Silver Scroll Finalists Named

Their fellow songwriters have spoken and the contenders for this year's APRA Silver Scroll has been whittled down from the 20 initial nominees to five worthy finalists.
Squaring off for the prestigious award, to be presented in Auckland on 18 September, will be:

Sean Donnelly (SJD) for Beautiful Haze
Ruban Neilson (The Mint Chicks) for Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No!
Jason Kerrison, Bobby Kennedy, Matt Treacy and Clinton Harris (OpShop) for Maybe
Brooke Fraser for Albertine
Liam Finn for Second Chance

APRA Silver Scroll Awards 2007 The list is not too far off what RadioScope readers reckoned either. Our web poll asked users, predominantly radio and record industry staff, to predict who they thought would take out this year's Silver Scroll.

It seems we're all agreed on OpShop's Maybe, who topped the RadioScope poll by a substantion margin with 27.2% of the vote, while Brooke Fraser's Albertine was second, and Mint Chick Ruban Neilson's Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No! fourth-equal.

The other two finalists chosen by the APRA member vote, Sean Donnelly and Liam Finn, were also in RadioScope users' top eight. Which perhaps just goes to show the lines between art and commerce, whether you're a songcrafter or an industry slave, are not quite as divergent as some might think. A good song is a good song.

APRA Director of NZ Operations Anthony Healey says the feedback from APRA members and the wider music community to the new APRA member voting system has been overwhelmingly positive.

"We're thrilled. We've got five spectacular songs that represent the true artistic diversity and wealth of talent that exists within our local songwriting community."

The finalists' works will be performed at the Auckland Town Hall on the night of the awards by other artists, frequently reinterpreted in quite spectacular ways.

Also to be awards on the night are the SOUNZ Contemporary Award (recognising creative excellence by a New Zealand classical composer) and The APRA Maioha Award (for the best Te Reo Maori song of the year).

The finalists in those categories are...