Award-winner for Regent

Gin Wigmore
Gin Wigmore
Virginia "Gin" Wigmore has taken the country by storm since her debut album, Holy Smoke, set the New Zealand music charts on fire this year.

Last week, the 24-year-old was the major winner at the 2010 New Zealand Music Awards in Auckland.

Wigmore won four Tuis - for album of the year, breakthrough artist of the year, best pop album and highest-selling album.

"I'm really looking forward to playing in Dunedin. I haven't been there for a long time," Wigmore said yesterday.

There had been concerns the singer would not make her "Holy Smoke" concert tomorrow night, after she lost her voice as a result of a heavy schedule and cancelled last week's Palmerston North and Wellington concerts.

"The specialist has now given me the all-clear and I'll definitely be right for the Dunedin concert," she said.

Wigmore first came to attention in 2004, when a song she wrote about her father's death, Hallelujah, beat 11,000 songs from 77 countries to win the United States International Songwriting Competition.

She remains the youngest and only unsigned winner in the history of the competition.

In 2008, the single was included on her five-track debut EP, Extended Play, and the same year she toured New Zealand with John Mellencamp and Sheryl Crow.

Last year, she featured on the Smashproof single Brother, which sat at No 1 on the official RIANZ singles charts for 11 weeks.

Wigmore has garnered nearly as much attention in recent times for her extensive Mexican-inspired tattoos, as for her raw Amy Whitehouse-esque voice.

She describes her body art as "the whole Day of the Dead vibe - skulls, crosses, and teeth and feet coming out of heads and things".

• Gin Wigmore plays at 8pm tomorrow in the Regent Theatre.

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