NEW ZEALAND ARTISTS HONORED IN US-BASED UNSIGNED ONLY MUSIC COMPETITION

September 16th 2016
Graeme James, nomad, Coral, Hunter Hawkes, and Written By Wolves Named Winners

Unsigned Only Music Competition today announced its 2016 winners. Selected from almost 6,000 entries, the winners represent some of the best unsigned artists worldwide in contemporary music. Unsigned Only awards more than $150,000 in prizes split among 28 winners, including a Grand Prize package of $20,000 in cash (US) and much more in merchandise and services.

Judges included high-profile recording artists Aimee Mann, The Struts, Colt Ford, The Killers, Frank Foster, Bone Thugs N Harmony, Lucero and many more. Also on the judging panel were music journalists from Rolling Stone, Guitar Player, Paste Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, LA Weekly, Yahoo Music, The Boston Herald, and more.

Founders Candace Avery and Jim Morgan state, "As always, we received a lot of great entries, and this was the case with New Zealnd entries as well. The winners reflect the strong independent music scene in New Zealand, and we are thrilled to be able to honor and promote Kiwi talent in an international arena."

New Zealander Graeme James is awarded Second Place in the Folk/Singer-Songwriter category, and four other artists are awarded an Honorable Mention in their respective categories (see below for a complete list of New Zealand winners).

Graeme James (Wellington, New Zealand) is awarded First Place for his song "Alive" in the Folk/Singer-Songwriter category. Armed with a loop pedal, musician Graeme James transforms into a one-man band with electric violin, guitar, bass, ukulele, mouth trumpet, beat boxing, and a voice which sets him apart from the rest. Starting off as a busker and living in his car, Graeme attracted fans with his quirky versions of well-known songs. Now playing and releasing his own music, "Alive" was the first single off his much anticipated debut original album News From Nowhere. "Alive" has featured on radio in New Zealand and Australia and on Australia's current most viewed TV drama "800 Words."

The overall Grand Prize goes to the gifted performer and songwriter Ingrid Andress (Highland Ranch, CO, USA) for the song "Footprints." In addition to winning $20,000 (US) and prizes, Andress also receives one-on-one mentoring from a group of upper echelon music industry executives from Atlantic, Warner Bros., RCA, Epic, Razor & Tie, Disney Music Group/Hollywood Records, Nettwerk Music Group, Black River Entertainment, and others.

Ingrid Andress began her music career performing in the TV industry. After touring and singing on two seasons of NBC's "The Sing Off" as a part of the a cappella group Delilah, she attended Berklee College of Music on a vocal scholarship. She now lives in Nashville where she collaborates and performs with various country and pop artists.

For more info visit: https://unsignedonly.com/winners

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