Alberta singer-songwriter Hailey Benedict named Sirius-XM Top of the Country winner

Alberta singer-songwriter Hailey Benedict won the SiriusXM Canada Top of the Country competition Thursday night in Hamilton. (Photo: X@thatsmehaileyb)

A former guest on CTV News Calgary back in July took home a pretty significant musical honour Thursday night.

Alberta's own Hailey Benedict was crowned the winner of the 2023 Sirius-XM Top of the Country competition.

Benedict beat out Noah Derksen and Teigen Gayse in the finals.

"What an honour to be named this year's @siriusxmcanada Top of the Country Winner," Benedict said on social media Friday afternoon. "Thank you so much to SiriusXM, @CCMAofficial, @prsguitars & to everyone who made this possible."

The St. Albert country crooner walked away with a $25,000 prize.

It was another notch in the musical belt for the singer-songwriter. Benedict released new music in July, and is getting ready to go on tour next month, with a stop in Calgary on Nov. 1 at Bella Concert Hall.

Benedict's musical success was foreshadowed somewhat in 2016 when Benedict and her little sister Makenna were called onstage and sang at a Keith Urban concert in Edmonton, after Urban noticed the 14-year-old Hailey and 12-year-old Makenna's guitars that their mother had made.

"He saw the guitars and he said, 'I see those guitars, why don't we bring them up?' I was like 'What, what?', Hailey said.

Once onstage, Urban asked Hailey what her dream job was, and she said, "Singer-songwriter."

That prompted Urban to ask Hailey to play a song she had written called "Clean Slate."

Hailey, a CTV Edmonton story said, has been singing and playing instruments since she was six.

With files from Diego Romero and Angela Jung.