She’s set to become Australia’s most decorated songwriter. Sia Furler, responsible for the 2015 global smash, Chandelier, has been named songwriter of the year at the Australasian Performing Right Association (Apra) awards for the third year in a row.
Apra chief executive Brett Cottle called the Adelaide musician “one of the most successful and acclaimed songwriters of her era” and said of her hat-trick: “This is an unprecedented, and very likely, a never-to-be-repeated achievement.”
The win caps off a stunning year for the 39-year-old, in which her sixth studio album, 1000 Forms of Fear, debuted at No 1 in the Australian and US charts. The record picked up four Aria awards on her home turf, including album of the year, and both record and song of the year Grammy nominations. Alongside her solo career, Furler has been the writer behind some of the biggest pop hits of the past decade, including Diamonds (made famous by Rihanna), and Titanium, written in conjunction with dance music producer David Guetta. Her work has featured on the albums of Christina Aguilera, Ne-Yo, Katy Perry, Jessie J, Britney Spears, Beyonce and Kylie Minogue.
Consistent with previous public appearances over the past year, the reluctant celebrity enlisted a friend to stand-in and accept her award. Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy, dressed in a platinum blonde wig, appeared in a video message thanking Apra for the award, and of the triple win joked “I’m the Michael Jordan of the Apras”.
Furler, along with Chandelier co-writer Jesse Shatkin, also collected the peer-voted song of the year at the Apra awards ceremony in Sydney on Tuesday night, bringing her Apra awards total to six during the course of her career.
