Casey Barnes and Keith Urban Take Home Queensland Music Awards

Following last year’s Gold Coast Music Awards ‘Artist Of The Year’ win in September, Casey Barnes continues his award show dominance. 

The country rock-pop singer-songwriter took home the Queensland Music Award (QMAs) in the country category for his single, God Took His Time On You last night.

Barnes shared on social media, “So something pretty special happened last night… Absolutely over the moon and thank you so much to everyone who’s got behind both this song and the new album.”

Keith Urban was also a winner on the night, taking home the ‘Highest Selling Single’ trophy for the smash-hit One Too Many featuring Pink – the US megastar making her QMAs debut.

Hosted by Katherine Feeney and Michael Tuahine on Tuesday, March 29, more than 500 guests attended and enjoyed surprise performances from The Jungle Giants, Troy and Jem Cassar-Daley, Sachem, Zheani, CLOE TERARE and Felivand.

Barnes was announced as a finalist back in February alongside Brad Butcher for Cutting People’s Grass, Camille Trail for I Know I’m Hard To Love and Hayley Marsten for Drowning Myself.

Melody Moko’s Mama and Ruby Gilbert’s Die Young were highly recommended.

In addition, Bella Mackenzie scored a nod for ‘Youth (Aged 10-17)’ nomination for Ain’t For You, as did Pat Kenny in the ‘Blues | Roots’ category as part of the duo Freight Train Foxes. Also, Troy Cassar-Daley’s daughter Jem was nominated for the ‘Billy Thorpe Scholarship’ as well as the ‘Indigenous Award’ for her debut single, Letting Go. The latter she was awarded.

Marsten attended the awards with Imogen Clark, her partner Dan Sugars and mother Wendy.

Trail also shared a photo of herself on the red carpet is a slinky white halter dress.

Since 2006 (then known as QSong), the QMAs have spotlighted or unearthed a pantheon of Queensland music greats, including Kate Miller-Heidke, Bernard Fanning, Hungry Kids of Hungary, and Emma Louise. They’ve also recognised the chart-topping success of artists like Keith Urban and the Veronicas, and the lifelong contributions of the Bee Gees, Ed Kuepper and Grant McLennan.

The Queensland Music Awards recognise the diverse people and places that make contemporary popular music an invaluable part of the state's cultural heritage. The finalist pool spans 26 categories – Indigenous, Blues/Roots, Children's, Contemporary Classic, Country, Electronic, Folk, Heavy, Hip Hop, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Youth, Soul/Funk/RNB, World, Regional/Remote and Video categories.  

For more information, go to: www.queenslandmusicawards.com.au