Denvah Wins Prestigious Professional Development Award

Denvah is among the 13 songwriters and composers who have won the prestigious APRA Professional Development Award.

A finalist—and now winner—of the country/Americana category, the Australian Idol runner-up and emerging country singer has won $10,000 to boost her music career.

Other 2025 APRA Professional Development Award winners include hip-hop star BARKAA, R&B singer Becca Hatch, Romy Vager (the singer of indie rock band RVG), electronic music producer Skeleten, and more.

This year’s winners were chosen by an experienced panel of judges from the Australian music industry. The panel included journalists and presenters Dave Ruby Howe and Sosefina Fuamoli, as well as beloved local artists and producers such as country artists Brooke McClymont (well-known for performing with her husband, Adam Eckersley) and Casey Barnes, The Presets’ Julian Hamilton, and singer-songwriter Liz Stringer.

Here’s what APRA AMCOS CEO Dean Ormston had to say about this year’s impressive winners:

Investing in career development opportunities for our members is a big part of what we do, and our PDAs have a demonstrated track record in enabling career defining opportunities.

It’s wonderful to see such a diverse range of talented songwriters and composers across multiple genres being recognised, and it’s testament to their dedication, commitment, passion and putting in the hard yards to progress their careers in what is a very challenging and competitive industry.

I have no doubt that this will be an important step to bigger and better things for this year’s winners and driving Australia’s reputation as a global music powerhouse.

You can find the complete list of winners here.

While Denvah didn’t win last year’s season of Australian Idol—the honour went to Dylan Wright—she has won other awards, including the Groundwater Country Music Festival’s KIX-Start competition and the NAB Gympie Music Muster Talent Search in 2023.