Troye Sivan has dedicated his ARIA win to "every LGBT kid in Australia" and later was given a surprise marriage equality shout out from Kylie Minogue who was introducing his performance.
"This is for every gay Australian kid who wants to make music, you can do it and win an ARIA too," he said, after collecting his song of the year award for Youth from presenter Robbie Williams.
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ARIAs 2016: Downpours drench red carpet
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The 21-year-old, South African-born, Perth-raised singer – who, since debuting as a teenage YouTube celebrity, has topped charts the world over with his hits Wild and Youth – discussed the responsibility he feels as an openly queer artist.
"It freaks me out sometimes, it's a lot of pressure. [But] It would be irresponsible of me to not do my best to embrace it as much as I can," he admitted to journalists backstage.
![Troye Sivan accepts an ARIA for Best Video during the 30th Annual ARIA Awards.](/web/20161125123804im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/w/4/u/6/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsw5lf.png/1479936228599.jpg)
"I've been so blessed to have such an amazing platform to talk to so many people and I'm going use it every single second to talk about the things that I think are really important, and fight for the causes that I think are important."
One of those causes? Australia's perennially stalled campaign to legalise same sex marriage.
Sivan, renowned for his efforts to represent LGBT relationships in his music videos (most notably, his Blue Neighbourhood trilogy), spoke about the issue's inevitably, especially in the wake of the plebiscite's death.
"To me, it feels like it's no longer an issue of the people and just an issue for politicians," he said.
"Australia is such a progressive, inclusive country and I'm so glad to be from here; it sucks that [gay marriage] isn't represented.
"It's only a matter of time but that doesn't mean we can get complacent," he added.
"I feel what I can do is keep pushing the issue forward as far as the opinion of the public goes."
Troye's acceptance speech #ARIAs https://t.co/t31uwpSZeA
— Troye Sivan News (@_TroyeSivanNews) November 23, 2016
Minogue and fiance Joshua Sasse both wore a marriage equality T-shirt when they appeared on stage to introduce Sivan's performance of Youth.
"We're here to introduce a shining light in the Australian music industry but were also here to say thank you to everyone who supported Josh's campaign for equality," Minogue said.
"This is more than just a movement, this is people's lives and we want to say to every single member of the LGBT community: 'You are not alone. You have a voice'," the British actor told the crowd.Â
"And if we all stand together we can bring Australia back on the right side of history and make 2017 the year that we all say 'I do' Down Under."
@kylieminogue #marriageequality #arias intro @troyesivan pic.twitter.com/YWDeP2ve8Q
— Simon Bloke Collins (@SimonCollins74) November 23, 2016
Minogue has previously declared that she would not get married until gay marriage was legalised in Australia.
Yasss @kylieminogue @joshuasasse introducing @troyesivan and giving a shout out to marriage equality #ARIAs pic.twitter.com/vBNVH9r0Qg
— Jelly (@SarahKayJelly) November 23, 2016
Similarly Angie Green, CEO of Standup Events, who accepted Sia's best female award on behalf of "Australian marriage equality", sent her own powerful message to such a huge round of applause from the crowd that it went for several minutes.
"This award is for every single non-hetero and gender-diverse person who can currently not marry the person they love in this country," she said.Â
"This award is for our friends our family, our work friends all our mates. Sorry..." Ms Green had to pause because she was getting teary.
"Bottomline is Australia, that no ones' lives and the people that they love should be up for debate. (to huge cheers) You have the opportunity now not to just do a great thing but do the right thing.
"I'm very proudly an ambassador for marriage equality and on behalf of these guys I cannot thank Sia enough, you are an absolute boss and thank you so much for using this platform to send such a powerful and important and crucial message."
Sia was up for six ARIA awards including album of the year.
Sivan, who was nominated for seven awards on the night, also won the ARIA for best video.
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