Play It Strange awards concert to feature Gisborne Girls’ High School winning duo

Audio engineer Jol Mulholland recorded the Play It Strange national secondary school competition award-winning song written by Gisborne Girls' High students Breanna Osgood-Lloyd and Hinemaurea Wikitapu Waikari at the schools recording studio in July. The pair will perform it at an awards night concert in Auckland next week.

Gisborne Girls’ High School has achieved another outstanding result at the Play It Strange songwriting competition with students Breanna Osgood-Lloyd and Hinemaurea Wikitapu Waikari winning the Youth Town prize for their song He Can’t Be Mine.

The students will perform their award-winning song at the Play It Strange Annual Awards Concert in the Auckland Town Hall next week.

The Play It Strange national secondary school songwriting competition this year received a record 722 entries and 66 album art entries.

Osgood-Lloyd and Wikitapu Waikari said they were surprised when they got news of their win and were excited but nervous about performing at the concert.

They worked on the song for about two months, coming up with lyrics, chords and harmonies and tweaking it as they went.

They created the song through a computer programme called Sequel, which allowed them to add various instruments to the mix.

Wikitapu Waikari plays the bass guitar on the song while Osgood-Lloyd is on keyboard.

Their song was selected in June and later recorded by award-winning audio engineer Jol Mulholland for the Play It Strange Youth Town album released on Tuesday on major streaming platforms.

Musician and songwriter Marlon Williams offered the Gisborne students his expert advice.

Breanna said the song explored a hypothetical situation of falling in love with someone who was unavailable.

Gisborne Girls’ High head of music Jane Egan likes to put her students into pairs, mixing and matching them with girls they don’t necessarily know that well.

“I believe we all have stuff to teach each other and it’s a good experience to work with different people,” Egan says.

The school has an impressive history in the Play It Strange competition, with 127 songs professionally recorded for albums over the years.

This year they had seven songwriting pairs make it into the finals in the Youth Town category for Year 9 to 11, including the winning duo.

Another seven from Year 9 to 13 made it into the finals for the Peace Song category and three made it into the Lion Foundation Songwriting Competition for the same years group.

Gisborne Girls’ High School has won the School of the Year award eight years out of the 21 years Play It Strange has been in existence.

In 2022, Egan won NZ Music Teacher of the Year at the Aotearoa Music Awards.

She has worked hard to build a strong music department that features its own recording studio, two fully equipped band stages and two computer rooms with 10 recording set-ups in each.

As part of their prize, Osgood-Lloyd and Wikitapu Waikari will spend a day at the Sound & Audio Engineering Creative Media Institute in Parnell where they will do workshops, including one with award-winning musician and songwriter Hollie Smith.

The prize includes a professional recording with Mulholland, mentoring with Marlon Williams, a $500 Rockshop voucher and the concert.

The Play It Strange awards night is on October 23.