Songs written for global superstars including Gracie Abrams, KATSEYE, Kygo and Ravyn Lenae
The award is given to songwriter members <\/strong>and their publishers in recognition of a song surpassing one billion streams<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Eight of Australia\u2019s leading songwriters <\/strong>have been <\/strong>honoured with a place on APRA AMCOS\u2019s coveted <\/strong>1,000,000,000 List<\/strong><\/a> – Amy <\/strong>and George Sheppard, Connie Mitchell, Jay Bovino, Kota Banks, Sarah Aarons, Stuart Crichton and Taka Perry.<\/strong> Global songwriting powerhouse Sarah Aarons<\/strong> received two awards <\/strong>for her heart wrenching break up song \u201cI Miss U, I\u2019m Sorry\u201d<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> co-written with and performed by folk-pop darling Gracie Abrams. <\/strong>Her second award was for fellow love song \u201cLove Me Not\u201d<\/a>, performed by Ravyn Lenae<\/strong> and co-written with Anderson Paak, Brent Reynolds, Christian Farlow, Craig Balmoris, Dahi, Dominic Angelella, Jaelen Irizarry, Julian Nixon <\/strong>and Spencer Stewart. <\/strong>Aarons is published by Sony Music Publishing.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Damian Trotter, Managing Director of Sony Music Publishing Australia, says: <\/strong>\u201cSarah is one of the most gifted songwriters we have the privilege of working with, and it\u2019s no surprise to see her reach these milestones. To have her name on records by both Ravyn Lenae and Gracie Abrams, two of the most compelling artists in contemporary music, speaks to her range and the depth of her writing. We couldn\u2019t be prouder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brisbane-based sibling duo Amy and George Sheppard <\/strong>(published by Mushroom Music Publishing<\/strong>), along with co-writer Jay Bovino<\/strong>, have picked up their first Billions Award for \u201cGeronimo\u201d<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>– a song about taking a leap of faith to do something courageous. The iconic Australian song won two APRA Music Awards<\/strong> in 2015 for Most Played Australian Work <\/strong>and Pop Work of the Year.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n On receiving the award, George Sheppard said: <\/strong>\u201cIt\u2019s been an amazing journey for us, and to have the amazing team that we’ve had, getting to bring joy to people for the last 14 years, it’s a dream come true. Thank you so much for this amazing honour.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Linda Bosidis, Co-CEO of Mushroom Music, adds:<\/strong> \u201c\u2019Songs that reach a billion streams become part of people\u2019s lives and Geronimo has done exactly that. It captured something joyful and universal, continuing to connect with audiences year after year. It\u2019s an extraordinary milestone and we\u2019re immensely proud of Sheppard and the incredible legacy this song continues to build.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sneaky Sound System<\/strong> front woman and multi-APRA-award-winner, Connie Mitchell<\/strong>, has been awarded for hip hop song \u201cCan\u2019t Tell Me Nothing\u201d<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> co-written with DJ Toomp<\/strong> and Kanye West. <\/strong>The song peaked at #41 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart when it was first released in 2007 and has been amassing streams ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kota Banks <\/strong>(published by Gaga Music<\/strong>) and Taka Perry <\/strong>(published by Concord Music Publishing ANZ<\/strong>) collaborated in the studio on what would become global girl group KATSEYE\u2019s<\/strong> mega hit \u201cTOUCH\u201d<\/strong><\/a>. <\/strong>Thesong broke through after a TikTok dance challenge went viral in 2024, pushing it onto charts across Asia and onto the Billboard Global 200. Other co-writers on the song were Blake Slatkin, Caroline Ailin, Magnus Hoiberg <\/strong>and Omer Fedi.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Perry said when receiving the award:<\/strong> \u201cWe wrote TOUCH a few years ago at my old studio in Glebe. At the time I was a huge K-pop fan and I wanted to write some K-pop demos. I hit up Kota (Banks), and I was like, \u2018do you want to come to the studio and work on a few songs together?\u2019 And one of those songs was TOUCH. I think we probably wrote it in an hour or two. It was just one of those things where it was the right song, in the right place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Grant Gillies, founder of Gaga Music, adds:<\/strong> \u201cIt’s an absolute joy to see independent Australian artists on the world stage like this, we’re so proud to be a very small part of this wonderful story. A huge congrats to Kota and everyone involved.” Dean Ormston, CEO of APRA AMCOS, concludes:<\/strong> \u201cWhen APRA\u2019s founding publishers first met 100 years ago in 1926, they could never have imagined we\u2019d be here in 2026 celebrating songwriters and publishers for reaching one billion streams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s an extraordinary achievement, especially given the sheer volume of music released every day \u2013 both human and AI-generated. We\u2019re incredibly proud to have been able to support these eight members throughout their careers and now see their songs connecting with huge audiences around the world.\u201d <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Amy and George Sheppard, Connie Mitchell, Jay Bovino, Kota Banks, Sarah Aarons, Stuart Crichton and Taka Perry awarded Songs written for global superstars including Gracie Abrams, KATSEYE, Kygo and Ravyn Lenae The award is given to songwriter members and their publishers in recognition of a song surpassing one billion streams Eight of Australia\u2019s leading songwriters have been honoured with a place … Continue reading “Eight Australian songwriters presented with Billions Awards”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2568"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2569,"href":"http:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2568\/revisions\/2569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The \u2018Billions Award\u2019 <\/strong>is given to songwriter members <\/strong>and their publishers in recognition of a song surpassing one billion streams<\/strong>, taking into <\/strong>account streaming numbers from major services Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, LA-based Scottish songwriter who made Australia his home in the 2000s, Stuart Crichton<\/strong> (published by Concord Music Publishing ANZ<\/strong>), backed up his 2026 APRA Music Award <\/strong>win for Most Performed Dance\/Electronic Work<\/strong> with a Billions Award for Kygo\u2019s <\/strong>\u201cStargazing\u201d<\/strong><\/a> which he wrote back in 2017 alongside Kygo, Jamie Hartman <\/strong>and Justin Jesso<\/strong>. The song was a huge success, peaking at #7 on the UK Dance Singles Chart.
Jaime Gough, Managing Director of Concord Music Publishing ANZ, says:<\/strong> \u201cCongratulations to Stuart and the other writers on this amazing achievement. Stuart\u2019s work ethic is second to none in this business and he genuinely deserves the accolades he has been receiving lately. And well done Taka and Kota on crafting a fantastic earworm in Touch. My daughters are responsible for a good % of these steams!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/assets.apraamcos.com.au\/images\/News\/Sarah-Aarons-Billions-Award3_2.jpg\")