Montaigne announced as ambassador for the Environmental Music Prize

Australia’s 2021 Eurovision representative Montaigne has been announced as the ambassador for the Environmental Music Prize, in partnership with Green Music Australia.

The Environmental Music Prize is worth $20,000 in cash and in-kind support, and aims to inspire Australian artists to create music advocating for climate and nature conservation.

Montaigne has been an active campaigner for climate justice and social issues for the majority of her musical career, and famously arrived at the 2016 ARIA Awards with the words ‘people over profit’ written on her chest.

She appeared at the ARIA Awards two years later with the words 'stop Adani' written on her face, in response to the Adani mine in Queensland.

Her 2019 singe ‘Ready’ was written regarding the School Strike for Climate Action protests that year, in which tens of thousands of high school students staging a strike against the government for not doing enough in regards to climate change.

“I believe that intersectional environmentalism is important, which means, if you’re going to fix one thing, you have to fix all of them because they all dovetail into each other; race issues, sexuality agenda, environmental issues and the pandemic.”

Montaigne’s strong stance on climate justice and corporations that create the majority of emissions makes her the perfect ambassador for this prize.

“I feel like a lot of artists have just tried to retreat to a safe space, whatever that may be. I think the response artistically has been to create things that are a response to the pandemic in particular, just because that’s been the issue that’s dwarfed the climate movement.”

Details about how artists, established or emerging, can submit for consideration for the prize will come soon.

For more information, you can visit the official website of the Environmental Music Prize here.