Adelaide High student Samantha Timcke wins Australian Children’s Music Foundation’s National Song writing Competition
An Adelaide High student is officially the best student songwriter in the country. Watch her perform her winning tune, Paper People.
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What if a paper girl defied the laws of her paper world and had a loving heart?
That’s the premise of Paper People, the song penned by Adelaide High’s Samantha Timcke that has made her the overall winner of the Australian Children’s Music Foundation’s National Song Writing Competition.
She also won the Year 11/12 category for the second year running, a feat never achieved before.
Samantha says of her song’s protagonist: “She falls in love with a paper boy but he doesn’t have a heart, so he doesn’t love her back.
“And so it’s her story of accepting that and learning to love herself and finding peace with that.”
The Year 12 student, 17, a member of her school’s songwriting club, plans to spend her combined $7500 prize, which has to go toward music equipment, on a new ukulele and maybe a guitar.
“I was in a state of disbelief for days,” she says of her dual wins.
She hopes to be accepted into the Elder Conservatorium next year to study jazz and popular music, and become a music teacher.
Adelaide High music teacher Tim Moors says the songwriting club started last year and has about 15 students.
“(Samantha) was actually the one who brought the competition to me and the group and she went for it,” he says.
“I’m stoked. I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”
In its 17th year, the national competition had 1200 entries. Judges accessed audio files only so did not know the names and schools of entrants.
The Australian Children’s Music Foundation runs free music programs for disadvantaged children and youth at risk in schools, hospitals, and juvenile justice centres across Australia.
Paper People (full lyrics)
Paper people in paper homes
Are never scared of what’s outside their paper walls
Because their world is made of paper
They have nothing to be frightened of at all
Except for fire, and heavy rain
But once it’s over they will just rebuild again
They have no soul, no beating heart
Makes it impossible for them to fall apart
They’re as small as your hand, they don’t wear any clothes
They don’t care what they look like, they don’t have any bones
And their lives are just as simple as an apple on a tree
Sometimes when I look in the mirror, I see a paper girl staring back at me
Paper planes and paper flowers
Are enough to keep her occupied for hours
She sits in her paper room, her paper shirt and paper scarf
Do their best to hide the hole that’s singed inside her paper heart
This paper girl defied the laws of paper life
Because she loved a paper boy but she went down without a fight
For the paper boy she fell for was just paper through and through
And she wanted more than paper love, she wanted “I love you”
But that’s okay, she held her chin up high
And she hoped rain wouldn’t fall from paper sky
She tried to think outside the square
Outside this paper world, her heart would be repaired
She knows she’ll be fine, she doesn’t have any doubts
She’s been on her own forever so she wouldn’t scream and shout
And she knew no paper people could have feelings such as these
So when she looks in the mirror, she thinks “I wonder what on earth is wrong with me”
Oh the wind, it blew
Through her paper house on the hill
There’s nothing left, a crumpled page
But never fear, for she was safe
She found a place inside my heart
A big deep breath, a new fresh start
And so their home is within you
A little paper person guiding you
Human people inside their homes
Are filled with happiness, and paper skin no more