With memories of growing up in Whakamarama bouncing in her mind one day, Tauranga musician Leah Carroll sat down and penned her song ‘Country Home'.

At the heart of this tune lies that old adage from L. Frank Baum's classic children's novel ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz': 'there's no place like home”.

Tauranga singer-songwriter Leah Carroll has been awarded a Commended Entry for her song ‘Country Home' which she entered into the 2014 UK Songwriting Competition. Photo: Supplied.

Then on Christmas Day last year, just like Dorothy, something very surprising happened to the songstress.

'I received a very unexpected Christmas present, my song ‘Country Home' won a Commended Entry Award in the Country Category of the 2014 UK Songwriting Contest,” she says.

Launched in 2002, The UK Songwriting Contest is one of the longest running and most popular international songwriting events, with over 60,000 songs submitted in its 13-year history.

The competition receives support from a number of prestigious organisations including The BRIT Trust and BBC Radio, and aims to discover, foster and encourage new songwriting talent worldwide.

A number of notable industry figures have judged the competition over the years and 2014's competition judges included Sting's producer Kipper Eldridge and Elton John's producer Stuart Epps.

Commended Entry Awards are presented to entrants who show the judges a good level of songwriting but have just missed out on semi-final spots.

This is the third time Leah's entered the contest, entering the pop category in 2009 and 2011, but 2014 was the first time she submitted a song into the country category.

Leah says: 'My music all ties into pop somehow, but I love trying out different genres in my songwriting like country, blues, folk and others.

'I was pretty stoked because I'd never really had an interest in country music up until recently, and it was also my first time entering the category, so I just felt really proud of the song.

'The competition is also great because you enter your songs alongside both professionals and amateurs, and all of the judges are industry figures who know what they're talking about.”

Leah says she wrote her first song at the age of 15 and has not looked backed since.

While she mainly performs as a solo act, Leah's been a member of couple of bands in the past, as well as appearing in Tauranga Musical Theatre productions of ‘Rent' and ‘Into the Woods' in 2011.

If you want to catch Leah in action you can always check her out at Mount Maunganui's Little Big Markets, where she says she will be appearing regularly this year.

For more information visit Leah's Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/leahcarrollmusic