APRA announced the winners for the 2021 APRA Silver Scroll Awards in an online celebration on March 24. Due to Covid-19 restrictions APRA had been forced to postpone the 2021 award ceremony three times, finally settling for an online format.
Troy Kingi claimed the actual Silver Scroll trophy for All Your Ships Have Sailed, a hit track from his ‘The Ghost of Freddie Cesar’ album. The full 2021 award winners card was:
It’s the third time Kingi (Te Arawa, Ngāpuhi, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui) has been a top-five finalist, and All Your Ships Have Sailed is from his fourth album ‘The Ghost of Freddie Cesar’ is a retro soul/funk affair that was inspired by memories of Troy’s biological father.
“Freddie Cesar gave me the memory blueprints or the spiritual blueprints for these waiata. And this particular one, I don’t 100% know what it’s about, but I feel like it’s about seeing your dreams pass you by, and not being able to retrieve them, but remembering you still have love for your whānau and love for your children and that’s enough purpose.”
Maisey Rika (Te Whānau-a-Apanui) and Seth Haapu (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Atihaunui a Pāpārangi) were awarded the Maioha Award for their Waitī Waitā, from Rika’s Matariki-inspired album ‘Ngā Mata o te Ariki Tāwhirimatea’. The waiata spotlights Waitī and Waitā, two stars that form part of the Matariki cluster, expressing their connection with each other and tangata whenua.
The 2021 SOUNZ Contemporary Award | Te Tohu Auaha went to David Donaldson, Janet Roddick, and Steve Roche who form music collective Plan 9, for their composition ‘The Bewilderness’. The Wellington trio released the album in response to the strangeness of 2020, a 10-track journey also featuring vocals and percussion by Johnny Marks, cello and taonga pūoro by Ruby Solly, and Tristan Carter on violin.
Arli Liberman was awarded the APRA Best Original Music in a Film | Tohu Pūmanawa for his composition work on Savage, a confronting film inspired by true stories of New Zealand’s street gangs across 30 years.
Former Supergroove frontman-turned award collecting composer, Karl Steven, was awarded APRA Best Original Music in a Series | Tohu Paerangi for his work on Black Hands, a five-part fictionalised story about the Bain family.
The online ceremony also included a special filmed performance of All Your Ships Have Sailed by Deva Mahal and an incredible band of nine wahine toa, recorded in a studio environment.
