Adelaide singer-songwriter Aleksiah brought home four gongs at the SA Music Awards Thursday night, winning best new artist, best solo artist, most popular pop artist, and the Emily Burrows Award.

Aleksiah (Alexia Damokas) celebrates winning four awards on Thursday night at the Dom Polski Centre. (Supplied: Morgan Sette via ATG)

Alexia Damokas, 24, launched her solo career in 2022 with the single, Fern, which was also the opening track on her 2024 EP, Who Are You When You’re Not Performing.

Her more recent single, Batsh**, has also been getting strong interest on streaming services, already garnering tens of thousands of listens since its release just two weeks ago.

Aleksiah’s recent single, Batsh**, has been killing it on streaming services. (Instagram: aleksiah_)

“It’s been a big year for me personally in music, and also my life, and I am so incredibly grateful for this,” she said.

“This is the first time I have ever won anything and it is extremely exciting to be recognised alongside so many incredible South Australian artists that I hold in extremely high regard.

“I had the best team working with me on my EP that came out in June, and none of this would be possible without the amazing support of the talented people behind me.”

Aleksiah will also benefit from the $5,000 APRA AMCOS Emily Burrows Award to further her career.

Good Music Month kicks off

Photo shows A female singer jumps on a stage with a crowd in the background

With thousands of artists ranging from big acts to emerging bands, the second iteration of Good Music Month will blast Adelaide and its surrounds with a plethora of live acts.

“Aleksiah is incredibly talented and is a really brilliant songwriter, has a sound that is melodic and accessible and quite dreamy to listen to, and she’s done the hard yards over the past couple of years,” SA Music chief executive Christine Schloithe said.

“She really is an artist who’s starting to get some agency and build a national profile, so it’s really not a surprise to have someone like Aleksiah walk away with the awards that she has tonight and it’s really well deserved.”

“I’ve got the feeling we’ll start to see her on the bigger festival bills. We’ll start to see her pick up some bigger support slots, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she starts to get some international interest in the next year or so as well.”

Guy Sebastian also performed two songs at the SA Music Awards. (Supplied: Samuel Graves via ATG)

Also celebrated at the awards, which were held at the Dom Polski Centre, was Australian pop star Guy Sebastian, who grew up in Adelaide and was inducted into the SA Music Hall of Fame.

He told the audience about the first time he sang to an audience as a student, and how he looked at his shoes for the entire performance because he was so scared.

“I remember getting to the end of that performance and I looked up and I could see some people crying, including some of my mates,” Sebastian said.

“I guess that was my first lesson of the power of music and the power of a song, and how it’s so much more than a bunch of notes strung together and a bunch of words thrown on a piece of paper.

“Songs are incredible vehicles. They’re like escape pods for people.”

Winners show ‘depth’ and ‘diversity’

Best group was awarded to female duo, Teenage Joans, which also won the people’s choice award for most popular punk artist.

Best song was handed to Ceiling Fan by Swapmeet with the four-piece soft rock band also winning best release for their album, Oxalis.

Dem Mob’s Elisha Umuhuri, Jontae Lawrie and Matt Gully were awarded again this year. (Supplied)

Electric Fields won best Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander artist, while best regional artist was awarded to Indigenous hip hop group, Dem Mob, which cleaned up in 2023 with five awards.

“What I really loved about the award finalists and winners for this year is that it really shows the diversity and the depth of the music that’s been made in SA and the people that support that music to be made,” Ms Schloithe said.

“We’ve got a really great field of what I would call quite established and well-known artists that are balanced out by those artists that are emerging and starting to come through, and they’re the names that we’re just starting to discover now.”

Crown & Anchor awarded

After a troubled year in which it was threatened with destruction to make way for student apartments — only to see a public outpouring of support result in government protections for live music venues across the city — the Crown & Anchor was awarded best live music venue.

Historic pub saved ‘forever’

Photo shows A protest in the heart of Adelaide to save the Crown and Anchor hotel.

The state government says Adelaide’s historic Crown and Anchor will now remain a live music pub “forever more”.

Best large music festival was awarded to the Adelaide Beer & BBQ Festival, which was held at the Adelaide Showgrounds this year, while Space Jams, which took place at Alman’s Hem in the Inman Valley, was again awarded best small music festival after winning the category in 2021 and 2022.

“And gender diversity is still not something that the music industry is particularly good at, so hats off to Lucinda Machin, who won the best studio engineer or producer award, and Rachel Whitford, who won the artists’ manager award,” Ms Schloithe said.

“It’s really wonderful to see some women coming through the ranks there.”

The Neville Clark Award for song production graduates went to Matt Stasinowsky and Joshua Rocca.

All-female pop group, The Sisters of Invention, were handed a community achievement award for their work in the disability awareness space.