Announcing The Finalists For 2020 Best Country Music Artist And Song

Celebrating Aotearoa’s outstanding country musicians

Today, Recorded Music NZ and APRA are proud to recognise the outstanding contributions to New Zealand’s country music scene from the past year.

The finalists for Recorded Music NZ Te Kaipuoro Tuawhenua Toa | Best Country Music Artist are Delaney Davidson and Barry Saunders, Katie Thompson and Kendall Elise, while the finalists for APRA Best Country Music Song are ‘Any Fool With A Heart’ and ‘Hey Bus Driver’, both by Tami Neilson, ‘That Summer’ by Kaylee Bell and ‘West Coast’ by Katie Thompson.

The winners will be announced live on Radio New Zealand’s Music 101 on Saturday 30 May.

For Delaney Davidson, it all started when he met Barry Saunders at church. They were sound checking for the Churches Tour with Marlon Williams and Tami Neilson - Barry playing old gospel songs and Delaney chugging out his signature blues trance thump.

Since then, the two collaborated on the album Word Gets Around, which was released in April 2019. A nationwide tour followed the release, and they now are up for the 2020 Recorded Music NZ Best Country Artist award.

For her third studio album Bittersweet, the talented Katie Thompson worked alongside award-winning producer Ben Edwards at The Sitting Room studio in Lyttelton to create an unpretentious, confidently personal release.

This winning combination resulted in the record peaking at #7 on the Top 20 NZ Albums chart with an album drawing from classic country music in the choice of instruments, the range of tempos and moods, and the lyrical honesty of life’s mixed emotions laid bare. This can be seen on the track ‘West Coast’, which is also nominated for the APRA Best Country Music Song this year.

In 2016, Kendall Elise launched her solo career with the debut single ‘Heart Full of Dirt’, which paved the way for the Kiwi singer-songwriter’s self-produced debut EP ‘I Didn’t Stand A Chance’, released in March 2017. This first release saw her selected as a finalist for the APRA Best Country Music Song in 2017.

After recording at Neil Finn’s famed Roundhead Studios, Kendall released her Kickstarter funded debut album “Red Earth” in May 2019. A deeply introspective album of intricate storytelling brought to life with evocative instrumentation; meaningful lyricism and a golden voice.

Alongside Katie Thompson, Tami Neilson and Kaylee Bell are finalists for the APRA Best Country Music Song this year.

No stranger to the Country Music Awards, Tami has been nominated for two songs – ‘Any Fool With A Heart’ and ‘Hey Bus Driver’ – both from her 2020 album CHICKABOOM!

Tami has previously won Best Country Album four times (2009, 2010, 2012, and 2015) at the New Zealand Music Awards, and Best Female Artist at the New Zealand Country Music Awards in 2010, 2011 and 2014.

And Kaylee has had a whirlwind year as the first Australasian artist to play C2C (Country to Country) London in 2019 after being handpicked for Key West Songwriters USA and C2C Australia. Her song ‘That Summer’ is the fourth finalist for the APRA Best Country Song award this year.

Recorded Music CEO Damian Vaughan says despite the unprecedented circumstances we find ourselves in, celebrating the achievements of our artists is essential.

“It’s important we recognise the calibre of our talented musicians, especially with the wealth of exceptional country music which was released over the last year,” says Vaughan.

“Congratulations to this year’s finalists and while we might not be able to gather in person, you should feel proud of your achievements. I look forward to hearing the songs created after this challenging period.”

APRA Head of NZ Operations Anthony Healey adds: "Kaylee, Tami and Katie are writing great songs, playing electrifying shows and making real waves at home and around the world. Each of these amazing songwriters are absolutely at the top of their craft and it's so exciting to honour and celebrate them here in New Zealand."

Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, the Top Paddock Festival and the MLT Songwriting Award which usually take place in Gore, have been cancelled for 2020. However we look forward to seeing their return in 2021.

Finalists for Recorded Music NZ Te Kaipuoro Tuawhenua Toa | Best Country Music Artist

• Delaney Davidson & Barry Saunders – Word Gets Around
• Katie Thompson – Bittersweet
• Kendall Elise – Red Earth

Finalists for APRA Best Country Music Song

• Tami Neilson – ‘Any Fool With A Heart’
• Tami Neilson – ‘Hey Bus Driver’
• Kaylee Bell – ‘That Summer’
• Katie Thompson – ‘West Coast’

About Recorded Music New Zealand 

Recorded Music NZ is a non-profit industry representation and licensing organisation for recording artists and their labels. It divides its services into three main areas. Its Member Services team delivers projects including the Vodafone NZ Music Awards, the weekly Official NZ Top40 Charts and the Music Grants programme. Its licensing division administers broadcast and public performance licensing either directly or through its joint initiative with APRA called OneMusic. Its Pro-Music team is dedicated to protecting and promoting the interests of artists and labels across the New Zealand recording industry.

About APRA AMCOS 

APRA AMCOS, representing the Australasian Performing Rights Association and the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society, is a non-profit organisation that collects and distributes songwriting royalties to its 100,000 songwriter, composer and music publisher members, and around 3,000,000 copyright owners worldwide.

About The New Zealand Songwriters Trust

The New Zealand Songwriters Trust was formed to promote and encourage the craft of songwriting, and to raise the profile and quality of original music for public entertainment and enjoyment. Originally it ran the MLT Songwriting Awards as a standalone event as part of the NZ Gold Guitar week, until 2011 when a new relationship was formed with RIANZ (now Recorded Music NZ) and APRA, which saw the New Zealand Country Music Awards and the MLT Songwriting Awards combined into one night of music, showcasing songwriters and recording artists.

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