Wintec Music Graduate wins National Award

Wintec Music Graduate wins National Award

Chanelle Davis graduated with a degree from Wintec in Hamilton, a Bachelor of Media Arts commercial music majoring in songwriting in 2005.

After graduating she spent six months working for Dawn Raid Entertainment, an Auckland record label, before making the decision to pursue a career as a singer-songwriter. Last year she independently released her Debut album 'Better Than Alone', which received a 5 star review in the Waikato Times.

To celebrate the release she did a mini-tour in Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga, with support from singer-songwriter Luke Thompson, a fellow Wintec graduate from her year.

Since releasing the album, she has moved to Auckland to get her music out to more people, and be a part of the New Zealand music scene. She says that a weeks ago Jordan Luck went to one of her shows and jumped up on stage to sing a song with her.

Chanelle’s most recent achievement was winning the New Zealand Songwriter's Trust Award last week, with her song 'Dear Jon', which was chosen from nearly 200 entries.

She says the $2,500 prize money will go towards the recording of five new tracks which will be added to the current album and re-released in time for her nationwide tour in September.

This week she performed live on television for the first time on TVNZ’s Good Morning show, and she will perform her winning song 'Dear Jon' live on Classic Hits next week in Hamilton and Tauranga.

Two of Chanelle’s other songs were also finalists in the Songwriter of the Year awards.

Chanelle Davis sings with a sultry passion that defies era and reminds us that music is still about creating beauty. Her album 'Better Than Alone' delivers songs that sound as though they might come from a smoky French Quarter bistro, to the smooth emotion of modern easy listening ballads that can only be described as urban hymns. She shows us that a better tune is not one with a huge production, but one that relies on simple melody and basic human emotion. In the next few months, the Album will be re-released with 5 new tracks including 'Dear Jon',(winner of the 2007 New Zealand Songwriter's Trust Awards), in conjunction with a nationwide tour in September.

This Wintec music graduate breaks the traditional 'introspective girl-on-guitar' stereotype. Her way with the piano, sense of humour, and ability to make personal thoughts become universally interesting elevate what could be a tired routine into something honest and exciting.

ENDS

© Scoop Media