The Preatures Songwriter Wins $50,000 Song Comp

Isabella Manfredi, singer and songwriter with Sydney band The Preatures, has been named the winner of the 2013 Vanda & Young Songwriting Competition for the band's Is This How You Feel?.

Claiming to be the richest first prize for any songwriting competition in the world, Manfredi has been awarded $50,000 from competition sponsors APRA AMCOS and Alberts.

Fellow Sydney-sider Robert Conley took out second prize for the track Paper Thin and will receive $10,000, donated by the Australian Music Publishers Association [AMPAL]. Third place was tied between Thelma Plum for Breathe In Breathe Out and Jasmine Nelson for Keep Her Close. Video game publisher donated $5,000 for third place and APRA AMCOS have kicked in an extra $5,000 given the tie.

It has since emerged that the image below has been doctored to remove an anti-Tony Abbott message, prior to being sent to theMusic. Full details here.

Robert Conley, Isabella Manfredi and Brett Cottle

Today Manfredi's reacted to the news, saying it was, “Astounding! Torrential! I cannot believe it. The boys and I are totally thrilled and very grateful!”

Speaking to theMusic.com.au about the track recently Manfredi said it was the first song of hers she truly loved.

"Usually you write something, love it and then hit a wall and hate it. But this… this is my first experience of actually writing a song and loving it. I mean still loving it. But I don't think hating it is such a bad thing; I mean, I think it's just part of the process where you have to love songs and then reject them so that you can go on and keep getting better and better."

She also admitted that guitarist Jack Moffitt hated the guitar lines, but she pushed for them to stay.

"Jack hated the guitar lines in the song. He thought it sounded, like, all very The Boys Of Summer. He's like, 'I hate it, it's so lame,' and I was like, 'It's on there and that's it'."

APRA AMCOS CEO Brett Cottle added today, “There's a lasting value in the work that Vanda & Young winners contribute to the Australian music scene and body of work. Knowing that we've invested in the creative careers of past and present winners and that the funds raised by this competition bring healing and connection through music therapy rounds this out as a really worthwhile endeavour for APRA AMCOS.”

Previous winners of the biannual prize include Kimbra Johnson in 2011 and Megan Washington in 2009.

The $50 entry fee for the competition is donated to Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Australia.