The annual songwriting competition based out of Wells has selected this year's winner.
A Prince George singer-songwriter was the runner up in this year's event.
"The winner of the contest is Noosa Al-Sarraj aka Winona Wilde from Bowen Island with her song The Dating Song," said a statement issued by the organizing group.
"The Runner up is Eric Wynleau of Black Spruce Bog from Prince George with his song Tete Jaune Road."
The Black Spruce Bog song became famous when the band played it live to the nation during the opening ceremony of the 2015 Canada Winter Games.
"It was our most competitive year with 72 entries from across the country," said the organizers.
"We had four judges - songwriters Ross Douglas, Yael Wand, Joey Only and Karyn Ellis - who narrowed down the 72 entries to nine finalists.
"The nine finalists went through another round of voting. All voting was done anonymously, with names removed from the lyrics and songs."
The contest is held each year by the conjoined entities Island Mountain Arts, the ArtsWells Festival and BC Musician Magazine.
For winning the Cariboo-based contest, Noosa Al-Sarraj (known also as Winona Wilde) also gets more public exposure.
She is described as a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose quirky and melodic songs ring with emotion, humour and truth.
Her second studio album, You Lose Some, You Lose Some is fuelled by two years of travel, where she lived nowhere in particular and scraped by singing country songs in bars for money.
A former lawyer and classically trained musician, Al-Sarraj draws musical influence from old styles of blues, jazz, country and pop to craft modern folk tales about rural life, fighting, capitalism and death.
The grand prize is a scholarship to the ArtsWells Pre-Fest Songwriting Workshop with Linda McRae and Stephen Fearing, a performance spot at the 2015 ArtsWells Festival, a feature article in BC Musician Magazine and an interview on CBC Radio 1's Arts and Culture show North By Northwest.
