If you didn’t manage to score a ticket to Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour in Toronto, you can use the money you saved to support the Women’s Business Network of Peterborough’s annual holiday fundraising gala at the Holiday Inn on Wednesday, December 4th and catch Peterborough’s up-and-coming Georgia Rose.
A Swiftie herself, the 18-year-old singer-songwriter has been quickly making a name for herself in the region as she has won local awards for her music, is currently working on her first video and her first single, and is regularly performing at gigs across the region.
Given this success, you might be surprised to know that songwriting and playing guitar are both relatively newfound talents and passions for Georgia. Despite being musically inclined her whole life — she participated in Kindermusik and learned to play the ukulele, recorder, clarinet, and tenor saxophone throughout elementary and high school — upon first getting a guitar for her 10th birthday, she didn’t immediately gravitate towards the instrument and stopped playing after just one lesson.
“I think I just didn’t have the patience at the time and I was doing the typical beginner, simpler songs, but I just didn’t want to start there,” Georgia says, noting she was already gravitating towards pop music from a young age. “I wanted to learn the stuff that I was listening to.”
When she picked up her guitar again in 2022, it was out of the desire to write songs. However, she never got back into taking lessons again and is entirely self-taught, mainly through YouTube tutorials. Similarly, she has never taken a vocal lesson.
“It took a little bit to learn how to switch from different chords, but I already had a background in rhythm and melody,” she recalls. “When I learned to play songs, I had to sing along with them to get the melody. I know some people struggle with playing and singing at the same time but, for me, I learned by doing both at the same time.”
Georgia has always loved writing in general and is currently studying English at Trent University. Her passion for songwriting, however, is largely inspired by her favourite musician, Taylor Swift, as she admires how she is able to “perfectly put things into words.”
“Sometimes I’ll write a song that’s not based on my life and it’s just an activity, a hobby, or something creative for my mind to do,” Georgia says, adding she has written more than 40 partial or complete songs.
“Then there’s also the therapeutic side where, in order for me to get over something, I just need to write and I need to make something out of it. Once you have something to look back on, you can put that experience behind you.”
Georgia is also inspired by Taylor Swift’s “humble beginnings,” which mirror her own recent experience playing in pubs and bars. Though she says she’s “always been a pretty shy person,” Georgia chose to “shake it off” and, at the end of 2023, got on stage in front of an audience for the first time at the Black Horse Pub in downtown Peterborough.
“I was definitely very nervous but the music community I found is very supporting,” she says. “Once I got off stage, there were other musicians coming up and saying, ‘That was really great’ and ‘You should definitely come back’. I think that encouragement and support is what drove me. Even today, it’s really nice to have a community of people who want you to succeed.”
Georgia saw the same community support earlier this year when she placed third in the Peterborough’s Got Talent competition in April, which she labels as “probably the best experience of this year.”
“I actually met my boyfriend there, so that was a really great night,” she says. “I honestly did not expect to even place in the top three because there’s just so much talent there, so there was a shock that was really cool.”
Then in September, Georgia came in first place in the Kawartha Lakes Alliance of Singer-Songwriters Youth Song Contest for her original song “Where Did We Go?”.
“It got a bunch of the participants in the contest together to just share each other’s music and talk about songwriting,” says Georgia. “That was the even bigger prize: to connect with young songwriters who have the same ideas and passions that I do. And I think it’s a great community and a great way to connect.”
For her prize, Georgia is currently recording a music video for her song, which will be largely filmed outdoors and will be coming out next year.
The release of the music video is one of many exciting things to look forward to next year from Georgia, who will also be releasing her first single “Summer Weather” early in 2025.
In the meantime, she is available for gigs either as herself or by embracing her idol at Taylor Swift-themed events, as recently done for birthday parties and for the Fresh Radio Soirée held in October. For Georgia, that day, as T-Swift would say, was a fairytale.
“It’s honestly a great experience to watch all these little kids look up to you and come up and dance with you,” she says. “It’s really great to do my favourite thing. I normally just sing Taylor Swift songs in the car or while cleaning my room and the fact I get to do that while people are watching and enjoying it — it’s a dream job.”
In addition to her performance at the WBN holiday gala on December 4, Georgia will also be performing at the Pie-Eyed Monk in Lindsay on November 21 with her fellow Youth Song Contest winners (second-place winners Gavin Clause and Kaleb Cramm and third-place winners Caden and Cavan Mabe) to open for Boreal.
She also has a three-hour gig at The Black Horse on November 30 and a stint at the Merry Millbrook Christmas on December 7.
All the while, she keeps a busy schedule as she is always penning new music while studying full time and, of course, remains hopeful she’ll be dancing the night away with Taylor Swift at an Eras Tour show in Toronto.
“I have saved up and, even if I have to buy a scalper ticket, I’ll do anything to be there,” Georgia says. “Even if it’s in the nose bleeds, that would just be a dream.”
If the pattern of her first year on stage is anything to go by, it might not be long until we’ll all be fighting for tickets to see Georgia Rose on her very own world tour.
For more information on Georgia Rose, visit her website at georgiarosemusic.ca.
