Mike's Minute - The Origins Of The Peace Song Competition

The songwriting competition concept was well underway with a national Play It Strange songwriting competition when a serendipitous knock came on the Play It Strange door in the depths of Parnell. A woman, Trish Gribben, came in - I knew her. Who was she?

Well one principal spot that she took a strong position in was – as a board member of the Peace Foundation. And she had come up with an idea which she proposed when we met. In summation, it was this.

‘Mike. Would Play It Strange be interested in a Peace Song Award with its own trophy and a cheque for $1,000 which I am willing to award to the writer(s) of the winning song. ‘ 

Trish saw the emphasis in the choice of the song – it being picked from the national songwriting competition - as something that would grow in popularity. We of the Play It Strange staff saw the benefit of this concept and the decision was made to promote the Peace Song Award and have a selective judging panel running in parallel with the overall national Songwriting Competition. (Soon to be known as the Lion Foundation Songwriting Competition. 

So Trish wrote out a cheque for $1,000 and asked if we would be interested in Bob Harvey,  the mayor of Waitakere City, being the Peace Song judge. He was keen and so were we and hence a winning song was picked by Mayor Harvey. It was and still is:

‘Look Into My World’ by Sala-Marlene Tyler from Papatoetoe High School. 

At the presentation Bob Harvey emphasized the importance of youthful creative projects in the highways and byways of every city and if Waitakere came to be the first then more would follow. His confidence in this was palpable and it came to be true. Bob was very taken with the whole process of writing songs. His focus on the imaginative world of songwriting was convincing.

 That year, 2009,  the award was presented to Sala-Marlene by Mayor Harvey during a Waitakere City Council Meeting and then Sala-Marlene performed it to the City Councilors. The response was wonderful. Play It Strange has been presenting the Peace Song Award ever since.

Here are a number of winning songs:

1. ‘When The Weather Changes’ by Grace Lawrence; St Andrews Christchurch - Listen HERE
2. ‘Te Aroha’ by Tetini Pokoati & Ripeka Akurangi from Gisborne Girls High School - Listen HERE
3. ‘Soar On By’ by Zachary Saunders, Sam Redgrove, Elia Inglis, Aryan Thakkar, Aaron Ko & Elliot Borland. From Albany Junior School in Auckland - Listen HERE
4. ‘Always Be There’  by Mercy Williams. From Western Springs College, Auckland - Listen HERE
5. ‘Tranquility’ by Iris Dunn from Napier Girls High - Listen HERE