An email from Music Victoria was sent to members on 27 November bringing their attention to a detected voter fraud that altered the outcome of five out of six publicly voted categories in the 2024 Music Victoria Awards.
The state peak body for contemporary music moved quickly to investigate its third-party voting system, Award Force, as well as liaise with cyber security experts and obtain legal advice, through which it uncovered a confirmed instance of “well-executed act of fraud”.
The email outlines that this “targeted action by an unknown assailant/s has resulted in thousands of mis-registered votes being falsely attributed to nominees and categories, affecting the outcome of five of the six publicly voted categories”, including Best Song, Best Album, Best Solo Artist, Best Group and Best Regional Act.
Stakeholders directly impacted have been notified, and previous recipients announced at the 2024 Music Victoria Awards Ceremony (24 October) will retain their trophy and prize. Revised winners have been publicly announced through the Music Victoria website, and will also receive their trophy, prize and credit.
The email emphasises, “We will work closely with the revised winners to ensure they are celebrated and recognised legitimately in the near future. Additionally, we will carve out space in the 2025 Award ceremony to applaud them in front of our community.”
The newly revealed winners in the publicly voted categories are Jess Ribeiro’s ‘Summer of Love’ (Best Song), Angie McMahon’s Light, Dark, Light, Again (Best Album), Maple Glider (Best Solo Arist), Gut Health (Best Group) and Leah Senior (Best Regional Act).
The previous winners announced at the awards ceremony were Good Morning’s ‘Excalibur’ (Best Song), Gregor’s Satanic Lullabies (Best Album), Audrey Powne (Best Solo Artist), RVG (Best Group) and Zoj (Best Regional Act).
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Music Victoria has referred this incident of voter fraud to the Victoria Police Cybercrime, Fraud, Scams and Online Safety Unit for further investigation and action.
ArtsHub is following up the incident and will share further information in the coming week.
This article has been republished after clarification from Music Victoria and now includes previous award-winners, which were not included in the Music Victoria statement dated 27 November. The Music Victoria Award winners media release dated 24 October was updated by the organisation to reflect the new winners.
