Shalaine Stebner has returned from the International Singer-Songwriter Association (ISSA) awards, where she received a bronze in the international songwriters category.
"One thing that was so, so special about it was that it didn't have anything to do with any songs that I had recorded or the production of it or anything like that," said the local singer.
"It literally was about the words that I had wrote. It's just the biggest compliment that I've ever received so far."
Stebner said everybody at the awards was there to cheer everyone on.
"Whether you walked away with something in your hands or not, you walked away with something in your heart."
The ISSA awards, which took place Aug. 24 in Atlanta, Georgia, has over 25,000 members worldwide. There is a U.S. category and an international category, so Stebner was against people from across the globe.
"You can nominate yourself for whatever you deemed that you thought you did well in at the beginning of the year, and then you submit a whole bunch of documents and whatever to support why you feel like you deserved it," she explained about the process.
For the whole month of April, fans, family and friends can vote once a day to get someone to the finals. All of the people who won gold for the last two years are the judges, so they listen to all of the submissions and choose the winners.
"I think the coolest part was that I didn't meet anybody at that point when they were all doing the judging, so they don't know me. All they know is the songs that I had submitted, and they decided that I was worthy, so it was so special."
Stebner submitted her song called Brenda, which people can find on all of the streaming platforms.
"Brenda is a woman empowerment, the man's cheating on you, so you burn down the house kind of song," said Stebner with a laugh, adding that one of her friends mentioned there weren't really any good songs named Brenda.
"At the time, Ashley McBryde had just put out a song called Brenda Put Your Bra On, and I was like, 'I have to do Brenda good,' and obviously she has won an award, so she is doing good," she said with a laugh.
Music was always something going on around Stebner. Although her mom, sister and brother aren't musically inclined, it was Stebner's dad that always in a band.
"There was always a band practicing in our basement, and they would go around and play at an anniversary party or a wedding or whatever. We'd all go to these parties and fall asleep in the jacket room or under the table. We were there for the whole entire night."
When she was around seven or eight, Stebner was asked to come up on stage and sing with one of these singers, and has had the music bug ever since.
Coming up, Stebner will be working on revamping her song Dirt Road Raised, which she wrote back in 2020 and released in 2021.
"It's just about my raising and growing up loving being out in the country," said Stebner, adding that she recently signed with Big Records out in Maine to redo and revamp the song.
It will be re-released Oct. 25.
As for shows, Stebner will be travelling to Whistler for the Invictus Games, an international sporting competition for wounded, sick or injured service personnel and veterans, and will be holding a conference at one of the legions in February through Big Records. She will also be touring around the week before at different coastal areas.
"I don't even know where we're going, but we're touring around and playing at a bunch of legions for a bunch of veterans, so it's going to be so fun. This is going to fill my heart with happiness and joy."
On Dec. 29, Stebner will be singing during one of the intermissions in Edmonton at the game between the Edmonton Oil Kings and Red Deer Rebels. She will be selling tickets, so people can email her at Sstebner@hotmail.com.
