Australian singer and songwriter known simply as Sia, has spent much of her fame facing away from the people who made her famous. In March 2021, a laneway in the centre of Adelaide was renamed Sia Furler Lane.…
- Dire StraitsA London DJ played a rejected Dire Straits demo, and two months later the band had a record deal.
- Steven TylerSteven Tyler, the singer born Steven Victor Tallarico, saw his touring career end in August 2024. That month, his band Aerosmith announced that it was retiring from the road. The reason was Tyler's voice. He had fractured his larynx and…
- Mark RonsonMark Ronson was twelve years old when he pestered Jann Wenner, the founder of Rolling Stone, until the magazine gave him an internship. By his own description he was a music nerd, and the persistence paid off. Decades later he had won ten…
- Jack AntonoffJack Antonoff is an American musician from New Jersey who once heard the same dismissal again and again. He later put it in his own words. "Taylor's the first person who let me produce a song. Before Taylor, everyone said: 'You're not a…
- Nick CaveNick Cave is an Australian singer whose first famous band earned a reputation as “the most violent live band in the world.” That sounds like the biography of a man who burns out young. Instead, he spent the following decades writing novels…
- Harry StylesHarry Styles ran the Berlin Marathon in 2:59:13, a personal best, while entered under the pseudonym Sted Sarandos. The singer, songwriter and actor, born in 1994, also finished the Tokyo marathon in 2025, completing two of the six World…
- Michael HutchenceMichael Hutchence, the lead singer and lyricist of the Australian rock band INXS, was 37 years old when he died in a Sydney hotel room. The band was due to open its 20th anniversary tour in Sydney on the 23rd of November 1997. With…