Australian music icon Archie Roach has been announced as the 2020 inductee of the ARIA Hall Of Fame.
With this announcement made today (Tuesday, 10th November), 2020 has become even more of a special year for Roach, who is also celebrating the 30th anniversary of his seminal debut album Charcoal Lane – which picked up 2 ARIA Awards of its own back in 1991.
“It’s a great honour to be inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame, whilst It’s been thirty years since I recorded my debut album Charcoal Lane, I do recall receiving two ARIA awards for that album,” Roach said in a press statement.
“Through the years writing and recording my songs as well as touring, has helped me to heal and connect to audiences around the country. To be inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame is validation that no matter where you have come from and the struggles that you had to overcome through the years, that you can achieve great things if you set your mind and heart to it.
“Your achievements are only as good as the people around you and I have been blessed with a great team,” he continued.
ARIA Chief Executive Dan Rosen explained Roach’s importance to the Aussie music zeitgeist in a separate statement, saying, “He is an artist of enormous integrity, writing songs of deep personal honesty that resonated all around Australia.”
“He told stories that no one else was telling, and brought these issues to the forefront of the Australian psyche. His thirty-year career on-stage is enough for him to be a legend, but it is matched with his off-stage activism and his tireless work to give back to the communities around him. He’s a man who has made the world a better place, and he rightly takes his place as a giant of Australian music.”
The 2020 ARIA Awards ceremony will be held on Wednesday, 25th November, and Lime Cordiale, Tame Impala and Sampa The Great are leading the nominations.
