Everything Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson touch still turns to gold, even a divorce.
More than a decade after separating, the former partners and long-time collaborators reunited on stage at the 2026 Country Music Awards of Australia, where their song The Divorce Song claimed both song of the year and single of the year.
“I don’t think we thought we’d be standing up here together again,” Chambers told the Tamworth ceremony.
“I want to thank Shane for this song. You are still one of my favourite singer-songwriters in the entire world – you weren’t for a few years there, but you’re back.
“We hadn’t written a song together since the divorce and it’s really special you took a chance on me.”
Chambers and Nicholson married in 2005 and have two children together. Their first collaborative album in 2008 debuted at number one, was certified platinum and earned them five Golden Guitars at the 2009 awards, while a second collaboration in 2012 won the ARIA Award for best country album.
Nicholson said writing The Divorce Song was deliberately kept simple.
“The writing of this song we did via text message, so we didn’t tempt fate,” he said.
“It seriously took us an hour, but in reality it took us probably close to 10 years of living, learning and growing to write this song.”
Chambers’ album Backbone was also awarded alt-country album of the year, contributing to a total of three wins from her 13 nominations. She now has more than 20 Golden Guitars to her name, while Nicholson has more than 15.
While Chambers led the nominations, the night belonged to The Wolfe Brothers, who swept five Golden Guitars including album of the year for Australian Made, contemporary album of the year, duo of the year, vocal collaboration of the year and heritage song of the year.
Brothers Nick and Tom Wolfe said their success affirmed their decision to stay in Australia rather than relocate to the United States.
“This is our home, this is where our family is, this is the country we care about,” Tom Wolfe said.
“Australian country music is from here – it’s from the heart, it’s songs about farmers, battlers, real people and us.
“Right now there is this wonderful international country music boom, but the best thing for us is to do our modern type of country and sing about this place: Australia.”
The wins bring the duo’s career Golden Guitar tally to 15.
Rising star Wade Forster was named both male artist of the year and new talent of the year. The 27-year-old said the awards reflected years of sacrifice.
“I worked my ass off for it. I didn’t want to leave a stone unturned and I lived in my car to be able to sit here today – holding two of them,” he said.
Max Jackson went back-to-back as female artist of the year, while Fanny Lumsden and her husband Dan Stanley Freeman won video of the year for Look At Me Now.
“This particular clip is quite different in that it’s not the world of the song, it’s the world of our lives,” Freeman said.
GOLDEN GUITAR WINNERS 2026
FEMALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR
* Max Jackson
MALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR
* Wade Forster
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
* Australian Made – The Wolfe Brothers
SONG OF THE YEAR
* The Divorce Song – Kasey Chambers featuring Shane Nicholson
SINGLE OF THE YEAR
* The Divorce Song – Kasey Chambers featuring Shane Nicholson
VIDEO OF THE YEAR
* Look At Me Now – Fanny Lumsden
ALT COUNTRY ALBUM OF THE YEAR
* Backbone – Kasey Chambers
TRADITIONAL COUNTRY ALBUM OF THE YEAR
* Start All Over Again – Brendan Radford
HERITAGE SONG OF THE YEAR
* Australian Made – The Wolfe Brothers
VOCAL COLLABORATION OF THE YEAR
* How Many One More Times – The Wolfe Brothers with Zac & George
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