Melbourne singer-songwriter Gretta Ray has won the 2016 Vanda & Young Songwriting Competition with her song Drive.
Courtesy of APRA AMCOS and Alberts, Gretta received A$50,000 - the largest first prize for any songwriting competition in the world. 18 year old Gretta first had the industry buzzing after winning triple j Unearthed High in August.
AMPAL was proud to once again sponsor the $10,000 second prize of the competition, which went to Award-winning Queensland songwriter Emma Louise with her song Underflow.
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.
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).
The complete winners’ details are:
1st Place – A$50,000: Drive
Gretta Ray (Unpublished)
2nd Place – A$10,000: Underflow
Emma Louise (Published by Kobalt Music Services Australia Pty Ltd)
Joint 3rd Place – A$5,000: Lonely Cities
Tigertown (Charlene Collins/Christopher Collins published by Second Pressing Pty Ltd /Thomas Schleiter (BMI) published by These Are Pulse Songs (subpublished by Native Tongue Music Publishing)
Joint 3rd Place – A$5,000: 4 Seats from Beyoncé
Tia P. (Jaraed Deal (ASCAP) published by Romanical Music/Tia Parchman (ASCAP) published by Shirt N Drawlz/Luther Ridley (ASCAP) published by Live It Up Publishing)
Visit www.vandayoungsongcomp.com for more information including the terms and conditions of the competition and a list of competition judges.
