Women Dominate Country Finalists

Up for Best Country Music Album is Heart First by Kaylee Bell, last year’s Best Female Artist at the National Country Music Awards. She was also the first New Zealander since Keith Urban in 1990 to win Australia’s major new talent hunt Toyota Star Maker.

Another contender is Whistle by Anna van Riel who just returned from a three-month North American Sustainable House Concert Tour performing in homes designed with an eco-conscious approach to living.

Fiddler Marian Burns’ The Paris Sessions with producer Jean Alain Roussell already had a win at the 2013 Golden Fiddle Awards in Australia. Burns’ “Finger In Too Many Pies” is also up for Best Country Music Song.

Tami Neilson has two tracks, “Texas” and “Whiskey and Kisses,” recorded with Delaney Davidson.

APRA AMCOS’ Director of NZ Operations Anthony Healey commented, “Honest and exquisitely crafted, the three finalists’ songs reach to the heart of the human experience in a way only country music can.” Both awards will be presented May 23 at the 40th New Zealand Country Music Awards in Gore before 5,000 fans.