Toyota Star Maker Quest
Toyota Star Maker is Australia's oldest and most successful music talent search, this event is held at the Tamworth Country Music Festival in January.
The Toyota Star Maker crowns a bright new star on the country music scene.
It was started in 1979 by Radio 2TM's country music division BAL Marketing which, at that time, was organising the already highly successful Australasian Country Music Awards.
From 1995 to 2017, the Star Maker had been organised and staged by Rural Press Events in Tamworth. Gary Robertson, Terry Hill and Cheryl Byrnes were three of the staff most associated with the Star Maker winners over the years.
In 2017 the Tamworth Regional Council had taken over the competition as well as, the running of Festival FM 106.1 FM.
Prize
The Star Maker competition has been supported by Toyota as major sponsor since 1996, and along with an album recording contract, a Maton acoustic guitar, an array of high-profile performance bookings and a trip to Nashville, the lucky winner also receives 12 months' use of a brand new, fully serviced Toyota motor vehicle, complete with fuel card for a year. They also get a recording session with Australia’s top musicians and producer as well as a recording, distribution and promotion of a four-track EP and production of two professional video clips by an award-winning director.
Winners
- 1979 Grand Junction
- 1980 Tommy Miller
- 1981 Leanne Douglas
- 1982 Lee Kernaghan
- 1983 Vic Lanyon
- 1984 No Winner
- 1985 Great Divide
- 1986 Jane Maddick
- 1987 James Blundell
- 1988 Jenine Vaughan
- 1989 Craig Robertson
- 1990 Gina Jeffreys
- 1991 Keith Urban
- 1992 Warren Derwent
- 1993 Beccy Cole
- 1994 Clint Beattie
- 1995 Tanya Self
- 1996 Darren Coggan
- 1997 Lyn Bowtell
- 1998 Kate Ballantyne
- 1999 Brendon Walmsley
- 2000 Grant Richardson
- 2001 Kylie Sackley
- 2002 Kieran Lancini
- 2003 Todd Williams
- 2004 Travis Collins
- 2005 Samantha McClymont
- 2006 Cat Southern
- 2007 Kirsty Lee Akers
- 2008 Talia Wittmann
- 2009 Liam Brew
- 2010 Luke Austen
- 2011 Luke Dickens
- 2012 Bob Corbett
- 2013 Kaylee Bell
- 2014 Jared Porter
- 2015 Mickey Pye
- 2016 Karin Page
- 2017 Rachael Fahim