About 120 people watched seven young singers perform with accompanists, including Terence Dennis and Iola Shelley, at the Glenroy Auditorium.
Mezzo Christie Cook won first prize - the $5000 Dame Malvina Major Foundation award.
Ms Cook, of Auckland, said it was ''fabulous'' being back in Dunedin and winning the award.
She finished studies at the University of Otago in Dunedin in 2011.
''They were the best years of my life.''
She was continuing her study in Wellington, she said.
The prizemoney would help pay for course fees and be used for a travel fund to sing internationally.
Soprano Amina Edris, of Christchurch, won second prize, the $2000 Royal Dunedin Male Choir award.
And soprano Sophie Morris won third prize, the $1000 Val Braumann Award.
Adjudicator Martin Snell said judging the awards was ''daunting'' but ''delightful'' and he gave the judge's choice award - the $250 Queen Rose Retirement Home Award - to baritone Clinton Fung.
The contest was the highlight of the Dunedin Performing Arts Competitions Society senior vocal festival, which started at Burns Hall, First Church on Thursday.
The aria contest has been held annually in Dunedin since 1987 and is regarded as a stepping-stone to a professional opera career.
Past winners have included Martin Snell, Simon O'Neil, Jud Arthur, Jonathan Lemalu, Anna Leese, and Stephen Chambers, who are all singing internationally.
