Tame Impala Leads the 2026 ARIA Awards With Eight Nominations as 'Dracula' Hits No. 1 on Radio Songs

Tame Impala is having a week that few Australian acts have ever matched. According to Billboard, Kevin Parker's psychedelic pop project has collected eight nominations for the 40th annual ARIA Awards, tying Genesis Owusu for the most of any artist this cycle. The news lands just days after the JENNIE-assisted "Dracula" climbed to No. 1 on Billboard's all-format Radio Songs chart — a first for both artists.

A 'Deadbeat' Cycle Rewarded Across the Board

The nominations reflect the breadth of Tame Impala's most recent era. According to Billboard, the eight nods include album of the year and best solo artist for Deadbeat, plus best pop release for "Dracula" and best dance/electronic release for "Afterthought."

That category spread is telling. A project that began in Perth as a home-recording outlet for Parker has, over nearly two decades, drifted steadily from guitar-driven psychedelia into widescreen, club-adjacent pop — and the ARIAs have followed it there, slotting the same album into rock-adjacent, pop and dance fields at once. It's a rare show of range that speaks to how little genre boundaries matter to Parker's audience.

It's a notably strong showing for an album that drew polarized reviews on release, a reminder that critical consensus and commercial momentum don't always move together. Deadbeat, his fifth studio album, has already produced the project's biggest global hit in "Dracula" — a single that, per Billboard, has logged 18 weeks inside the national top 10 in Australia and peaked at No. 4 there.

From Studio Project to Chart Force

The Radio Songs milestone is arguably the more striking of the two stories. "Dracula" rose one place to lead the all-format chart dated Sept. 26, drawing 62.6 million in airplay audience between Sept. 11 and 17, according to Luminate. The song was first released by Tame Impala solo last October, with the duet version — featuring JENNIE of BLACKPINK — arriving in early February.

For Parker, the No. 1 follows a near-miss: he had previously reached the chart's top 10 as a cowriter and coproducer on Dua Lipa's "Houdini" in 2024. Tame Impala first appeared on Billboard's charts in 2010, meaning the radio crown arrives roughly 15 years into the project's chart life. For JENNIE, it's a first career leader on the ranking; she had previously appeared on Radio Songs with "One of the Girls," alongside The Weeknd and Lily-Rose Depp.

The song's chart footprint extends well beyond radio. Billboard reports it has returned to its No. 5 high on the Hot 100 — the first top 10 for both Tame Impala and JENNIE — while dominating Hot Dance/Electronic Songs for a 37th week and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs for a 19th. It also leads Adult Pop Airplay for a ninth week, following seven weeks atop Pop Airplay and two atop Alternative Airplay. It reached No. 2 on Adult Alternative Airplay and cracked the top 15 on Adult Contemporary.

Parker and JENNIE cowrote the track — a detail worth noting, since it underscores how much of Tame Impala's recent success rests on Parker's expanding songwriting reach rather than on a single signature sound.

A Crowded Field for the 40th ARIAs

Tame Impala is already a 13-time ARIA winner, so the 2026 tally extends a long-running relationship with the awards rather than introducing one. But the competition this year is formidable.

• Genesis Owusu also holds eight nominations, recognized for REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE, his third album.
• Ecca Vandal follows with seven for Looking For People To Unfollow.
• Baker Boy, BOY SODA, G Flip, Miss Kaninna and Ninajirachi each scored five.
• Dom Dolla, DMA'S and Troye Sivan landed four apiece, with Dom Dolla's nominations arriving just hours before he played Melbourne's Marvel Stadium — a first for a homegrown DJ.
• Kylie Minogue, Paul Kelly, Keith Urban, Vika & Linda and Hilltop Hoods also appear on the shortlist.

"We could not be more thrilled with this list of nominees to celebrate 40 years of Australian music and incredible human artistry," ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd said in a statement. "These records and these amazing artists represent the culmination of 40 years of Australian success in making great music that captures our unique voice and takes it global."

The ceremony itself is set for Wednesday, Nov. 18 at Sydney's Hordern Pavilion, with this year's edition marking four decades of the awards. Fans get a say too: the four publicly-voted categories — best Australian live act, song of the year, best video and most popular international artist — will again run through Spotify, with voting open from Sept. 24 to Nov. 9 across the app and the official ARIA website.

"In year one, we set out to bring fans closer to the artists they love and help their music travel further, and we saw that come to life," said Spotify AUNZ managing director Mikaela Lancaster. "This year, we're building on that foundation."

The broadcast will air live on Paramount+ and on 10, with performances and moments also headed to the @ARIA.official YouTube channel.

What to Watch

For Tame Impala, the next few weeks pose an interesting question: whether an album that split critics can convert eight nominations into hardware, and whether "Dracula" — now a genuine crossover fixture across pop, rock, dance and adult formats — keeps climbing on the Hot 100 after returning to its peak. Either way, the project's arc from Myspace uploads to all-format radio No. 1s is now well past the point of being a surprise. It's the baseline.