The 2019 Vanda & Young Global Songwriting Competition has awarded the top prize to songwriters Matt Corby and Dann Hume for the emotive and richly melodic song ‘Miracle Love.’
Courtesy of APRA AMCOS, Alberts and BMG, Corby and Hume will share the $50,000 cash prize, the largest first place prize for any songwriting competition in the world.
Upon winning, songwriter and producer Hume said, "This song was a special one for Matt and I, one of the first songs we wrote together after a few years between his albums. No idea what would come, when it was finished it felt like it had always existed and we just happen to find it buried in the backyard studio of his house.”
The competition’s $10,000 2nd place prize, provided by AMPAL, goes to Grammy-nominated, LA-based songwriter and 2019 APRA Songwriter of the Year honouree Sarah Aarons for her entry ‘The Middle,’ a worldwide smash performed by Zedd, Maren Morris and Grey.
In 3rd place and the winner of $5,000 courtesy of Aon is Brisbane’s Sahara Beck with ‘Here We Go Again’ a song the award-winning independent artist wrote with producer Tony Buchen.
In the second year that the $5,000 Unpublished prize has been awarded, 21-year old Melbourne singer-songwriter Kaiit takes out the honour for ‘Miss Shiney,’ which she co-wrote with Michael Lee Chan, Mohamed Komba, Vincent Goodyer and Nicholas Martin.
The winning songs were narrowed down from the top 40 finalist shortlist and an overall pool of 3,683 entries from 48 countries, by a panel of songwriters and music industry judges from media, publishing, labels, and music streaming services. See full judging list here.
In 2019, songwriters worldwide collectively raised $184,150 for Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Australia (NRMTA) via their $50 entry fee per song.
All money raised goes directly to fund the organisation’s transformative programs, and in ten years of the competition’s existence, entrants have contributed over $1.2 million.
Named after the iconic songwriters and founding members of The Easybeats, Harry Vanda and the late George Young, the competition raises funds for NRMTA and its work with children and adults with physical and intellectual disabilities, autism, trauma, illness, dementia, behaviour disorders and learning difficulties.
AMPAL is proud to once again sponsor the 2019 competition.
For more details and to hear the winning songs, go to the APRA AMCOS website here.
