Tami Neilson Wins APRA’s Best Country Song 2020

Tami Neilson has written APRA’s Best Country Song 2020, “Hey, Bus Driver!” from her new album CHICKABOOM! with her brother and collaborator Jay Neilson. The award further cements her spot as one of New Zealand’s most energetic and diverse country musicians.

Tami adds this year’s award to an increasingly populated mantel, having previously won Best Country Album four times (2009, 2010, 2012, and 2015) as part of the New Zealand Music Awards,  Best Female Artist at the New Zealand Country Music Awards in 2010, 2011 and 2014, and Best Country Music Song in 2014 for ‘Whiskey and Kisses’ with Delaney Davidson.

With the 2020 Country Music Awards in Gore cancelled due to the Covid19 crisis, the winners were announced live on Radio New Zealand’s Music 101 on Saturday.

To celebrate, Tami has filmed a NZ Country Music Awards-themed special for this week’s episode of her weekly YouTube series, “The Tami Show” (premieres Friday’s at 10 am), featuring a musical collaboration with Delaney Davidson (winner of Best Country Artist 2020 with Barry Saunders for their album “Word Gets Around”), a lesson on how to make Southland Cheese Rolls from fellow nominee Kaylee Bell, a performance with her brother Jay of their winning song, as well as a walk down the red carpet!

THE TAMI SHOW

Ever wanted to see how Tami does that beehive hairdo? Peek into her closet of custom made dresses?

Live from lockdown in the rolling hills of New Zealand, Tami invites us into her living room (and closet!) for a homemade helping of long-distance musical collaborations, never-before-seen footage of live shows on tour and answers to fans questions in segments like “Ask Tami” and “Tami’s Closet”.

After releasing her brand new album “CHICKABOOM!” to rave reviews in February, the dates for her world tour to promote the album began to unravel, a challenge many musicians are facing at this time. Tami says, “I wanted to create something special for my fans, for us to stay connected during this time and hopefully inject a bit of joy and distraction into their day. Living out in the country with a really wonky wifi connection, livestreams aren’t a particularly good quality option for me, not to mention that I have two little boys underfoot at all times (shout out to the parents working from home!), so, I wanted to make something a little different to share with my online community of fans.”

Each 15-20 min episode of The TAMI Show will premiere weekly on her YouTube channel, Thursdays 6pm EST (Fridays 10am NZT) where she will host a watch party and live chat with her fans during the live broadcast.

WATCH THE FIRST EPISODE HERE
EPISODE TWO,  EPISODE THREE, EPISODE FOUR. EPISODE FIVE EPISODE SIX

Subscribe now at https://www.youtube.com/tamineilsondotcom