International finals for campus teen

A song about people’s obsession with being skinny has made it through to the finals of an international competition. Seventeen-year-old Ariana Smith’s song, simply called Skinny, is one of 16 songs in the teen finals of the International Songwriting Competition that attracts about 15,000 entries from all over the world.

Ariana is a student at St Peter’s in Cambridge and has lived most of her life on the University of Waikato campus. Her mother Connie manages one of the Halls of Residence and her father Brett lectures in Sport and Leisure at the Faculty of Education and is sport scientist for NZ Rowing’s elite squad. It was her mother that entered Ariana into the song writing competition.

“I checked it out, made sure the competition was all above board and sent off the song. I didn’t tell Ariana till after I’d done it,” says Connie. “Ariana’s had success before with another song in another competition, so I knew she had talent.”

Ariana has been writing songs since she was about 12. She writes by hand and leaves snippets of songs all over the house. “The Skinny song came about while my sister and I were watching America’s Next Top Model. In the ad break I made up a couple of lines of lyrics and then over a period of a few weeks kept going back to it till I had, verse, bridge and chorus complete.”

Ariana works at the piano when composing her tunes but the final backing track is put together by Hamilton’s Regan McKinnon who’s currently producing an album for Ariana, paid for by members of her extended family.

“We have a rule in our house that we have to play a musical instrument,” says Ariana. “I went through 10 before I could convince Mum and Dad that the voice is an instrument. My sister now has my guitar and I’m taking singing lessons. I’ve been learning 12 months and I’m still learning how to breathe properly. My abdominals are sore.”

When she’s not making music, Ariana is a competitive swimmer and a ski instructor who hopes to go to medical school next year. It was while she was recovering from a ski injury last year that she recorded some of her songs to relieve the boredom of not being able to exercise.

Results of the songwriting competition will be known in April. Anthony Healey from APRA NZ says Gin Wigmore and Moana Maniapoto won the competition outright in consecutive years and for Ariana to have made the finals is certainly a feather in her cap. Ariana’s song can be heard at www.reverbnation.com/razmtaz

While the songs are judged by people in the music industry, the public can also vote for their favourite song at www.sonicbids.com/voting/Default.aspx?p=336