Winners of local online music competition announced

Drillham local Ben Slater has been announced the winner of Council’s ‘Groovin’ from the Garage – The Originals‘ competition, which aimed to support the region’s entertainment community through the challenging times presented by COVID-19.

After receiving an overwhelming response to their ‘Groovin’ from the Garage – The Originals‘ competition, Western Downs Regional Council has announced the winning local artists.

The inaugural competition, which saw musicians of all genres from right across the region competing to take out great prizes received an overwhelming response, with more than 1900 votes cast.

Spokesperson for Community and Cultural Development, Councillor Kaye Maguire said the support shown by our communities for our local musicians throughout the competition was inspiring.

“This competition was introduced during the time of restrictions as a way of offering our local musicians a platform to express their creativity in a time that was difficult to do so and it was incredible to see the support they were shown through the thousands of engagements they received online,” she said.

“Overall, we received nothing but quality entries from all participating musicians and I would like to thank and congratulate each of them on their hard work and impressive performance.

“At the end of the day, it was the community that determined the top three through their votes and with all artists receiving an impressive amount, it was young Ben Slater who took out first place with his original song ‘So Long, July‘ followed by Olivia Gilmour and not far behind in third place, Kadi Lillis.

“I would also like to say a massive thank you to our community for showing their support for our artists during such a difficult time by viewing, liking, sharing and voting for their performances, it is a true representation of our region and our community pride.”

Competition winner, Ben Slater said he was thrilled to not only take out first place, but just to be given the opportunity to share his music alongside other local talents in a time that it wasn’t easy to do so.

“It was great to be given the opportunity to not only perform my own original song for the community, but to also compete against other local artists that hold so much talent,” Mr Slater said.

“I am very passionate about my music, so it meant so much to be voted for by the community and taking out first place in the whole competition just topped it all off.

“I’d like to thank Western Downs Regional Council for putting this competition together and providing myself and all the other participants a platform to showcase our music during a time that was difficult to do so.”

The top three artists and their original songs of the first ‘Groovin’ from the Garage’ competition are:

1st – Ben Slater | ‘So Long, July’ 2nd – Olivia Gilmour | ‘Trapped’ 3rd – Kadi Lillis | ‘One Day Closer To Rain’

The performance videos of all participating local musicians are still available to view on Council’s community events Facebook platform ‘Western Downs Invites You’

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