Finalists Announced For 2025 Apra Best Country Music Song

Celebrating the best in Aotearoa country music APRA AMCOS NZ are pleased to announce the 2025 APRA Best Country Music Song award finalists, with the winner to be presented at the Country Music Honours in Gore on Friday 23 May.

• ‘5432’ written and performed by Mel Parsons
• ‘Blue Dreams’ written and performed by Holly Arrowsmith
• ‘Borrow My Boots’ written and performed by Tami Neilson, Ashley McBryde, and Shelly Fairchild, featuring Grace Bowers

Multi award-winning Mel Parsons is one of New Zealand’s most established songwriting stars with a dedicated fan base across six records and countless tours. Having won the MLT Songwriting Award in 2024 with ‘Hardest Thing’, Parsons returns to Gore with ‘5432’, an expression of love and quiet hope above gnawing self-doubt. With a soaring Crosby-Stills-Nash style vocal harmony in the chorus, the song explores the common experience of artists – the inner battle between anxiety and being able to produce work. Having toured with Crowded House in 2024, her latest album Sabotage saw her a finalist for the prestigious Taite Music Prize and 2025 Aotearoa Music Award finalist for Album of the Year and Best Folk Artist. Mel celebrates her latest single and video ‘Post High Slide’ with a run of shows through Aotearoa and Australia in June.

2024 APRA Best Country Song Award winner for ‘Desert Dove’, Holly Arrowsmith returns to the finalist with the title track from the album ‘Blue Dreams’. A leader in New Zealand’s contemporary Folk, Alt-Country and Americana movement, Arrowsmith was a finalist for the coveted Taite Music Prize while the album also sees her with a finalist nod at the upcoming Aotearoa Music Awards for Best Folk Artist. The moving title track ‘Blue Dreams’ delves into life as a first-time parent, surviving those early days of chronic exhaustion while managing the huge burden of responsibility, bringing life into such a turbulent world. Showing a real domestic scene, not a glorified one; the often-invisible work of Mothers, especially. Those messy, imperfect, sometimes lonely, tender and mundane days with your beautiful baby, time in suspension – for a time.

Tami Neilson is no stranger to awards, having won this award five times since 2014, alongside multiple Aotearoa Music Awards, an APRA Silver Scroll and chart-topping success. Fresh off the back of a tour with Willie Nelson, her next studio album “Neon Cowgirl” will be released 11th July, followed by US tour supports for Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan. Nominated track ‘Borrow My Boots’, out 15 May, was co-written long-distance with US country stars Ashley McBryce and powerhouse songwriter Shelly Fairchild after Neilson’s experiences of being lifted up and encouraged by her musical peers in the US; in Tami’s words that’s how you say, “Hey Sister, you can borrow my boots”.

Ant Healey of APRA AMCOS says “These songs speak with honesty, power, and heart—capturing the stories that connect us all. Each songwriter offers a perspective that is both deeply personal and reminds us of the strength found in community. It’s an honour to recognise such exceptional songwriting talent.”

The APRA Best Country Music Song Award will be presented at the Country Music Honours on Friday 23 May.

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