KEY POINTS:
The year's top 20 New Zealand songs have been revealed and now voting begins to find the winner of the country's top songwriting award - the Apra Silver Scroll.
Singer/songwriter Brooke Fraser, and Sean Donnelly, better known as SJD, both have two songs in the list.
The Finns are also well represented with Neil's Don't Stop Now, his collaboration with The Smiths' Johnny Marr from Crowded House's new album Time On Earth. His son Liam's Second Chance, from his debut solo album I'll Be Lightning is also nominated.
It's the first time a father and son have been up for the award.
For the 2007 Silver Scrolls, the Australasian Performing Rights Association (Apra) has changed the way it judges the awards. In the past a group of anonymous judges picked the winner but this year a panel nominated the 20 songs and the members of Apra, made up of around 6000 songwriters, composers and music publishers, will vote for the top five.
The winner will be announced at the awards ceremony on September 18 at the Auckland Town Hall.
The Silver Scrolls are different from the New Zealand Music Awards - the scrolls are songwriters voting for the best song, while the music awards are about the music industry picking the year's best recordings.
The top 20 list is a mix of young and old songwriters, with first-time nominees like soul sister Hollie Smith and alt-country songbird Miriam Clancy up against past winner Greg Johnson who is nominated this year for Anyone Can Say Goodbye.
Just for a change there are no Dave Dobbyn or Don McGlashan songs, although McGlashan performs I Will Not Let You Down which was written by Donnelly.
There's also a range of styles, from the hip-hop soul of Auckland act Opensouls, to the quirky pop rock of the Mint Chicks' Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No! and Voom's We're So Lost, to songs by pop rock bands like Atlas and Opshop.
Also at the award ceremony the first members of the newly established Apra New Zealand Music Hall of Fame will also be inducted.
* To listen to the songs and read the lyrics, go to www.apra.co.nz.
