The Top 5 songwriters in New Zealand have been revealed

Two first time Silver Scroll nominees are among the five finalists shortlisted this year for New Zealand’s premiere songwriting award.

The announcement completes the full set of nominees for the 2018 APRA Silver Scroll Awards, which will this year be held at Auckland’s Spark Arena on October 4.

The event itself will be hosted by three-time nominee and TV personality Anika Moa, while Bic Runga – the 1996 winner for her hit ‘Drive’ – will serve as music director.

Heading the short-list is Unknown Mortal Orchestra, who receive their third nomination for ‘Hunnybee’, which was written by Ruban and Kody Nielson, and Jacob Portrait. The Neilson brothers were the 2015 winners for UMO song ‘Multi-Love’.

Two other previous nominees have been short-listed as well: Chelsea Jade, nominated last year for ‘Life Of The Party’, returns in 2018 with ‘Laugh It Off’, which was co-written with Bradley Chase, while 2015 nominee Marlon Williams gets a second nod for his duet with Aldous Harding ‘Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore’.

Watch Chelsea’s Jade’s clip for ‘Laugh It Off’ below:

The two first time nominees are Troy Kingi for ‘Aztechknowledgey’ from his 2017 album Shake That Skinny Ass All The Way To Zygertron, and punk popsters The Beths’ ‘Future Me Hates Me’, which was written by Elizabeth Stokes and is from their just released debut album of the same name.

The short-list follows on from the announcement earlier in the week of three finalists for the APRA Maioha Award, which honours composers who are telling their stories in the language of Te Ao Māori. This year’s finalists are: ‘Ngaru Hōu’ by Seth Haapu, ‘Te Ahi Kai Pō’ by Ria Hall, Tiki Taane, and Te Ori Paki and ‘Uia’ by Rob Ruha.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.