(Second from left) Sarah Duffey after being named national champion for her age group.
Local singer Sarah Duffey has once again demonstrated her strong vocal ability, last week claiming a haul of awards and medals at the Follow Your Dreams national singing competition.
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The competition was held in Adelaide Tuesday last week.
As a demonstration of how passionate Sarah is about her singing, she and mum Kama Jennings made the trip to the Adelaide Convention Centre, and back, in one day.
It isn’t lost on Sarah how much goes into being able to attend and compete at such events.
“I am just forever grateful to mum for getting me around and to these competitions,” she said.
The trip was well worth it, with Sarah claiming second in Musical Theatre, second in the Disney category, first in Pop, first in Ballad and first in the Country category.
As well as these solo efforts, she took home a number of duet wins, which included a first in the Pop duet, a first in the Ballad duet, first in the Disney duet category and first in the Musical Theatre category.
For her cumulative efforts, Sarah was named the Follow Your Dreams competition's national champion in the 16 and under age group.
“I guess I feel proud of myself for winning, with such a talented field of competitors,” she said.
“From qualifying earlier last year, to competing, it has just felt like an actual achievement.
“I also got to reconnect with other singers I have competed with and against in the past.
“I was also able to do a bit of mentoring too, for some of the younger kids competing; it was really nice.”
Sarah also got the opportunity to meet one of her musical heroes in Halimah Kyrgios - sister of Australian tennis bad boy Nick - who was a judge for the competition.
Sarah has admired Halimah since seeing her on The Voice Australia in 2021, and takes a lot of inspiration from her.
Halimah is a bachelor honours graduate in musical theatre, a space that Sarah very much wants to be in.
As for what’s next for Sarah, she was excited about some upcoming performance dates and some of her aspirations.
With a litany of trophies, sashes, medals and awards in her possession, Sarah also has a clear goal of making music her job, career and life.
“There will be a bit of travel for some upcoming gigs we have booked this year, but long term I hope to get a place in a musical theatre course down in Melbourne,” Sarah said.
