Emma Louise takes second place
Tigertown and Tia P tie for third!
3,934 entries | 2,412 songwriters | 20 countries
$200K raised for Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Australia
The dream run continues for Melbourne singer/songwriter Gretta Ray, who has taken out the top prize in the 2016 Vanda & Young Songwriting Competition with Drive.
Courtesy of APRA AMCOS and Alberts, Gretta received A$50,000 – the largest first prize for any songwriting competition in the world – at a special presentation in Sydney today.
To say it’s been a huge year for the 18-year-old would be a massive understatement. Gretta first had the industry buzzing after winning triple j Unearthed High in August, and that buzz is turning into a roar. In-between sitting her VCE exams, Gretta took time out to accept her prize and said she was still getting her head around the win, which she described as “an incredible honour.”
“For any artist this would be an amazing thing in their career. This is not an industry that brings a lot of money to many people. You really have to struggle or get other jobs to support yourself which I will probably have to do too. But this is an incredible privilege. I am about to finish high school and now I have this advantage in supporting my journey. I wanted to take a gap year and just throw myself into the music world. This makes that more possible. This is the job I really want to do and this will help make that dream more real.”
Award-winning Queensland songwriter Emma Louise has claimed second prize with Underflow and receives A$10,000 thanks to AMPAL (Australasian Music Publishers Association). Emma Louise, who was nominated for Best Female Artist at the 2013 ARIA Awards, is currently touring Australia in support of her acclaimed second album ‘Supercry’.
Third place was a tie between Sydney’s Tigertown for Lonely Cities and American songwriter Tia P for 4 Seats From Beyoncé, with both receiving A$5,000 supplied by AEG Ogden and APRA AMCOS, who graciously provided the additional prize in light of the tie.
Tigertown, who have gone from strength-to-strength since participating in an APRA AMCOS SongHubs writing camp in London in 2014, joined Gretta Ray at today’s presentation ahead of a two month European tour.
Californian hip-hop artist Tia P was particularly thrilled to become the competition’s first international prizewinner.
Applicants paid an entry fee of $50 per submission with all money raised going directly to Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Australia. This year’s competition raised an astounding $196,700 from entries, with another $3,300 generously donated by a former recipient of the prize taking the final amount raised to $200,000 for this very worthy cause.
All winners will also take home a microphone prize pack thanks to Shure.
Gretta Ray joins previous winners of this prestigious competition, Husky Gawenda (2014), Isabella Manfredi (2013), Kimbra Johnson (2011) and Megan Washington (2009).
via: APRA AMCOS