The 2026 ARIA Hall of Fame class includes Gurrumul, Spiderbait, The Living End, Kate Ceberano, Jenny Morris and Vika & Linda.
The Australian Recording Industry Association is doing something very different for its 40th anniversary celebrations this year, pulling the Hall of Fame inductions out of the main awards night and turning them into a standalone national television event.
For the first time ever, the Hall of Fame ceremony will air as its own dedicated ABC special, giving some of Australia’s most influential artists the kind of full-length tributes and career retrospectives they rarely get during the fast-paced awards broadcast.
The live event will take place at Carriageworks on Thursday June 11, before airing nationally on ABC Entertains on Saturday June 13 at 9:15pm. The special will also stream on ABC iview.
Hosting the night is Myf Warhurst, whose long-running connection to Australian music culture makes her a pretty fitting choice for a celebration built around four decades of local music history.
This year’s Hall of Fame class is stacked.
The 2026 inductees include Gurrumul, The Living End, Spiderbait, Kate Ceberano, Jenny Morris, and Vika & Linda.
Because the Hall of Fame now has its own broadcast, the night is also leaning heavily into live tributes and collaborative performances.
Members of Gurrumul’s family will perform a rendition of Djarimirri in honour of his legacy, while a tribute to Jenny Morris will feature Dan Sultan, Kate Miller-Heidke and Mia Wray.
ARIA has also confirmed dedicated performance segments celebrating the legacies of Spiderbait, The Living End, Kate Ceberano and Vika & Linda, with more performers expected to be announced closer to the event.
It’s a pretty major shift for the ARIAs. Normally, Hall of Fame inductions are squeezed into the main awards ceremony, with only one or two artists recognised each year due to time limits. By separating it into its own special, ARIA is essentially turning the Hall of Fame into a proper Australian music retrospective instead of a brief awards-night side segment.
The main 2026 ARIA Awards will still go ahead later in the year on November 18, airing via Channel 10 and Paramount+ Australia.
