Year's best songs come from the big city

Auckland is where the good songs live - all five nominees for this year's song-of-the-year Silver Scroll Award are from various parts of the city.

Among them are two of the country's most popular groups, Nesian Mystik (for For the People) and Blindspott (Phlex).

The line-up also includes South Auckland hip-hop outfit Ill Semantics (Highway), art-pop combo Goldenhorse (Riverhead) and singer-songwriter Damien Binder (Til Now, co-written by Robert Shepheard).

The award is presented annually by the Australasian Performing Right Association (Apra), the organisation which represents songwriters.

Each year New Zealand Apra members enter about 100 songs for the award which carries a prize of a trophy and $5000. Last year's award went to Che-Fu and co-writer Godfrey de Grut for Misty Frequencies.

The Silver Scrolls ceremony, on October 28 at the Auckland Town Hall, will also announce the Sounz Contemporary Award for best creative work in the serious music sector.

The Apra Maioha Award will recognise the best creative work incorporating the Maori language.

Awards will also be presented for Most Performed Work in New Zealand and Most Performed Work Overseas.

Finalists for the Sounz Contemporary Award are Icescape, written for orchestra by Chris Cree Brown, Cirrus, written for orchestra by Craig Utting, and Alice, a monodrama for soprano and orchestra, by Gillian Whitehead.