ARIA Awards: Boy and Bear, Kylie Minogue, Red Carpet Looks, Full List of Winners and More

28th OF November 2011

Celebrity Files, By Chloe Schneider

Last night at the Allphones Arena in Sydney, our nation’s biggest musicians and celebs stepped out for Australia’s music night of nights; the ARIA Awards. This year was the ceremony’s 25^th birthday and there was a special buzz surrounding the show as a result of the big anniversary.
We take you through the red carpet, the ceremony and give you a full list of winners.

The Ladies of the Red Carpet
The clear trend for the red carpet this year was black, black and more black!
Kylie Minogue, 43, was glowing as she arrived ahead of her induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame in a black dress, floor length dress with a sheer bottom that showed off her famous legs. She had Spanish boyfriend Andres Velencoso on her arm and the two looked seriously hot together. Velencoso, 33, rarely makes public appearances and despite the pair being together for three years, we’ve barely seen them on the red carpet. It was quite a treat and the pair looked happy, in love and seriously hot together.
Kylie’s sister Dannii wore a draped black number made more interesting with an elaborate belt. She tweeted about her excitement for her sister ahead of the ceremony.
Delta Goodrem was a standout in the fashion stakes for us. She wore an incredible gown from Lisa Ho that featured full length navy lace over a nude gown that still managed to show off her legs. This dress was our pick of the night, Delta simply shone!
Natalie Bassingthwaigthe bucked the black trend in a silver mini dress. The X Factor was well represented with Bassingthwaigthe in attendance as well as fellow judge and mentor Guy Sebastian and 2011 X Factor winner Reece Mastin.
After tweeting all day that she still hadn’t decided what to wear, Ricki-Lee Coulter decided to show off her newly slim physique in a form-fitting, black dress from White Suede that featured cutouts at the ribs. Her nude Yves Saint Laurent pumps completed the look.
Erin McNaught wore a silk maxi in, you guessed it, black on the red carpet and spiced things up with a metallic belt, glittered pumps an orange cuff and messy, teased hair.
Jessica Mauboy looked every bit the star in an incredible embellished lace-work, floor length gown. The black number had a short train and she completed the grown-up look with a sleek bun. We loved this glam version of Miss Mauboy!

The Ceremony
Twitter was in overdrive last night with media live-tweeting the ceremony and commentators watching from home. The responses were mixed with some people unhappy with the amount of unknown artists being awarded and others thrilled by the indie winners.
Boy and Bear were one such group, taking out a huge five awards including best group and best album. Many bemoaned this fact, saying they’d never heard of the indie group and even drummer Tim Hart told the audience, “We’re so grateful for [the best album award]. I think that the best album of the year is The Middle East but that’s just me. I’m going to get in trouble for that, I’m sorry.”
Despite actually being a New Zealander, Kimbra took out the Best Female Artist award ahead of previous winners Claire Bowditch and Megan Washington.
Kimbra was brought to fame when she sang on Gotye’s celebrated single ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’ and, thankfully, that tune took out Single of the Year and Gotye took out Best Male Artist.
Drapht, who surprised us all by opening the night with a performance, received seven nominations but only took one home for Best Urban Album.
The performance of the night was from Indigenous artist Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu and Missy Higgins who learned Gurrumul’s Yolngu language to perform with him on the night
The much-anticipated ARIA Hall of Fame Induction had Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Molly Meldrum on sage to award the honorees.
Kylie Minogue was first up, accepting her ARIA and held back tears as she said, “Tonight’s award means so much to me. Australia I love you and I thank you very much.” The Wiggles were also inducted into the hall of fame after years of entertaining kids with their fun tunes and show.