Kutcha Edwards (born 1965) is an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...

singer and songwriter. He is known as a former member of the band Blackfire during the 1990s. More recently, he has fronted the Kutcha Edwards Band, and is part of The Black Arm Band. He has been nominated for several Music Victoria Awards, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in the 2023 Music Victoria Awards. He won the Melbourne Prize for Music in 2016.

Early life and education

Kutcha Edwards was born in Balranald, New South Wales in 1965. A survivor of the Stolen Generations, he was removed from his parents at the age of 18 months. He is a Mutti Mutti man.

Career

Edwards' music career began in 1991 as a member of the band Watbalimba. He later joined the band Blackfire who he was with during the 1990s. He contributed lyrics to a revised version of "

Advance Australia Fair "Advance Australia Fair" is the national anthem of Australia. Written by Scottish-born Australian composer Peter Dodds McCormick, the song was first performed as a patriotic song in Australia in 1878. It replaced "God Save the King, God Save th ...

"-collaborating with Judith Durham, and singing the anthem not only with her, but also in a solo version. He released his third album, ''Blak & Blu'', in October 2012. It was produced by Craig Pilkington and features Jeff Lang as well as guest appearances by

Dan Sultan Daniel Leo Sultan is an Australian alternative rock singer-songwriter and guitarist, actor and author. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2010 he won Best Male Artist and Best Blues & Roots Album for his second album, '' Get Out While You Can'' (N ...

, Rebecca Barnard, and others. Edwards now fronts the Kutcha Edwards Band and is part of The Black Arm Band.

On television

Edwards has appeared as a guest on the SBS TV series ''

RocKwiz ''RocKwiz'' is an Australian television live music trivia quiz show, focused on rock music and featuring different guest artist musicians who perform live in each episode. The show was co-created by Brian Nankervis, Peter Bain-Hogg, and Ken C ...

''. ''Kutcha's Koorioke'', a docu-series about Edwards made for NITV, was directed and co-produced by John Harvey and Anna Grieve. It ran for two series, in 2019 and 2022. Each series consists of 10 episodes of 6 or 7 minutes, and several other actors and musicians feature in the series, including Jack Charles, Shiralee Hood, Elaine Crombie,

Archie Roach Archibald William Roach (8 January 1956 – 30 July 2022) was an Australian (Gunditjmara and Western Bundjalung people, Bundjalung) singer-songwriter and Aboriginal Australian, Aboriginal activist. Often referred to as "Uncle Archie", Roach wa ...

, Emily Wurramara, Alice Skye, Bunna Lawrie, and Bart Willoughby.

Awards and nominations

Edwards was named Indigenous Person of the Year at the 2001 NAIDOC AwardsCBOnline
2001National NAIDOC Awards and won a Deadly for Male Artist of the Year in the same year. In 2016, Edwards was awarded the Melbourne Prize for Music and Distinguished Musicians Fellowship

Environmental Music Prize

The Environmental Music Prize is a quest to find a theme song to inspire action on climate and conservation. It commenced in 2022. ! , - , 2023 , "Singing Up Country" , Environmental Music Prize , , , -

Music Victoria Awards

The Music Victoria Awards are an annual awards night celebrating Victorian music. They commenced in 2006. ! , - ,

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

, Kutcha Edwards , Best Indigenous Act , , rowspan="3", , - ,

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

, Kutcha Edwards , Best Indigenous Act , , - ,

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

, Kutcha Edwards , Best Indigenous Act , , - ,

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, Kutcha Edwards , Soul, Funk, RNB & Gospel Work , , , - ,

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

, Kutcha Edwards , Hall of Fame , , , -

Discography

Albums

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Kutcha 1965 births Living people Australian male singers Australian male songwriters Indigenous Australian musicians Members of the Stolen Generations