Tori Forsyth & Brad Cox Win Major Titles At 2024 Queensland Music Awards

The annual Queensland Music Awards returned for its 19th edition last night (April 17), celebrating the state’s best and brightest artists, venues and industry figures – and among them were two of Australia’s most beloved up-and-coming country stars, Tori Forsyth and Brad Cox.

READ MORE: Australia's Country Music Boom: ‘People Worked Their Fucking Asses Off To Make It Happen’

Forsyth took home this year’s Country Award for her bewitching Shane Nicholson collaboration Sometimes. The track itself arrived last September as the lead single from Forsyth’s upcoming third album (All We Have Is Who We Are, out May 3 via Island Records), and at the time she described it as an extraordinarily rare breakup song – “the only one on the record, the only one I have ever written, [and] the only one I intend to write.”

She further explained of its genesis: “Plain and simple, sometimes, out of nowhere, your heart gets broken. But you pick up the pieces and move on, and sometimes, most of the time, something beautiful is on the other side.”

Celebrating last night’s win on social media, Forsyth noted that her QMA marks her “very first real award that isn’t just for encouragement” and praised the ceremony as “such a genuinely fun night”, adding: “I’m very grateful to receive this award.” She gave thanks to Nicholson, producer Scott Horscroft and his team at The Grove Studios, and her bandmates Matt Newton (guitar), Zachary Miller (bass) and Reece Baines (drums).

“If I wasn’t so dang nervous and shocked last night,” she wrote, “I would have also thanked my family for continuing to support my creative endeavours with pride no matter what it looks like, and to my love [Benny Durham] for being the most wonderful and inspiring human, my biggest cheerleader when things seem grim but also in these moments.”

Forsyth followed Sometimes up last November with the single Made Your Bed, then announced All We Have Is Who We Are in January alongside the Kasey Chambers collab Good Enough. The album’s fourth single, All We Are, arrived just shy of a month ago, shortly after Forsyth announced an east coast tour in support of the album.

Meanwhile, Brad Cox won the 2024 Queensland Music Award for Highest Selling Album, earning his accolade at the hand of his career-defining third album Acres. It came just a few months after he took out this year’s Golden Guitar Award for Top Selling Australian Country Album.

Acres topped the ARIA Charts upon its release last May, a feat Cox accomplished on the back of hit singles Last Time Last and Single Life (both of which absolutely dominated the Countrytown Hot 50 throughout 2023).

Cox is currently on the Yarns & Yodels tour across Australia, having just wrapped up a seven-show stint in Queensland. Next up will be four shows across WA next week, followed by another 11 gigs split between NSW, SA and Victoria. Head here for all the info on the remaining dates, and here to read more about all the winners from the 2024 Queensland Music Awards.