Invercargill singer Cheryl Anderson has won the “Bledisloe Cup” of country music.
Anderson scooped the Trans-Tasman Entertainer of the Year competition at the Norfolk Island Country Music Festival this week.
Anderson, who was eligible to enter because of last year’s New Zealand Gold Guitar Awards senior overall win, will take home a hand-carved trophy and $3200 prizemoney as well as the prestigious title, which was well-known within the country music scene, she said.
“It’s like the Bledisloe Cup of country music.”
Anderson competed against six Australian and New Zealand singers who had won similar titles, she said.
She performed three songs, All Jacked Up by Gretchen Wilson and originals John Davis and his Son and Me and the Duke, during a 15-minute time slot.
Anderson was shocked by the win.
“I thought they’d either love me or wouldn’t like me at all.”
The awards continue to pile up for the Southland songstress.
She is the Southland Vocalist of the Year and a former Southland Entertainer of the Year.
This year, Anderson achieved a runner-up and a section win in two categories at the 2014 Tamworth Country Music Festival in Australia.
Her country music quest started in 1993 when she was 13 years old, at the Corral Country Music Club in an old building behind Southland Hospital.
She first entered the Gold Guitar Awards as an intermediate, aged 14 or 15, and from the time she turned senior, aged 16, she was a regular contestant.
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– The Southland Times
