New Zealand Gold Guitar Awards 2015 senior finals overall winner Kelvin Cummings, of Dunedin, says he was shocked to win - but he'll get over it.
''I am way sweet to be the dude who walks away with all the shiny stuff; it's great,'' he said of his win in Gore at the weekend.
Cummings (34), head of music at East Otago High School, has competed in four consecutive Gold Guitar Awards and said this year his choice of song might have given him the edge.
In the male vocal solo category he performed Randy Houser's Like a Cowboy.
The ''funky, infectious'' tune was typical of new country music, which New Zealand audiences were developing a growing appetite for, he said.
Cummings belted through the open vowels in the refrain in front of the crowd of about 1100 at the Gore Town and Country Club stadium on Sunday night.
''That's why I chose it.
''It showed off both ends, the low register and the high register.
''And it meant that right at the end, I was able to punch out massive notes.''
When he collected his award for male vocal solo he did not expect to return to the stage as overall winner.
He was up against too many talented performers, he said.
Winning was a ''completely unexpected'' shock.
''They were all incredible, every single one of them, which was why it was so much of a shock.
''I'm over the moon, man. There's no word to really describe just how excited I am.''
Teisha Seymour, of Milton, won the runner-up award as well as winning the country rock section and the New Zealand composition section.
She performed a ska-inflected country tune she wrote a few weeks before the competition and nailed a version of Carrie Underwood's Last Name to score with the judges.
Seymour appeared on stage four times in the senior finals. She performed gospel and female vocal solo, as well.
Amanda Goodwin, of Dunedin, took the gospel category with her rendition of Patty Goodwin's Dr Martin Luther King tribute Up to the Mountain.
Casey Clydesdale, of Dunedin, took female vocal solo honours.
Over the weekend 12 judges from across the country spent 32 hours each judging 680 entrants in the awards.
