September 01, 2010

By By Lars Brandle, Brisbane

With four nominations, Sia leads the pack heading into Australia's fifth annual Jagermeister Independent Music Awards, to be held Oct. 1 at Melbourne's Forum Theatre.

The Adelaide-born artist is up for best independent artist, her third set "We Are Born" (Independent/Inertia) is in the running for best independent album, while the track "Clap Your Hands" scores a nod for best independent single or EP.

Sia, whose most recent album bowed at No. 2 on the ARIA albums chart in June, is also vying for most popular independent artist of 2010, a new category voted on by listeners of commercial radio network Nova.

Hot on Sia's heels are singer-songwriter Dan Sultan and alternative rock group Cloud Control, who each pull three AIR nominations.

Rocker Rowland S Howard receives a posthumous nomination for "Pop Crimes" (Liberation Music), which was released only months before his cancer-related death last December.

The ceremony, until now known as the Jagermeister AIR Awards, is sponsored by the City Of Melbourne and will form the cornerstone of Melbourne Music, a new 12-day program of events which shine the spotlight on the city's music scene.

XYZ Networks' cable and satellite-TV broadcaster Channel V will return this year as the broadcast partner and will tape the show, a package of which will air at an unannounced date in October.

As part of an arrangement brokered by brand entertainment firm Mixitup, Jagermeister has signed a three-year deal to partner with the re-launched independent music awards and independent music charts.

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