Brisbane’s Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner has withdrawn funding from Queensland Music Awards over what he alleges to be its “promotion of antisemitism”. QMA stands to lose $25,000.

At issue is the song River To Sea, composed by Brisbane-based jazz pianist and Brigidine College arts department director Kellee Green, who collected the QMA Jazz Award at Tuesday night’s ceremony.

QMA 2025 winner Kellee Green. Photo © Darcy Goss Media

“The decision to hand a major prize to an offensively titled anti-Jewish song raises serious questions about whether the awards have been hijacked by extremists,” said Schrinner in a statement released to media on Thursday morning.

“The promotion of antisemitism at Tuesday night’s Queensland Music Awards was utterly shameful and divisive”.

“Allowing such vile hate speech to occur shows the awards seem to be no longer capable of achieving their own stated goal to ‘promote diversity and inclusion’,” Schrinner added.

In her awards acceptance speech, Green said: “I can’t accept this award for this piece without acknowledging the...