New Zealand's best country music song of the year named
The exhaustion of first-time parenting has inspired Aotearoa's top country tune for 2025.
Holly Arrowsmith has taken out the 2025 APRA Best Country Music Song Award with her song 'Blue Dreams' at this year's Country Music Honours event in Gore.
It's back to back wins for the Christchurch singer-songwriter, who won in 2024 for her track 'Desert Dove'. She also took home the prize in 2019 for 'Slow Train Creek'.
'Blue Dreams' delves into Arrowsmith's recent experience as a first-time parent, surviving the early days of little sleep, exhaustion and managing the responsibility of bringing life into a chaotic world.
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Parenting a child with her husband Michael Gilling, a woodworker, Arrowsmith told RNZ's The Mixtape earlier this year she had to find a new way of balancing and honouring the two roles of musician and mother.
"All of a sudden I was just a lady with a pram and I had to kind of claw my way through to find out who I was again."
Depression and anxiety - which Arrowsmith lives with at times - show up on her latest album, also titled Blue Dreams.
Holly Arrowsmith's winning song was inspired by her experiences of parenting.
Naomi Haussman
She said when it came time to promote that album last year, her mental health wasn't great.
"It was kind of harrowing having to put myself out into the world when I wanted to be alone, and speak about these things and promote these songs - which felt like a little too close to home at the time."
While it could sometimes be emotional performing the songs from Blue Dreams, Arrowsmith said it was also cathartic.
"There's a moment where you know you're transferring or transforming something painful into something beautiful and then you get to see other people absorb that. It's like a full-circle moment."
Friday night's Country Music Honours event, with performances by Arrowsmith, Tami Neilson and Mel Parsons, marked the official opening of the 10-day Tussock Country Country Music Festival.
A new award was added to the roster this year - Country Music Honour for Contribution to Country Music. The inaugural recipient was Tami Neilson, recognised for her outstanding impact and unwavering dedication to the country music scene in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The Canada-born Kiwi country music queen will drop her new album Neon Cowgirl in July following the success of singles 'You’re Gonna Fall' and 'Borrow My Boots'. The album features guests Neil Finn, JD McPherson, Ashley McBryde and Grace Bowers.
The MLT Songwriting Award, which celebrates unreleased original songs from Aotearoa, was awarded to Nicola Mitchell, Byllie-Jean Zeta, and Em-Hayley Walker (Theia, Te Kaahu) for their waiata ‘Wā/Time’.
