With two trophies each, Ball Park Music and Jem Cassar-Daley were the big winners at the 2026 Queensland Music Awards, presented Wednesday night (April 22) on the Gold Coast for the very first time.

Cassar-Daley was on hand to collect the pop award for “Kiss Me Like You’re Leaving,” and doubled up with the song of the year award, the second time she has collected the honor.

On winning the night’s major prize, Cassar-Daley quipped: “To say I wasn’t expecting this is an absolute understatement.” When her name was called out, she was eating a “few little carrot sticks” with her mother, the veteran broadcaster Laurel Edwards. “Honestly, every year I feel like I’m more and more blown away by the talent that comes out of Queensland, and Brisbane. But it’s also the support from venues, metro and regional.”

By winning song of the year, Cassar-Daley, daughter of homegrown country music great Troy Cassar-Daley, is awarded with a plaque on the Walk of Fame in Brisbane’s Brunswick Street Mall. She already has one, for nabbing song of the year in 2024 with “King of Disappointment.”

Ball Park Music capped a massive 12 months with a brace for their eighth album, Like Love, which won QMAs for album of the year and highest selling album. Like Love went to No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart in April 2025, the band’s first leader after long streak of near-misses which included three titles that peaked at No. 2: Puddinghead (2014), Ball Park Music (2020), and Weirder & Weirder (2022). Later in 2025, the band opened for Oasis on the reunited Britpop legends’ stadium tour of Australia.

“We have loved being a band for almost 20 years now. To get together and to make songs together, has always been a labor of love,” frontman Sam Cromack remarked after winning album of the year. “It’s a great honor to win an award but it’s never been the driving force. We absolutely love making music together and performing music. So to have an honor like this is very special.” With his final words, a blunt reminder of the important things in life. “Go and start a f—ing band,” he remarked.

Young Franco, too, knows a little about life in the winners’ circle. Just 24 hours after he was inducted into the Valley Walk of Fame, a permanent reminder of his 2025 song of the year win for “Wake Up” featuring Master Peace, Franco made the trip 50 miles south to the QMAs where he snagged the 2026 electronic award for “Lose Control.” Franco was tapped for Spotify’s RADAR emerging artist program in 2024, as he opened for Dom Dolla on the EDM superstar’s record-breaking tour of Australia.

Other winners at the 2026 QMAs included Hollow Coves (export artist of the year), FISHER (highest Selling single for “Stay”) and 4ZZZ, the Brisbane community radio station that was presented with the lifetime achievement award in recognition of 50 years on air, supporting homegrown acts, and for the station’s epic fights for good causes.

4ZZZ isn’t a station. It’s an institution in the domestic music community. “This award is a testament to every artist we’ve ever played before anyone else would, every volunteer who showed up on a Sunday morning and every listener who tuned in because they wanted something real,” commented 4ZZZ presenter, Quentin Ellison of Friday Neon. “Queensland music has always been world class, and we’ve just been lucky enough to have a front row seat.”

Guests and presenters at the Miami Marketta included ex-Powderfinger and the Church guitarist Ian Haug; former Powderfinger bandmate, now venue operator and night-life economy commissioner John “JC” Collins; Hutchies chairman Scott Hutchinson; and Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate.

“We’re serious about our creative enterprise and understand the importance of supporting events such as the QMAs,” commented Tate. “We’re not just talking about it, we’re investing in our cultural capital with new venues such as the Gold Coast Music Hall under construction and the Gold Coast Arena in the pipeline.”

Launched in 2006 and presented by QMusic, the awards are the state’s peak recognition of musical excellence with support by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland. Each category is judged by a panel of over 100 industry professionals.

Performers included Screamfeeder, DZ Deathrays, Dami Im, Sunny Luwe, Tori Darke and others, while broadcasters Ash McGregor and Matt Okine were presenters.

The full list of QMAs category and scholarship winners can be seen at qmusic.com.au/qma and below.

Full list of the 2026 Queensland Music Award Winners

Category Award Winners
Blues/Roots — Lontano, “Way Too Long”
Children’s Music — Joff Bush, I Don’t Have a Chimney (ft. Emma Dean)
Contemporary Classical — Abigail Lui & Camerata, Memory in the Distant Hills (presented by Griffith University)
Country — Tori Darke, “Remember Me Like That”
Electronic — Young Franco, “Lose Control” (presented by Comiskey Group)
Folk — The Dreggs, “We Don’t Talk”
Heavy — Upsetter, “Best Years of My Life” (presented by The Lanes Fortitude Valley Festival)
Hip Hop — Say True God?, “COUNT US IN” (presented by Eumundi Brewery)
Jazz — Dami Im, Bubble
Music for Screen — Georgia D’Arcy, Creek
Music Video of the Year — Loki Liddle & Joshua Tate, “Breaking Into Heaven (from the album Selve) (presented by PixelFrame)
Pop presented by ARUGA — Jem Cassar-Daley, Kiss Me Like You’re Leaving
Rock presented by Miami Marketta — DZ Deathrays, Skyline
Soul/Funk/RnB — BADASSMUTHA, BUB
World Award presented by 612 ABC Brisbane — Tenzin Choegyal, Snow Flower

People’s Choice Awards presented by Oztix and The Music
Festival of the Year — Maleny Music Festival
Metro Venue of the Year — The Tivoli
Regional Venue of the Year — Miami Marketta

Major Awards
Album of the Year — Ball Park Music (presented by Gold Coast Music Awards)
Highest Selling Album — Ball Park Music (presented by QMusic)
Highest Selling Single — Fisher, “Stay” (presented by QMusic)
Export Artist – Hollow Coves (presented by Sounds Australia)
Song of the Year — Jem Cassar-Daley, “Kiss Me Like You’re Leaving” (presented by City of Gold Coast through Invest Gold Coast)
Lifetime Achievement presented by Hutchies – 4ZZZ

Industry Excellence
Accessible & Inclusive Venue – Den Devine
Breakthrough Artist presented by SAE University College – Odd Mob
Indigenous Artist of the Year – JUNGAJI
Producer of the Year, presented by APRA AMCOS – Mallrat
Regional Artist of the Year – Djawarray

Scholarships, Fellowship and Award – supported by the Queensland Government through
Arts Queensland
(The awards were presented at the Queensland Parliamentary Friends of Music event in March)
Billy Thorpe Scholarship – Frank and Louis
Carol Lloyd Awards – Paulina
Dennis Mop Conlon Scholarship – Dubbzone
Grant McLennan Fellowship – Banff

No, it’s not a drill: Boards of Canada is all set to release an album of new material.

The electronic music act will crush a decade-plus drought next month with the release of Inferno, an 18-track double album that will spread across 70 minutes.

Presumably, Inferno will house the meditative track “Tape 05,” which BoC and Warp Records dished up last week, an easter egg in an unexpected cryptic social media drip feed.  

For BoC’s long-suffering fans, Inferno is a bolt from the blue. The duo’s last album, 2013’s Tomorrow’s Harvest, proved to be their biggest commercial success, based on international chart placings.

Then, deafening quiet. Thirteen years of it.

Only the most hopelessly optimistic BoC fans would’ve anticipated a new era. And yet here we are, with confirmation coming by way of separate social posts, one combining dramatic, but minimal, BoC music, with hexagonal imagery and video cut from a simpler time. It’s sunburnt nostalgia, bottled.

Boards of Canada is comprised of Scottish brothers Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin, a universe-building pair that is both enigmatic, secretive and adored by connoisseurs of minimal electronic music.

The siblings rarely give interviews, they’ve performed only a small handful of live shows, mostly in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and their official music videos can be counted on one hand.

BoC’s impact shouldn’t be measured in hits, or streams. Though their fourth and most recent album release, Tomorrow’s Harvest, did set new career chart marks for the act. That collection peaked at No. 7 in the United Kingdom, for their first top 10 entry, and at No. 13 on the Billboard 200, their first appearance on the all-genres U.S. albums chart.

A comeback of sorts emerged in 2019 with “XYZ,” a previously-unreleased tune from their Peel Session of July 1998, which appeared on a new Warp Records 30th anniversary package, WXAXRXP Sessions.

Inferno is due out May 29 in digital, CD and 2xLP formats. Check out the latest BoC social posts below. Pre-order and pre-save at boardsofcanada.com.

Karol G’s Coachella magic sends her streaming soaring, while four songs from her first weekend setlist (on April 12) re-enter Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart (dated April 25).

The first Latina headliner in the history of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Karol G’s catalog of songs generated 40.5 million chart-contributing on-demand official streams in the United States during the April 10-16 tracking week, according to Luminate. That sum translates to a 34% boost from the week prior, when her catalog logged 30.3 million (tracking week April 3-9).

Among Karol G’s first weekend spot, four songs re-enter the multi-metric Hot Latin Songs chart, which incorporates airplay, streaming activity and digital sales into its formula. Leading the resurgence is her former No. 1, “Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido,” which re-appears at No. 6, driven largely by 3.8 million official chart-contributing streams, equating to a 26% growth.

After previously dominating for 14 consecutive weeks at No. 1, the song remains Karol’s longest reign among her nine chart-toppers. Plus, it is tied for the second-most weeks at No. 1 for a song by a female soloist, unaccompanied by another act, with Daniela Romo’s “De Mi Enamorate” (in 1986-87). In top spot is Yuri’s “Que Te Pasa,” with 16 weeks in 1988.

Among songs by women, in terms of total weeks at No. 1, including collaborative tracks, Shakira continues to rule through “La Tortura,” with Alejandro Sanz, which pulled 25 weeks atop in 2005.

Karol G’s “Latina Foreva” gains momentum with a 57% surge, logging 2.2 million streams. The boost propels the song back to No. 15, after its debut and peak at No. 3 in June 2025.

No. 14-peaking “Amargura” returns at No. 19 with 2 million streams, up 34% during the tracking period. Meanwhile, former chart-topper “Provenza,” which spent one week at No. 1 in 2022, reappears at No. 22 with 1.9 million streams, up 29%.

Back to “Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido,” the song also makes a splash on a global level. It climbs 153-115 on the Billboard Global 200 chart. Plus, it rises 124-109 on the Global Excl. U.S. chart.

Gains for Karol G’s headlining turn during the festival’s second weekend (on April 19) will be reflected on next week’s charts (dated May 1).

From the baseball field to Sabrinawood, Geena Davis and Madonna have reunited.

Thirty-four years after starring in A League of Their Own together, Davis and Madonna once again ended up on the same stage, this time at Coachella. The Queen of Pop and the Academy Award-winning actress were reunited when Sabrina Carpenter tapped them to make surprise appearances during her Coachella weekend 2 headlining set on Friday. Davis expressed her excitement over seeing her former co-star by sharing a new photo of the duo to Instagram on Wednesday (April 22). Of course, she referenced their film’s characters in the caption.

“Mae – so happy to see you again! Love, Dottie,” Davis wrote.

One fan won the comments section by writing of the photo: “I know there’s no crying in baseball but I’m literally crying.”

Both Davis and Madonna played pretty significant roles in the second Sabrinawood — Carpenter’s performance inspired by a reimagined Hollywood. Davis, with dyed blonde hair and in the driver’s seat of a vintage car, portrayed an older version of the “Espresso” singer. While at a fictional drive-in movie theater, “Older Sabrina” delivered a monologue reflecting on how her niece never got to see her as the youthful musician she once was. (In a fitting reference, Carpenter’s weekend 1 older self was portrayed by Davis’ Thelma & Louise co-star Susan Sarandon.)

Madonna’s role in Sabrinawood was very different from Davis’: The fellow blond diva took to the stage to perform the Billboard Hot 100 chart-toppers “Like a Prayer” and “Vogue” and a yet-unreleased duet with Carpenter. The same day she hit the stage with the “Please Please Please” singer, Madonna released her new song “I Feel So Free,” the first taste of her upcoming album Confessions II.