“Honestly, I’m in shock. I thought that I was receiving one nomination but I’m just finding it out now that I was nominated twice. It’s a good surprise that’s for sure.” This were the words of one ambitious singer and song writer who was all smiles upon receiving not one, but two nominations for the YUMI FM PNG Musik Awards for this year. Danielle Morgan, who also goes by her stage name Danielle, couldn’t explain the feeling of being nominated especially for the first time for the Musik Awards. The awards night will highlight and recognize the efforts of local music artists over the last two years; 2021-2022. Danielle received two nominations under the category Female Artist of the Year for the years 2021 and 2022. The enthusiastic artist has been portraying determination and eagerness throughout her music career and has certainly earned herself a name both locally and internationally as well. “This is definitely the first nomination for me. I’ve always been like I’m going to get nominated one day for the Musik Awards so this nomination is enough for me. That’s an achievement in itself and I’m excited for this.” Upon her music journey, Danielle shared with PNGHAUSBUNG how far she’s come along whilst enduring challenges and achievements and has also shared some of her recent biggest highlights in her music career. “It’s crazy how this year’s been. There’s a lot of things that’s happened for me in the music industry that I’ve been working for a very long time so this is amazing.” “I think one of my biggest highlight so far would be winning the Pacific Break in 2022 because that has opened up a lot of opportunities internationally as an artist so that would definitely top the list” The Pacific Break is an ABC music competition for unsigned artists across the region and much to her surprise definitely rewarded her for her great music. PNG was among fifteen other pacific nations who took part in this event. In addition to this, Danielle also got the opportunity to perform at one of Australia’s Biggest World Music Festival early this year in Adelaide called WOMADelaide. “Performing in Adelaide was honestly just something else. I never performed like that or had that kind of audience I had in Adelaide and also got to meet other internationally artists as well.” Being a song writer and singer, Danielle draws most of her inspirations based on her journey and how far she’s come. “I draw inspiration from things that are happening around us as a society whether it’s my family, the country as a whole or in the Pacific. I can’t pinpoint a particular thing but I will say that what keeps me going is basically the journey that I’ve had from when I started until now.” “Looking back on my journey and how I started is something worth creating. Don’t minimize your progress! I think that’s what keeps me going because sometimes I do get overwhelmed causing me to not want to do music anymore but then looking back on how far I’ve come, I can’t give up now.” Meanwhile, Danielle is currently working on an Extended Play (EP) which is now in the works. The EP she states is Contemporary and is focused on issues that the country is currently facing such as Sorcery Related Violence, Domestic Violence and so forth. “These are issues where we are still experiencing now in the 21st century where it is also something that we shouldn’t really be seeing or experiencing it as a normal part of our society so I’m hoping that this EP will target that as a form of awareness.” Also in the pipeline of her future career, Danielle is also creating what she calls ‘silly songs’ that is also in the works. Danielle described this as something good to sort of have fun with without having to always be serious or creating music based on pressing issues.