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.
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