SA singer in line for two Josie Music Awards

Country singer Hunter Leite is the first South African to be double nominated at the Josie Music Awards.

Leite last won a Josie in 2019 as World Music Artist of the Year.

She has been nominated again for World Music Artist of the Year and is also in the running for recognition of her composition Cause God as Vocal Event of the Year.

The latter is a collaboration with actress and poet Amy McAllister.

The event takes place at legendary music venue the Grand Ole Opry house in Nashville, Tennessee on 22 October.

In 2017 and 2019, Leite was named Best Female Vocalist at the Texas Sounds International Country Music Awards.

The Josie Awards have been an annual event since 2015 and focus on talent as measured and judged by industry peers and professionals.

The awards are designed not to be measured by voting, as is the general practice, but rather by talent, its website said.

This year there were more than 52 000 entries. This makes Leite’s nomination exceptional.

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Leite said: “This is a huge honour for me to be recognised by the folk of the music industry in Nashville. It is something beyond my wildest dreams. I was so overwhelmed when I was announced as a nominee.”

She started her singing career at 16 and genre-wise Leite’s music ranges between country, gospel, rock and pop.

She also hosts a dedicated country music show on Mix 93.8FM early on weekend mornings.

The nomination for Cause God is close to her heart.

She said: “I wrote the song during some of my most difficult times, when I wanted to throw my dreams away.

But God blessed me with the inspiration to write this song, just the first verse already speaks volumes: ‘Sometimes it’s hard to believe, sometimes it’s hard to achieve’ and this is so, so true.” Leite said the nominations are deeply meaningful to her.

She said: “I hope my nominations and story will inspire others to never give up on their dreams.” It also marks her first international collaboration. “I am honoured to have had Dublin based Amy McAllister bless this song with her amazing writing skills as well as her beautiful and soulful vocals.”

Leite also received input from Nashville-based songwriter Corey Lee Barker, a veteran of 900 published cuts.

Barker has written for a host of artists, including William Shatner, and palmed numerous awards. His compositions were also extensively used on television, from hit show Smallville through to the Amazing Race.

Leite’s 2013 track Halfway Around the World made number one in South Africa’s Top 40 and in 2017, she released her debut Afrikaans album Wense (Wishes).

Last year she released a country record Kicking Up Dust.

Leite is also an ambassador for the iThemba Support and Rape Centre and the voice of the Our Rhino anti-poaching project.

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