Eighteen performers congregated at the Tin Shed, Combined Club in Port Douglas on Tuesday 18 May to fight for the right to progress to this years Douglas Songwriter's competition Grand Finals being held at the iconic Sugar wharf on the Dickson Inlet at the mouth of the Coral Sea in Port Douglas on Sunday 29th May.

When Drew and Di Weyand started this competition just three years ago, neither of them could possibly have thought that in such a short time this competition would produce the incredible wealth of original songwriting talent that has proved to be the case. Over 30 original songs were performed by the 18 local entrants last night at the Port Douglas heat.

This was the third and final heat of this years competition and attracted entrants from Mareeba, Cairns, Mossman, Julatten as well as local locals from Port Douglas. The other two heats were held in Mossman and Cairns and produced 12 Grand Finalists between them.

Last nights heat produced a surprise 8 winners (only 6 were scheduled). This was because there were two ties for third place in each category thus producing 8 winners taking the final total to 10 amateurs and 10 professionals to contest the Grand Final.

The winning amateur will get a cash prize of $500 and the professional $1,000.   Last nights winners in the Professional category were last years winner, the enigmatic and hugely talented Danny Ross, the impassioned Josh Adams, whose natural talents are just getting better and better, Sarah McCafferty, who sang two very emotional and personal songs and Paul Cloney, who crashed the party with two superb bluesy numbers.

The Amateurs were led into the finals by Leanne Tennant,who wowed the judges from her long wait as last performer of the evening, Gary Bock who sang an angry protest amazingly accompanied on his happy Ukulele, K Star, who's lyrics are an excellent example of lyrical storytelling and the surprise package of the evening in the shape of Matt Milini from Mareeba who sent us high into Country country.

A special mention should go out to the youngest contestant Molly Delaney who was just 11 yrs old and performed two of her own superb compositions.  Remember the name, 'cos she is a star in the making.   Moondog came up to Port because he had missed the Cairns heat and entertained the crowd with his original blues songs. Actually it was so hard to pick the winners 'cos there wasn't a bad song or performance anywhere in the house.

It was a pumping evening and if this is a sign of things to come this Carnivale then we're in for a great one.   All twenty finalists will perform just one song at the finals, so the pressure is on to impress the judges from the first note.

Editors Comments: My advice is don't miss the Grand Final, it's entry by a gold coin
donation (the more gold coins you can spare the better) and the assembled pool of talent will blow your mind. Well done Drew and Di, this is fantastic event.