Third time’s a charm for Australian act Rufus du Sol. The trio won best dance recording for “Alive” at the 2022 Grammys on Monday as the awards relocated to Las Vegas for the first time in its history.
Rufus du Sol previously had two Grammy nominations, both in 2020, for best dance album and best dance recording.
The group’s members – Jon George, James Hunt and Tyrone Lindqvist – thanked their team, their label Warner Records, their manager Danny Robson and labelled their path to Grammy triumph “a beautiful journey.”
“We were shocked,” Lindqvist said of the band’s win.
“We’ve been nominated twice before and we were really excited. We didn’t win last time so we knew that feeling. We were scared to get our hopes up. But being in the room and hearing our name was very surreal, it feels so good,” Lindqvist added.
The Sydney act ensures the 64th Grammy Awards are a successful one for Australia, and they continue the good form for Aussies in the electronic and dance categories. Previous winners include Flume in 2016 for best dance/electronic album (“Skin“).
Rufus du Sol (previously known as Rufus) is in sweet form.
A career highlight came last November when the group headlined a string of concerts at L.A.’s Banc of California Stadium in support of Surrender, cut during a months-long lockdown stint on the the U.S. West Coast.
The album blasted to No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart, No. 1 on the U.S. Heatseekers Albums survey and No. 2 on the U.S. Top Dance/Electronic Albums tally, and earned the act a brace of ARIA Awards, for best group and dance release.
The Grammys have, until now, been just out of reach. The act’s 2018 effort Solace, which hit No. 1 on the ARIA Charts, for their third leader, scored a brace of Grammy noms, neither of which led to hardware.
The trio share the award with Cassian Stewart-Kasimba, who mixed “Alive,” and co-writer/producer Jason Evigan.
Rufus du Sol leads a solid Aussie contingent at this year’s Grammys, a lineup that includes AC/DC (best rock performance, best rock album and best music video), The Kid LAROI (best new artist, album of the year), Hiatus Kaiyote (best progressive R&B album), Nick Cave & Warren Ellis (best recording package).
As the night wrapped, several Australians emerged with victory spoils.
Mitch Wong, the Nashville-based Australian songwriter, worked with Gospel singer CeCe Winans on “Believe For It,” which scooped best contemporary Christian music performance, APRA AMCOS reports.
Two-time Australian Music Prize champion Sampa the Great contributed as a co-writer and performer on the track “Free & Equal,” which appeared on Angelique Kidjo’s best global music album-winner Mother Nature, while Sydney composer Elizabeth Younan contributed to Jennifer Koh’s best classical instrumental solo winner Alone Together.
