Melbourne singer-songwriter Sally Seltmann's nursery rhyme-style ditty of lost love, 1234, didn't fit on her recent album, Somewhere, Anywhere, so she gave it to her Canadian touring partner Leslie Feist.

After Feist added extra lyrics and fleshed it out with some more instruments, the song helped launch Feist's international career. It made the top 10 in the US, Canada and Britain, won her single of the year in Canada, was used in advertisements for eBay and Apple iPod and was nominated for a Grammy.

While Feist took the glory, Seltmann received some overdue local credit for the catchy song yesterday when it was nominated for the 2008 APRA Music Awards.

She takes on the rock heavyweights in a male-dominated field in the biggest peer-voted music award in the country, going up against previous winners Silverchair, Powderfinger and the John Butler Trio as well as Thirsty Merc.

But despite the success of the song, Seltmann, who performs under the name New Buffalo, does not regret giving it away. "I think that Feist made this the song that it is because of the way she performed it," said Seltmann, who is married to Darren Seltmann from the Avalanches.

"I just love that I can continue to do my own stuff with New Buffalo but give songs to other people as well. However, I … tried to write a song for Cyndi Lauper and I just loved it so much I thought I'm not going to give this song to anyone, I'm going to sing it myself."

The APRA (Australasian Performing Right Association) Awards has been honouring the country's best songwriters and composers since 1982. The Song of the Year award, is voted for by 30,000 APRA members.

Patrick Donovan

From The Age