Meet Sandon Groves. He turned 16 early this week and on Wednesday celebrated by outperforming all the adult contestants in the inaugural Wollongong Songwriter Awards.
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Sandon left everyone speechless late in the final when he took to the stage at Club Windang and sang two of his own songs.
Afterwards the Smith's Hill High School student said he wanted to make it a career if he could.
"I really love seeing people enjoy my music and I'd like to perform professionally," he said.
The Austinmer teenager also won the last Thirroul Seaside Festival talent quest.
His introduction to music came when his father Mark Groves gave him a ukulele when he was four and he has not stopped playing since.
Ironically, a ukulele was one of the prizes on Wednesday night.
"I've been playing guitar for about nine years and I've been doing singing lessons for about a year now. This is a really big encouragement for me to keep going."
A Nomadic Sounds recording of the first song Sandon performed, Good Dream, is linked to this story online
Second place went to Shannon Kenny, third place to Jeff Petersen and fourth was Alex Johnson.
Encouragement awards went to Polly Ann and Samuel Roberts. The competition was organised by Claire Roberts, of HiViz Event Management and Promotions, and ran over six weeks at Club Windang.
The competition proved so popular Mrs Roberts is planning to do it again. "We've had the best time," she said.
"There hasn't been a bad performance across all of the heats. The Gong and surrounds is loaded with talent. Every performer rose to the occasion. I keep hearing what a great music culture we have in the Gong and last night definitely confirms that.’’
The main first prize was a Martinez resonator guitar from the Piper family at Wollongong Music in Crown Street.
The event was also supported by Rockdog Amplifier Repairs, Chaplin Arts, Allan Vander Linden, Music Star Shellharbour, SingSational and Short Studios.
The 12 finalists on Wednesday were judged by a panel who scored the singer songwriters on lyrics, music, originality and arrangement.
The judges were Allan Vander Linden, Mark Batley, Fabio Maccabei and Jesse Bowker.
The finalists included Niel Edgley, Nick Sky, Holly and Ricky Lynch, Sam Roberts, Chris Rulewski, April Sampson-Kelly (Ruido), Karl Dubravs, Mem Davis and Rhea Mangles.
Glen Bowker and Sam Bowker, of Nomadic Sounds, also did a live recording and video of all the finalists performances.
Click here to see a video of Sandon performing at Club Windang.
