Australia’s Wally de Backer(Gotye) has been awarded three Grammys for Alternative Music Album, Pop Duo/Group Performance and the prestigious Record of The Year at the 2013 Grammy Award ceremony in L.A.

This is the biggest haul of awards by an Australian since Olivia Newton-John and the Bee Gees in the 70’s (though of course they were living in the US at the time).

It’s only the second time in the 54-year history of the Grammys that the Record of the Year prize has been won by an Australian artist (the only other winner was Olivia Newton-John in 1975 for “I Honestly Love You”) and the first time ever that an Australian male solo artist has received multiple Grammys in the same year.

The Record of the Year award is particularly prestigious, with past winners including Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson and U2.

Wally has said “I’m grateful to everyone at home for their constant support. It’s been amazing and I don’t take it for granted. I’m particularly pleased that my album “Making Mirrors” has been acknowledged as well as the single. Hopefully this means there’s a place for adventurous, interesting music out there – and for completely silly music too!”

The awards are the icing on the cake for an incredible 18 months since the Australian release of Gotye’s third album Making Mirrors. That album sold over 2 million copies worldwide and was a Top 10 album in over 25 countries, won multiple ARIAs in Australia and its equivalents abroad and spawned the hit single, ‘Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Kimbra)’.  The song has sold over 13.5 million singles, was viewed over 373 million times on Youtube and was the most streamed song globally on Spotify in 2013. It was the #1 iTunes single in over 50 countries.

Last week, Gotye played his last show of an 18-month world tour with a memorable gig in India.  Next week? He’ll be resting. A lot.