We have liftoff! Winnipeg singer-songwriter victorious on CTV’s The Launch

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This article was published 20/02/2019 (2733 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg singer-songwriter Olivia Lunny has won her episode of the CTV music-competition series The Launch.

Lunny emerged victorious, beating out four other vocalists with her indie-pop version of this week’s song, I Got You, produced by Canadian singer-songwriter and DJ Shaun Frank.

As of 8 p.m. Wednesday night, immediately after her episode aired, Lunny’s version of the single was officially “launched” under Big Machine Records, and is now available on all the major streaming platforms, including Apple Music, Google Play and Spotify.

After a bit of a bumpy road with some accidental (and unwanted) lyrical changes and the mentors asking her to perform without a guitar — an uncomfortable task for her — Lunny was visibly shocked when she was announced as the winner.

The mentors cited her obvious vocal talent, as well as her skill in the studio, as the main reasons for her win.

“There’s a moment where they tell me (I won) and I freeze and it doesn’t sink in right away. A lot of things were going through my mind, and I honestly wasn’t really expecting to win, but it was very surreal. It took me a while to understand what had happened and I’m just so grateful,” the 20 year old told the Free Press from Toronto, where she viewed the episode with family.

“It’s so nice to receive validation after writing songs for quite a few years now and playing in the Winnipeg scene. It’s nice to, beyond that, receive that validation that I should be doing music and this is something I’m doing well at.”

For those unfamiliar with The Launch, each episode sees five emerging artists audition for a panel of celebrity mentors — which, for Lunny, included Frank, Jann Arden, Québécois pop queen Marie-Mai and the show’s executive producer, music-industry giant Scott Borchetta — for the opportunity to learn, record and perform their interpretation of an original song provided by the show.

The mentor panel then narrows the five artists down to two, who then record the track and perform it live and a winner is chosen. The winner’s single is released immediately following the broadcast of the episode.

“I think as an artist the biggest goal is to have your music heard, so the fact that my song will now be heard by all of Canada is a wonderful feeling,” says Lunny.

The Launch‘s filming process was just as short as it appears on the show, Lunny explains; it took only two days to go through the audition process, learn and record the track, perform it in front of an audience and be crowned the winner. Though the steps were extremely expedited, Lunny was still able to extract a few solid pieces of advice from her mentors during that time, and developed an especially strong bond with Arden.

“I learned so much throughout the whole experience from everyone… but I think Jann Arden in particular, just kind of sat me down and said you just have to be true to yourself, no matter what, throughout this show and throughout your career as a musician and that’s how you will succeed,” Lunny says.

“So hearing her give that advice, and also she’s someone who has lived that advice and you can see that in the person she has become as an artist, it was really special.”

Now, Lunny will be on the publicity train, hitting up television shows such as The Social and The Marilyn Denis Show, and doing several radio appearances as she remains in Toronto for the next couple of weeks. Then, she says she’ll be back home in Winnipeg to figure out her next steps.

“I’m basically just going to ride the wave of I Got You and see how people react, and keep writing of course,” she says.

“I’m hoping to maybe play some shows and just hang out with friends and family and share this experience with everyone… I’m just really happy to be representing Winnipeg.”

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @NireRabel