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The Most Famous

MUSICIANS from Australia

This page contains a list of the greatest Australian Musicians. The pantheon dataset contains 2,662 Musicians, 35 of which were born in Australia. This makes Australia the birth place of the 12th most number of Musicians behind Norway and Netherlands.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Australian Musicians of all time. This list of famous Australian Musicians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Australian Musicians.

1. Sia (1975 - )

With an HPI of 59.26, Sia is the most famous Australian Musician. Her biography has been translated into 65 different languages on wikipedia.

Sia Kate Isobelle Furler ( SEE-ə; born 18 December 1975) is an Australian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Adelaide, she started her career as a singer in the acid jazz band Crisp in the mid-1990s. When Crisp disbanded in 1997, she released her debut studio album, OnlySee, in Australia. Sia moved to London and provided vocals for the British duo Zero 7. She released her second studio album, Healing Is Difficult, in 2001 and her third, Colour the Small One, in 2004. Sia moved to New York City in 2005 and toured the United States. Her fourth and fifth studio albums, Some People Have Real Problems and We Are Born, were released in 2008 and 2010 respectively, and both were certified gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association and attracted wider notice than her earlier albums. Uncomfortable with her growing fame, she took a hiatus from performing and focused on songwriting for other artists, producing successful collaborations "Titanium" (with David Guetta), "Diamonds" (with Rihanna) and "Wild Ones" (with Flo Rida). In 2014, Sia broke through as a solo recording artist when her sixth studio album, 1000 Forms of Fear, debuted at No. 1 in the U.S. Billboard 200 and generated the top-ten single "Chandelier", and a trilogy of music videos she co-directed, starring child dancer Maddie Ziegler. Since then, she has usually worn a wig that obscures her face to protect her privacy. Sia's seventh studio album, This Is Acting (2016), spawned her first Billboard Hot 100 number one single, "Cheap Thrills". That year she also began her Nostalgic for the Present Tour, which incorporated dancing by Ziegler and others, and other performance art elements. Sia's eighth studio album, Everyday Is Christmas, was released in 2017 and reissued in 2018 with three bonus tracks. In 2018, she formed a supergroup with Labrinth and Diplo, LSD. They released their self-titled debut album in April 2019. Sia has written many songs for films. Her feature film directorial debut, Music, was released in early 2021 alongside an album, Music – Songs from and Inspired by the Motion Picture. Her tenth album, Reasonable Woman, was released in May 2024. Sia is an advocate for animal rights. Among her accolades are nearly a dozen ARIA Awards, nine Grammy Award nominations and an MTV Video Music Award.

2. Nick Cave (1957 - )

With an HPI of 58.77, Nick Cave is the 2nd most famous Australian Musician. His biography has been translated into 49 different languages.

Nicholas Edward Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian musician, writer and actor. Known for his baritone voice and for fronting the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Cave's music is characterised by emotional intensity, a wide variety of influences and lyrical obsessions with death, religion, love and violence. Born and raised in rural Victoria, Cave studied art in Melbourne before fronting the Birthday Party, one of the city's leading post-punk bands, in the late 1970s. In 1980 they moved to London, England. Disillusioned by their stay there, they evolved towards a darker and more challenging sound that helped inspire gothic rock, and acquired a reputation as "the most violent live band in the world". Cave became recognised for his confrontational performances, his shock of black hair and pale, emaciated look. The band broke up soon after relocating to West Berlin in 1982. The following year, Cave formed Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, later described as one of rock's "most redoubtable, enduring" bands. Much of their early material is set in a mythic American Deep South, drawing on spirituals and Delta blues, while Cave's preoccupation with Old Testament notions of good versus evil culminated in what has been called his signature song, "The Mercy Seat" (1988), and in his debut novel, And the Ass Saw the Angel (1989). In 1988, he appeared in Ghosts… of the Civil Dead, an Australian prison film which he both co-wrote and scored. The 1990s saw Cave move between São Paulo and England, and find inspiration in the New Testament. He went on to achieve mainstream success with quieter, piano-driven ballads, notably the Kylie Minogue duet "Where the Wild Roses Grow" (1996), and "Into My Arms" (1997). Turning increasingly to film in the 2000s, Cave wrote the Australian Western The Proposition (2005), also composing its soundtrack with frequent collaborator Warren Ellis. The pair's film score credits include The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), The Road (2009) and Hell or High Water (2016). Their garage rock side project Grinderman has released two studio albums since 2006. In 2009, he released his second novel, The Death of Bunny Munro, and starred in the semi-fictional "day in the life" film 20,000 Days on Earth (2014). His more recent musical work features ambient and electronic elements, as well as increasingly abstract lyrics, informed in part by grief over his son Arthur's 2015 death, which is explored in the documentary One More Time with Feeling (2016) and the Bad Seeds' seventeenth and latest studio album, Ghosteen (2019). Since 2018, Cave has maintained The Red Hand Files, a newsletter he uses to respond to questions from fans. He has collaborated with the likes of Johnny Cash, Shane MacGowan and ex-partner PJ Harvey, and his songs have been covered by a wide range of artists, including Cash ("The Mercy Seat"), Metallica ("Loverman") and Snoop Dogg ("Red Right Hand"). He was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2007, and named an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2017.

3. Lisa Gerrard (1961 - )

With an HPI of 58.44, Lisa Gerrard is the 3rd most famous Australian Musician. Her biography has been translated into 79 different languages.

Lisa Germaine Gerrard ( jə-RARD; born 12 April 1961) is an Australian musician, singer and composer and member of the music group Dead Can Dance with music partner Brendan Perry. She is known for her unique singing style technique (glossolalia). She has a dramatic contralto voice and has a vocal range of three octaves. Born and raised in Melbourne, Gerrard played a pivotal role in the city's Little Band scene and fronted post-punk group Microfilm before co-founding Dead Can Dance in 1981. With Perry, she explored numerous traditional and modern styles, laying the foundations for what became known as neoclassical dark wave. She sings sometimes in English and often in a unique language that she invented. In addition to singing, she is an instrumentalist for much of her work, most prolifically using the yangqin (a Chinese hammered dulcimer). Gerrard's first solo album, The Mirror Pool, was released in 1995. She has been involved in a wide range of projects, starting her first collaborative album in 1998 with Pieter Bourke, and then with various artists throughout her career, who comprised Patrick Cassidy, Klaus Schulze, Hans Zimmer, Ennio Morricone, Zbigniew Preisner among others. She has scored numerous award-winning motion picture soundtracks. As of 2020, Gerrard has released four solo albums and collaborated on sixteen albums. She composed and contributed the scores to more than 48 movies. She received a Golden Globe Award for the music score to the 2000 film Gladiator, on which she collaborated with Hans Zimmer. She wrote the score of Balibo which went on to win an ARIA award for Best Original Soundtrack and an APRA Screen music award for Best feature film score. Overall she has won 11 awards receiving 23 nominations. Gerrard has been nominated for a Grammy Award twice. Gerrard is often affiliated with the "wailing woman" music phenomena, popularized in Gladiator.

4. Flea (1962 - )

With an HPI of 56.28, Flea is the 4th most famous Australian Musician. His biography has been translated into 47 different languages.

Michael Peter Balzary (born October 16, 1962), known professionally as Flea, is an American musician and actor. He is a founding member and bassist of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers and, along with vocalist Anthony Kiedis, one of the only two members to appear on every one of the band's albums. Flea was born in Melbourne, Australia; his family moved to Rye, New York when he was four. After his parents divorced, Flea spent his childhood in the United States and Australia, before settling in California. In high school, he befriended singer Anthony Kiedis with whom he formed the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1982. Flea is also a member of the supergroups Atoms for Peace, Antemasque, Pigface, and Rocket Juice & the Moon, and has played with acts including The Mars Volta, Johnny Cash, Tom Waits, Alanis Morissette, Young MC, Nirvana, What Is This?, Fear, and Jane's Addiction. Flea incorporates elements of funk (including prominent slap bass), psychedelia, punk, and hard rock in his playing. In 2009, Rolling Stone readers ranked Flea the second-best bassist of all time, behind John Entwistle. In 2012, he and the other members of Red Hot Chili Peppers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Since 1984, Flea has acted in films and television series such as Suburbia, Back to the Future Part II and Part III, My Own Private Idaho, The Chase, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Dudes, Son in Law, The Big Lebowski, Low Down, Baby Driver, Boy Erased, The Wild Thornberrys, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Babylon. In 1990, Flea was arrested in Daytona Beach, Florida and charged with battery, disorderly conduct, and solicitation to commit an unnatural and lascivious act. Flea is the co-founder of Silverlake Conservatory of Music, a non-profit organization founded in 2001 for underprivileged children. In 2019, he published a memoir of his early life, Acid for the Children.

5. Phil Rudd (1954 - )

With an HPI of 55.90, Phil Rudd is the 5th most famous Australian Musician. His biography has been translated into 32 different languages.

Phillip Hugh Norman Rudd (born Phillip Hugh Norman Witschke Rudzevecuis, 19 May 1954) is an Australian drummer, best known as the drummer of AC/DC across three stints (1975–1983, 1994–2015, 2018–present). On the 1977 departure of bass guitarist Mark Evans from AC/DC, Rudd became the only Australian-born member of the band. In 2003, he entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with the other members of AC/DC. In 2014, Rudd released his first solo album, Head Job. Due to ongoing legal problems in New Zealand, where he is a resident, Rudd was unable to join the band for the 2015 Rock or Bust World Tour and was replaced by Chris Slade. On 30 September 2020, AC/DC confirmed that Rudd would be rejoining the band for their comeback album Power Up.

6. David Helfgott (1947 - )

With an HPI of 55.17, David Helfgott is the 6th most famous Australian Musician. His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

David Helfgott (born 19 May 1947) is an Australian concert pianist whose life inspired the Academy Award-winning film Shine, in which he was portrayed by actors Geoffrey Rush, Noah Taylor and Alex Rafalowicz.

7. Michael Hutchence (1960 - 1997)

With an HPI of 54.87, Michael Hutchence is the 7th most famous Australian Musician. His biography has been translated into 32 different languages.

Michael Kelland John Hutchence (22 January 1960 – 22 November 1997) was an Australian singer, songwriter, and actor. He was the co-founder, lead singer, and lyricist of the rock band INXS from 1977 until his death in 1997. The band sold more than 50 million records worldwide and was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2001. Hutchence was also a member of the short-lived band Max Q and recorded some solo material, alongside acting in films such as Dogs in Space (1986) and Frankenstein Unbound (1990). He was known for his string of love affairs with actresses, models, and singers, and his private life was often covered in the international press. He had a daughter with English television presenter Paula Yates. Hutchence died by suicide in a Sydney hotel room on 22 November 1997, at the age of 37.

8. John Williams (1941 - )

With an HPI of 51.38, John Williams is the 8th most famous Australian Musician. His biography has been translated into 27 different languages.

John Christopher Williams (born 24 April 1941) is an Australian-born classical guitarist renowned for his ensemble playing as well as his interpretation and promotion of the modern classical guitar repertoire. In 1973, he shared a Grammy Award in the Best Chamber Music Performance category with fellow guitarist Julian Bream for Together (released in the US as Julian and John (Works by Lawes, Carulli, Albéniz, Granados)). Guitar historian Graham Wade has said that "John is perhaps the most technically accomplished guitarist the world has seen."

9. Tommy Emmanuel (1955 - )

With an HPI of 50.81, Tommy Emmanuel is the 9th most famous Australian Musician. His biography has been translated into 30 different languages.

William Thomas Emmanuel (born 31 May 1955) is an Australian guitarist. Originally a session player in many bands, he has released many award-winning recordings as a solo artist. In June 2010, Emmanuel was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM); in 2011, he was inducted into the Australian Roll of Renown. In 2019, he was listed by MusicRadar as the best acoustic guitarist in the world.

10. Colin Burgess (1946 - 2023)

With an HPI of 49.58, Colin Burgess is the 10th most famous Australian Musician. His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Colin John Burgess (16 November 1946 – 16 December 2023) was an Australian rock musician who was the drummer in the Masters Apprentices from 1968 to 1972. He was later the original drummer with hard rock band AC/DC from November 1973 to February 1974. The Masters Apprentices had top 20 singles chart success with "5:10 Man", "Think about Tomorrow Today", "Turn Up Your Radio" and "Because I Love You". In 1998, the Masters Apprentices, with Burgess, were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. He performed in various bands with his brother, Denny Burgess, on bass guitar and vocals, including His Majesty.

People

Pantheon has 35 people classified as musicians born between 1927 and 1996. Of these 35, 28 (80.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living musicians include Sia, Nick Cave, and Lisa Gerrard. The most famous deceased musicians include Michael Hutchence, Colin Burgess, and Daevid Allen. As of April 2022, 4 new musicians have been added to Pantheon including Frank Gambale, Warren Ellis, and Mick Gordon.