June 27 2025
COOMA’S Australian National Busking Championships (ANBC) has announced a local emerging musician as its 2025 Ambassador.
Berridale singer/songwriter Gabi Forman, 19, will represent the ANBC at the prestigious Gympie Music Muster in Queensland in August and perform during its bonanza 2025 Cooma regional heat/national grand final weekend in Cooma on 15-16 November.
The multi-instrumentalist was selected by Gympie Country Music Muster Festival organisers to perform on the Kombi Keg Bush Bar stage on Sunday August 31 based on her result and performance in the ANBC national grand final 2024 and at various folk and other festivals including Cobargo, Illawarra, Tamworth, Canberra, Numeralla and Nimmitabel.
Gympie Music Muster program director, Bec Anderson, said Ms Forman, a music student who graduated from Snowy Mountains Grammar School last year, taking the Grandiosa Music Award for the third year in a row, was a good fit with the festival.
“With her traditional, grassroots spirit and fresh energy, we thought Gabi would be a great fit for the Gympie Music Muster,” she said.
“She’s the kind of artist that captures the true essence of what our festival is all about.”
Ms Forman, a powerful vocalist trained by Jindabyne’s Jeni Reeves who plays guitar, mandolin and harmonica (trained by Col Berneau and Berridale’s Simon Grace), was third behind Arthur Hull (first) and Abby May (second) in the Open division of the ANBC national grand final in Cooma after placing second in the Cooma regional final and second in the Braddon ACT regional final.
She has continually placed in regional heats since first entering the competition five years ago and has been a featured performer on stage at Bradden, Cooma and Bombala heats.
A graduate of the Country Music Association of Australia Junior Academy 2024, Ms Forman released her debut EP of four original songs in Jindabyne last November, re-released The Girl as a Single at a performance in Berridale to raise money for Do It For Dolly Day on 9 May and will re-release Silver Lining as a single 4 July to celebrate the arrival of winter in her Snowy Mountains Home.
The Girl, a song calling for action against bullying, has been listed as a semi-finalist in 2025 Listen Up Music The Songwriting Competition, and Ms Forman will play in one of 11 semi finals around Australia – in Canberra on 17 September, competing for $40,000 of prizes.
Two of her original songs saw her a top 10 winner in the FretFest Songwriting Competition in Tamworth in January.
Ms Forman heads to Tamworth this month to perform at Songwriters in the Round with Tamworth Songwriters Association on the three days of the Hats off To Country Festival 11-13 July and has already bookings for the Tamworth Country Music Festival in January.
Mr Spencer said he was delighted to announce Ms Forman as the ANBC Ambassador for 2025.
“Gabi told me she was very unsure about being in the Open category because she was 18 but still at school but she really impressed the judges with her originals, her enthusiasm and her mandolin which she has only been playing for a month or so,” he said.
“She has been around for a while and gets better every time we see her, is always supportive of everything the ANBC does and is a great ambassador for us as well as the Snowy Mountains.”
MEDIA ENQUIRIES
Karen Forman
ANBC Media Coordinator
0425675555
Allan Spencer
ANBC President
0407384590