Congratulations to Rebecca Caffyn for winning 1st place in Waikato region at the Smokefree Rockquest.

Established in 1989, Smokefree Rockquest is a New Zealand based event, with the aim of inspiring young musicians to continue reaching heights in their music careers. Due to unprecedented times this year, the Smokefree Rockquest was a little different. All the live regional events were cancelled, which resulted in students producing a video and sending it in.

We are very proud to announce our very own Rebecca Caffyn, placed 1st in the Waikato Solo/Duo Category. While catching up with Rebecca, she expressed her thoughts on the live regional events being cancelled. 

“The live regional events were cancelled, which resulted in the performances being online. I wrote a song, filmed a video and sent it away. This way was different than what I’m used to, but less scary, and it turned out pretty well. I did feel nervous to perform the song in front of the person videoing me though.”

The Smokefree Rockquest is a youth event and entering has been a goal of Rebecca’s for a few years. As a Year 13 Rebecca finally decided 2020 was it, as it is her last year in high school. Music and writing songs is one of Rebecca’s passions/hobbies, that she’d like to continue doing in the future. Writing a song is a process and it’s a lot harder than it seems. Rebecca entered the competition with her original song called 'Should Have Been'. She says, “The song is a letter to the part of yourself which compares to other people; the part which says you should be more like this or do this rather than what you're doing.” 

For Rebecca, the chorus melody came quickly into her head, in which she based the rest of her song around. “Sometimes I find it hard to write songs and sometimes I find it easy. When writing my song, 'Should’ve Been', it was a process. I rewrote it a few times and kept changing it around. Whilst filming the video, I was under a lot of pressure too.” 

Although Rebecca didn’t get to sing live for the regionals, we were lucky enough to have her join students from the Music Impact Project this Wednesday to perform her winning song.

From everyone at Rototuna High Schools, congratulations Rebecca, we are all very proud of you!