A WIRRAL teacher has won an award for his song about Paul O’Grady.
Mike Ryan, who lives in Bebington and teaches at Birkenhead School, won the audience favourite award at the annual Liverpool Acoustic Song Writing competition with his song Lily’s Last Waltz, inspired by Paul O’Grady and the painting of Lily Savage by local artist Brezaux at the Woodside Ferry Terminal.
The Liverpool Acoustic Songwriting Challenge 2023 Showcase Final took place at LEAF on Bold Street on Saturday, January 7.
The award is the second year in a row Mike has won the Audience Favourite vote after he came out on top with his song Palace Of The Peacock at the 2022 awards.
Mike told the Globe: “I am buzzing about winning again. It was an honour to celebrate Paul O'Grady and Lily Savage in this way. It was such a fabulous night and every song and performance was stunning. It was a privilege to be in the room.
“To win the Audience Favourite Award again means so much and I just want to say thank you to everyone who voted for me.
“I performed on the night along with Nicola Hardman, who is an incredible singer-songwriter herself. It's been an absolute pleasure working with her on this song and I think we smashed it on the night! I can't wait to record it at Crosstown Studios with her later this year.
“I just want to say a massive thank you to Graham Holland, the judges and everyone at Liverpool Acoustic for everything. The support they give local music is unrivalled and absolutely vital and is something I will never take for granted.”
During the September 2023 entry period 26 songwriters submitted brand new songs inspired by works of art on display across the Liverpool City Region.
Judges Jon Lawton, Kaya Herstad Carney, Robert Vincent, Luke Moore and Alison Benson listened to all of the entries and gave each a score based on lyrics, melody, composition and originality.
The points from the judges were added together and the songwriters with the ten highest scores were awarded a place at the showcase final.
At the end of the night Jim Pearson was announced as the winner of the Judges’ Award for 2023 for The Boy With The Red Hat, a song he wrote after seeing a specific piece of art on display at West Kirby Arts Centre.
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