2026 ARIA Hall of Fame: Gurrumul, Jenny Morris and More Inducted

One of the most treasured moments on the Australian music calendar, the presentation of the ARIA Hall of Fame, became an embarrassment of riches on Thursday night, June 11, as six legendary acts were inducted in a special ceremony.

The Australian Recording Industry Association went large for the 40th anniversary of the flagship ARIA Awards by breaking from tradition. Instead of the usual class of one or two, ARIA elevated a half-dozen beloved acts on the night: Gurrumul, Jenny Morris, Kate Ceberano, Spiderbait, The Living End and Vika & Linda. 

A special night requires a little something extra, and that was certainly the case as Sydney’s Carriageworks hosted a room packed with illustrious guests, from movie stars, to federal politicians (including a video tribute from prime minister Anthony Albanese) and, of course, giants of the music community.

ARIA has inducted artists into its Hall since 1988. That first class featured Dame Joan Sutherland, Johnny O’Keefe, Slim Dusty, Col Joye, Vanda & Young and AC/DC. In 2005, the trade body created a standalone ceremony ARIA Icons: Hall of Fame, when multiple acts were elevated. It was televised, it resonated with music fans, but proved short-lived as the industry struggled in a post-digital download landscape.

For 2011, the Hall of Fame induction became a spot within the ARIA Music Awards, with two new inductees. Then, from 2012, just one act has been inducted each year at the ARIAs.

Since that first class, scores of Aussie legends have got the nod, from Cold Chisel, to Kylie Minogue, Yothu Yindi, Kasey Chambers, Olivia Newton John, INXS, Crowded House, Archie Roach, Missy Higgins, Tina Arena, and last year’s inductee, You Am I.

The Hall of Fame salutes “the artistic achievement, cultural contribution and remarkable legacies of the inductees and celebrate the evolution of Australian music over the past four decades,” reads a statement from ARIA.

Billboard attended the 2026 ceremony to soak up all the action.

Quincy Jones knew talent when he saw and heard it. When Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu came into his world, the late, master producer was overwhelmed. “I had my mind blown when I first was privy to hear this incredible human being’s voice,” he remarked in 2015. “It’s unbelievable.” He went on to say that Gurrumul possessed “one of the most unusual and emotional and musical voices that I’ve ever heard.”

Gurrumul was all those things. Incredible, unbelievable and he is today recognized as one of Australia’s most culturally significant artists.

Blind from birth and raised in the remote Galiwin’ku community on Elcho Island, off the coast of Arnhem land in the Northern Territory, Yunupingu enjoyed an international breakthrough in 2008 with his self-titled debut Gurrumul (via Skinnyfish Music/MGM), which shifted peaked at No. 3 on the ARIA Albums Chart and shifted more than 500,000 album sales worldwide. The gentle Indigenous artist, who sang almost exclusively in his tribal Gumatj dialect, which is spoken by no more than 3,000 people, also won admiration from the likes of Elton John, Stevie Wonder and will.i.am.

Gurrumul released several collections during his lifetime, including Rrakala (April 2011) and The Gospel Album (August 2015), and was mourned across the nation when when he died in July 2017, following a long battle with ill health, at the age of 46. He made history with the posthumous release Djarimirri (Child Of The Rainbow), which debuted at No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart in April 2018 to become the first LP in an Indigenous language to lead the national survey.

Across his career, Gurrumul received 10 ARIA Awards. His memory lives on through his music, the work of the Gurrumul Yunupingu Foundation, and the Paul Williamsass="xot-al" data-spotlight-athlete="Williams" data-spotlight-sport="f1">Williams-directed documentary, Gurrumul (through Madman Entertainment).

Rapper Briggs was the 2026 Hall of Fame’s first inductor, using his time on stage to remember Gurrumul’s profound cultural impact, and sharing that the late artist “really loved a joke, and really loved hot studios.”

Gurrumul was previously inducted as a member of Yothu Yindi (in 2012), and becomes one of a small handful of artists twice entered into the ARIA Hall of Fame, joining the likes of Ross Wilson and Jimmy Barnes.

Jenny Morris is one of Australasia’s great champions of the music community, both as an artist and advocate. Born in New Zealand, Morris entered the public eye in the 1980s and ‘90s with QED and INXS, before launching a successful solo career with multiple platinum albums including Body and Soul (1987), Shiver (1989), and Honeychild (1991), and winning back-to-back ARIA Awards for best female artist in 1987 and 1988.

Several prominent New Zealanders were in the room to salute Morris, including actor Sam Neill and former prime minster Jacinda Ardern, who had induction duties. The veteran artist helped “redefine what success looks like for a New Zealand woman in Australian music,” Ardern explained. “She brought strength, vulnerability, intelligence and authenticity to every performance.” And as an artist, she showed generations of peers that you could be powerful, successful, and enduring without compromise.

Outside of her recording career, Morris has played a significant role in shaping the Australian music industry, as a board member and chair of APRA, her work on the board of the music therapy charity NORO, and spearheading Art of Music, a charity fundraiser for NORO which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Morris was robbed of her singing voice due to a neurological issue, a condition that she explored in an Australian Story documentary for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Regardless, Morris “continues to be a powerful voice for Australian artists, songwriters and creators,” reads a statement from ARIA. Dan Sultan, Mia Wray and Kate Miller-Heidke stepped in to salute Morris with a medley of her biggest numbers, including “You I Know,” “Break in Weather” and “She’s Gotta Be Loved.”

Like Morris, Ceberano’s induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame is long overdue. The versatile singer, who is right at home singing pop, soul, jazz, and rock, first entered the limelight in 1984 as the lead singer of indie-pop group I’m Talking, with bagged five consecutive top 20 singles and a platinum debut album, with Bear Witness. Ceberano launched her solo career with the platinum-selling 1989 Brave, the first of 31 albums.

Ceberano is one of just four Australian artists to achieve top 10 albums across five consecutive decades, a distinction she shares with AC/DC, Midnight Oil, and Kylie Minogue. Her five career ARIA Awards include best female artist (1989 and 1990), highest selling single with “Bedroom Eyes” (1990), and highest selling album for Jesus Christ Superstar (1993). Ceberano continues to tour and, after all this time, she remains a household name in Australia.

During her induction remarks, Ceberano pointed out that, with her 60th birthday on the near horizon, she’ll count 45 years in music. “And I’m still behaving like a f***ing juvenile,” she quipped. Performer and funnyman Eddie Perfect inducted Ceberano, whose many musical talents were on display as she performed a medley of those hits, and played drums.

Spiderbait overcame every early career obstacle with ease, to become perhaps the benchmark of what a punky Aussie trio could look and sound like in ‘90s Australia. It was a golden era for alternative rock when young music fans were seamlessly connected for the first time with the triple j network, the ABC’s Rage and Recovery music programs, and the touring Big Day Out festival. Spiderbait was at the center of it all.

Hailing from rural New South Wales, Spiderbait relocated to Melbourne in 1990, where they would set about redefining indie rock with punk spirit. In a shout out to kids from the country, “if we can do it, so can you,” remarked singer and drummer Kram on the night.

Now seven albums deep, including six debuts in the ARIA top 40, with two ARIA Awards, Spiderbait had the honors of wrapping up the ARIA Hall of Fame’s live program with a medley that included their smash cover of “Black Betty” and the “Buy Me a Pony,” the first Australian song to come in at No. 1 on the triple j Hottest 100. “To all the women who work in the music industry,” bass player Janet English enthused, “keep making noise.” That noise is working. Looking at the class of 2026, English quipped: “the Hall of Fame is a bit less of a sausage fest today.”

With a rockabilly swagger, a hint of pop-punk, and the type of all-systems-are-go musicality that can’t be faked, The Living End might be one Australian music’s greatest kept secrets. The trio’s 1998 debut remains one of the country’s highest-selling rock albums, shifting four-times platinum, and debuting atop the ARIA Chart, a tally where it stayed for 83 weeks. The group went on the land one of the biggest Australian-made singles of the 1990s with the anthemic “Second Solution / Prisoner of Society”.

Across a three-decade career, the trio — Chris Cheney, Scott Owen and Andy Strachan — have built a reputation as a fierce live act, bagged two No. 1 albums, five ARIA Awards and multiple top 10 records, including this year’s release I Only Trust Rock ’N’ Roll.

Australian actress Claudia Karvan had the honors of inducting The Living End, who rocked the house at Carriageworks with a set featuring “White Noise,” “All Torn Down” and “Prisoner of Society.”