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Amyl and the Sniffers have won the top prize at the Australian Performing Rights Association (Apra) awards for the second year running, taking home song of the year for their track Jerkin’.

Song of the year – the only peer-voted category at the Apras, where most awards are determined by airplay and royalties – was just one of Amyl and the Sniffers’ three prizes on Wednesday night.

The Melbourne punk quartet also won most performed rock work for Jerkin’, as well as songwriter of the year.

Jerkin’, a proudly profane kiss-off to the band’s detractors, is a single from their third album Cartoon Darkness. That album, which won them four Arias in November, sees the band reckon with a stratospheric rise that has included both Grammy and Brit nominations and slots at Glastonbury and Coachella.

Last year they won song of the year for U Should Not Be Doing That, also from Cartoon Darkness. “You’re probably sick of hearing from us,” Taylor said from the stage, accepting the same award a year later.

Also taking home multiple Apras was Guy Sebastian, who won most performed Australian work and most performed pop work for his track Maybe – his third and fourth wins since his first nomination in 2005.

Another awards mainstay, Sia, became Apra’s most-awarded writer of all time. She won her 14th prize, picking up most performed Australian work overseas for her indefatigable 2016 single Unstoppable – her second consecutive year winning the same award for the same song.

Songwriting behemoth Sarah Aarons, meanwhile, won her sixth Apra with the international recognition award, selected by the Apras board. Aarons broke out in 2017 for her ubiquitous Zedd collaborations Stay and The Middle, and has since written for BTS, Tame Impala and Miley Cyrus. She is always happy to come home, she said. “My favourite restaurant in LA is the Qantas lounge at LAX … If you know you know.”

Emerging songwriter of the year – also a board-appointed prize – went to the Indigenous and Filipino folk singer Emily Wurramara, her first Apra award after being nominated for the same one last year.

It was a big night for first-time winners. Making their debuts were powerhouse DJ Sonny Fodera, taking home most performed dance/electronic work for Tell Me; Ball Park Music in alternative for Please Don’t Move to Melbourne, their tongue-in-cheek plea to a departing lover; Pania in R&B/soul for Pity Party; Karen Lee Andrews in blues and roots for Survival; Rachael Fahim in country for Who You Are; and Ocean Grove in hard rock/heavy metal for Raindrop.

In hip-hop/rap, OneFour won for Spinnin, a single from their long-awaited debut album which was released last year after years of being subjected to intense attention from New South Wales police.

Already announced earlier this month was the Ted Albert lifetime achievement award, which went to INXS. The band had won a streak of six Apra awards between 1988 and 1992.