Newcastle pop singer Anna Buckingham has overcome a drug addiction, reunited with her brother and won a competition for her new song Addiction.
Anna, who goes by the name BOI [pronounced boy], has attracted a huge audience on music streaming services.
The rising star won Listen Up Music's national songwriting prize on Saturday for Addiction, which she entered in the competition on her way to rehab in July last year.
"The song is written from the drug's perspective singing to my body," she said.
"The opening words of the song are, 'I'm only good when you're bad, even better when you're sad'.
"I had a long history of drinking excessively and taking party drugs while on tour - anything to fill a hole and numb my pain."
Listen Up Music CEO Ali Taylor said it was "very apparent from the second we received the song that it was very powerful".
"Music impacts every single person. Songs are invariably linked to memories and the past. Songs are healing and help us get through tough times. Our competition shows how powerful music can be a healer," Ali said.
Listen Up is a mental health music charity that helps music industry professionals with a focus on early intervention and prevention. The prize's theme this year was "recovery".
Anna went through rehab for five weeks.
"By the time I got out, I was notified I made it to the semi-finals. Now I've won it. It's amazing."
The song came to her in a dream.
"Someone dropped black ink in a fish bowl. The fish bowl was my body and the ink was the drug poisoning my body."
The Herald's music writer Josh Leeson reported in 2019 that Anna and her brother James fell out while in the band Nova and the Experience.
The siblings reunited on stage in the semi-final and final of the song competition.
"My addiction and resistance to wanting to recover pulled us apart. We didn't speak for two years," Anna said.
"James moved to London. He came back recently and he's in recovery as well. The fact we're both recovering addicts has allowed us to come together again. We're both doing the [recovery] program.
"There's nothing better than singing with your blood."
She's planning to record the song soon.
A Childhood Hero
When Anthony Albanese was in Kurri Kurri on Tuesday to talk about the planned gas power plant, Herald reporter Matthew Kelly noted the Labor leader gushing about rugby league legend John Sattler, who played for Souths.
"John Sattler was a childhood hero - I still have his autograph from the Under 6 rugby league presentation night at St Joseph's Camperdown," Albo told Topics.
"He was tough on the field, but remains a gentleman off it. A proud son of Kurri Kurri, John is just one of the legends to come out of the region like Clive Churchill and Andrew Johns."
