The five finalists for the 2016 APRA Silver Scroll Award have been announced.
The Silver Scroll has been awarded annually since 1965, and is New Zealand’s most prestigious songwriting award.
This year’s top five are the Phoenix Foundation for “Give Up Your Dreams”, Tami and Jay Neilson for “The First Man”, Thomas Oliver for “If I Move To Mars”, Lydia Cole for “Dream”, and Street Chant for “Pedestrian Support League”.
The finalists have already beaten out those initially shortlisted including Dave Dobbyn, LEISURE, and David Dallas, among others.
Tami Neilson took home the Silver Scroll in 2014 for her song “Walk (Back to Your Arms)”.
While this is the first nomination for both Street Chant and Thomas Oliver, the Phoenix Foundation have now been nominated six times over the years.
In an interview with Salient last year, Phoenix Foundation frontman Samuel Scott described “Give Up Your Dreams” as “1980s Jane-Fonda-aerobics-video-music mixed with a depressing lyric.”
Last year’s Silver Scroll was won by Ruben and Kody Neilson for the song “Multi-Love”.
The awards will be held on September 29 at Vector Arena, with a live video stream being available on the RNZ website.