Troye Sivan dedicates ARIA win to Australian LGBT kids

In case you missed it, tonight was the Australian music industry’s night of nights.

The 2016 ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) awards were held in Sydney this evening and LGBT advocate and singer, Troye Sivan picked up an award for Song of the Year for his single, Youth. 

“This is for every gay Australian kid who wants to make music, you can do it and win an ARIA too,” the 21-year-old singer said after collecting his award from Robbie Williams.

XXXXX during the 30th Annual ARIA Awards 2016 at The Star on November 23, 2016 in Sydney, Australia.

The South African-born, Australian-raised star who rose to fame on YouTube also spoke of his responsibilities as a 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,” Sivan said after the show.

“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.”

XXXXX during the 30th Annual ARIA Awards 2016 at The Star on November 23, 2016 in Sydney, Australia.

Sivan used the platform to talk about the LGBT issues Australia is facing at the moment.

“To me, it feels like it’s no longer an issue of the people and just an issue for politicians. Australia is such a progressive, inclusive country and I’m so glad to be from here; it sucks that [gay marriage] isn’t represented,” Sivan said.

“It’s only a matter of time but that doesn’t mean we can get complacent. I feel what I can do is keep pushing the issue forward as far as the opinion of the public goes.”