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Click here to find out how much Gotye earned from that song!

Click here to find out why that song was so successful.


Last night at the APRA Awards which celebrate the country’s best songwriters, Gotye (aka the man with the golden touch Wally de Backer) continued his unbeatable form, taking home the three highest honours.

In a foregone conclusion, his omnipresent hit Somebody That I Used To Know was voted Song Of The Year, overcoming Matt Corby, Kimbra, Lanie Lane and The Beards. To date, the haunting break-up song has clocked up 229 million views, won multiple ARIAs, claimed pole position in 23 countries and currently sits at number one in the US for a sixth week,.

Not surprisingly, the tune also picked up the award for Most Played Australian Work while De Backer earned the crown of Songwriter of the Year. Once again, De Backer was his humble self when accepting the accolades.

“Thank you for everyone that played this song,” he told the star-studded crowd at the Sydney Convention Centre. “And sorry to those people listening to commercial radio who had to endure it probably 50 times a day in their workplace.”

Capping off a sensational 18 months, Sydney’s Boy & Bear scored the trophy for Breakthrough Songwriter of the Year, beating other fresh faces Kimbra, Lanie Lane, Matt Corby and Drapht.

In the genre awards, Birds of Tokyo snapped up Rock Work of the Year in their talons with their track ‘Wild at Heart’, the third single from the band’s self-titled album. Kasey Chambers’ other half Shane Nicholson won the Country Work of the Year category with his song ‘Famous Last Words’, while the Blues & Roots Work of the Year went to first-time nominees Busby Marou, aka Tom Busby and Jeremy Marou from Rockhampton.

Electro-pop act The Potbelleez palmed off the likes of Art vs Science, Bag Raiders, Havana Brown and David Guetta featuring Sia (included for Sia’s contribution, we assume) to collect the Dance Work of the Year for their chart topper ‘From The Music’.

Meanwhile, Marvin Priest, son of Maxi, outshone the likes of 360, Drapht, Diafrix and Bliss N Eso to claim the Urban Work of the Year for his track ‘Own This Club’.

It’s not like they need another award but electro-trash rockers LMFAO nabbed International Work of the Year, while perennial rockers AC / DC won the APRA Award for Most Played Australian Work Overseas for the rock n’ roll classic ‘Highway to Hell’. On the industry side, respected talent agent Mary Lopez was presented with the 2012 Ted Albert Award For Outstanding Services to Australian Music.

In what’s become tradition for the awards, the ceremony also hosted dramatic reinterpretations of the year’s biggest songs by other Australian artists live on stage. Among them, guests witnessed Tina Arena with Tex Perkins performing ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’, Kate Miller-Heidke reworking The Beards’ ‘You Should Consider Having Sex With a Bearded Man’, Bob Evans doing The Bee Gees’ ‘I Started a Joke by the Bee Gees’ and Bertie Blackman performed Matt Corby’s ‘Brother’. )

Check out Gotye talking about the song 'Somebody That I Used to Know'



And that's our wrap up of the 2012 APRA Awards winners