Ninajirachi’s I Love My Computer wins the 21st Australian Music Prize, celebrating the outstanding Australian album of original work for the past year.
The Australian musician’s debut full length album, issued by Nina Las Vegas’ NLV Records, was announced Thursday afternoon as the 2025 AMP champ, as decided by a music industry panel.
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With the victory spoils, Ninajirachi (real name: Nina Wilson) collects A$50,000 ($32,000) in prize money, courtesy of headline sponsor Soundmerch.
“Thank you so much to the Australian music prize for awarding me this year, this truly means a lot to me!! I’m so proud to have produced an Australian album,” she comments in a statement. “I Love My Computer drew from my growing up on the central coast and the Australian dance music I heard in my childhood. To sincerely contribute to the awesome story of Australian music was one of my highest hopes. I hope I can keep making albums and telling stories forever. Thank you so much, I’m so honored to receive this award.”
The AMP could trigger a gold rush for Ninajirachi in the month of November — Ausmusic month, the annual celebration of Australian music and its creators. The 26-year-old songwriter, producer, DJ and artist will compete for a leading eight trophies at the annual ARIA Awards, where she’s nominated for album of the year, best solo artist, the Michael Gudinski breakthrough artist, best independent release, best dance/electronic release and more.
Modeled on the U.K.’s Mercury Prize, the AMP launched in 2005 as a platform to “discover, reward and promote new Australian music of excellence,” and is today recognized as the most prestigious national award for the album format.
Also shortlisted for the AMP were LPs by Tropical F*** Storm, Folk B**** Trio, Mudrat, and others released during the period Oct. 1, 2025 to Sept. 30, 2026.
Earlier in the three-stage judging system, a longlist of 465 eligible albums was boiled down to 50 nominees, focusing on creative merit over mainstream popularity. The final shortlist of nine was announced last month.
Previous winners include efforts byThe Avalanches, Sampa the Great (twice), Gurrumul, A.B. Original, Courtney Barnett and last year’s recipient, Kankawa Nagarra for Wirlmarni.
The 22nd Soundmerch AMP is open for Australian artist albums released from Oct.1, 25 to Sept. 30, 2026.
Soundmerch Australian Music Prize 2025 shortlist:
Bleak Squad — Strange Love
Divide And Dissolve — Insatiable
Floodlights — Underneath
Folk B**** Trio — Now Would Be A Good Time
Mia Wray Hi — It’s Nice To Meet
Mudrat Social — Cohesion
Ninajirachi — I Love My Computer
Ruby Gill — Some Kind Of Control
Tropical F*ck Storm — Fairyland Codex
