Gang Of Youths Praise ARIAs Nominees: 'You Can't Qualify Fucking Artwork With An Award'

Despite cleaning up last night, Gang Of Youths have proved to be incredibly humble winners, heaping praise on their fellow ARIA Award nominees. 

Speaking in the Iain Shedden Media Suite after winning Album Of The Year with their acclaimed LP, Go Farther In Lightness, frontman Dave Leaupepe touched on the validation of award shows, given their three gongs for the night. 

"Everything is an element of cynicism and an element of optimism… you can't quantify or qualify a piece of fucking artwork with an award," Leaupepe said.

"Nor a ranking or a chart or anything. It's something that is entirely subjective as music."

The singer went on to praise the fellow Album Of The Year nominees.

"… AB Original released Reclaim Australia and that was a magnificent piece of work in my opinion and I will always advocate for that to have won over us. Same as Sharky [Amy Shark]. Same with Paul Kelly, who is one of our idols. Illy put together some good stuff too.

"We need to acknowledge how the subjectivity is pretty important."

read more — Tears, Cheers & Trophies: Here Are The Highlights From The 2017 ARIA Awards