2011 is turning out to be a great year for Canadian/Australian singer/songwriting duo, AndrewVictoria.  They continue to garner award after award for their excellent songwriting skills, the latest recognition being 1st runners up in ACOUSTIC ROUNDTABLE’S Songwriter of the Year 2011 contest for their beautiful song, “Repeat Yesterday” which had only a couple of months before taken out first place in the H24 Songwriting Challenge. If you haven’t yet downloaded a FREE mp3 of this acoustic love song, visit their YouTube site for a link. 

And in the midst of all that, AndrewVictoria received the news that they are amongst the first 5 qualifiers of sessions 1 & 2 in the TORONTO INDEPENDENT MUSIC AWARDS HOME & NATIVE SOUND SERIES. You can listen to songs by the other qualifiers at this FACEBOOK BAND PAGE. Some very worthy competition indeed. Below is video taken at the actual competition. AndrewVictoria perform their lovely song, “FALL”: 

Most recently, AndrewVictoria are thrilled to have had a full page feature in the American Federation of Musicians magazine, INTERNATIONAL MUSICIAN. This is an excellent write-up and reasonably accurate, which is so often not the case. If you’d like to read that, just click the link. 

And latest news is that this deserving singer/songwriter duo have been nominated for a HAMILTON MUSIC AWARD for the BEST POP RECORDING in 2010. This was an unexpected nomination and not one they had submitted for themselves. So it’s come as a nice surprise. They find out on November 20th if they have been successful. 

Successful or not, 2011 has been a good year so far for this new singer/songwriter duo. We wish them continued success throughout 2012. 

Catch up with Canadian award-winning singer/songwriter duo, AndrewVictoria .. in their own words! They’ve been busy busy busy!

Shows like American Idol, Xfactor and Karaoke Battle USA are proving there’s a wealth of fabulous undiscovered singers and musicians out there. But how many of them write their own material, work the stage like they were born to it, and can sell originals to audiences who line up after a show for an autograph on a simple home-produced acoustic CD?

That’s the magic of singer/songwriter duo, AndrewVictoria who have been stacking up the honors for their songwriting since February 2011 when they won “Songwriter of the Month” at SONGWRITER’S UNIVERSE for their original, “It’s Not Over”. A month or two later, they took out 2nd place in New York’s CLASH OF THE ARTISTS songwriting division for 3 more songs. 

This was followed in June by a fabulous win in their own hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, when they took home “the DEVA” and a cash prize for their gorgeous song “REPEAT YESTERDAY” in the H24 Songwriting Challenge. That contest was indeed a challenge to all who entered: contestants were given 24 hours to come up with an original song that adhered to 3 strict criteria. They then had to perform it for a live audience 24 hours later. You can read the details and see a video of the events while listening to the song itself at AndrewVictoria’s YouTube site. Incidentally, AndrewVictoria also provide a link there for a FREE DOWNLOAD of this beautiful love-song, “Repeat Yesterday”. 

But that’s not all: it’s just been announced that AndrewVictoria were finalists receiving a score of 9/10 once again for the song “It’s Not Over” in the worldwide and renowned UK SONGWRITING CONTEST. They also made the semi-finals with 2 others of their originals. 

While it’s wonderful to have a fantastic voice (and Victoria certainly has that) or to weave magic on a guitar as Andrew does so well, recognition for excellent songwriting raises an artist or in this case, a duo, to another level. These two talented artists have always lit up a stage with their performances and presence, but now they are excelling in what is possibly an even tougher arena: songwriting. They recently shared the stage at a local fundraiser with the well-known fellow Canadian singer/songwriter duo, Melissa McClelland and Luke Doucet (now known as WHITEHORSE). Without a doubt,AndrewVictoria proved to all who saw and heard them that this is where they deserved to be.

AndrewVictoria were also very recently selected to perform in IMAGEFM’s Indie Music Showcase Concert Series. You can watch the 4-video concert of AndrewVictoria HERE but you can’t access it in Safari 5. Use Firefox, Explorer or Chrome to watch the video. The third song in the set is that award-winning “It’s Not Over”. Well that’s for sure: it’s far from over for AndrewVictoria … a triple threat and a triple treat!

If I come back in another life, I want to be a dog. But if I can’t be that, then I hope I can be the writer I’ve always dreamed of being. That’s why I blog. I don’t have time for long works of art or tomes. I only have time for short pieces.

So what’s that got to do with the video above? Well I also love to write songs and nearly 10 years ago now, I co-wrote the song in the video with my singer/songwriter daughter, Victoria Boland. Victoria had released a self-produced, most self-written CD titled ALL WOMAN GIRL at the time when she was asked by the founder of the CANADIAN NATIONAL AUTISM FOUNDATION  for a contribution. This was the beginning of a long association with the CNAF. Victoria was only 18 at that time and couldn’t afford a contribution but she said she’d donate $1 for every “All Woman Girl” CD sold to the foundation. Over the next few years, those $1 added up.

Then, one day while I was talking to the founder about her autistic son, she gave me some insight into what it’s like raising an autistic child. My heart went out to here and suddenly, the writer in me woke up. Lyrics kept bouncing around my brain. I solicited Victoria’s help and the song in the video, “DON’T GIVE UP ON ME” (autism) was born. 

Victoria and her partner performed the song for the Foundation on their return from Hong Kong in 2006, and later again at a fundraiser in 2009. You can see that live performance at THE AUTISM SONG  site. The video above was put together by me yesterday to help create more autism awareness. I hope you enjoy it and share it with friends who care. Help us spread the word. Thanks for watching. 

And by the way, you can support the efforts of the Canadian National Autism Foundation by buying the single CD of this song from their site. Every penny of the CD sales goes to help the work of the CNAF. Thanks.