Adelaide songwriter Mathan Sathy had been enjoying a calm evening with his family on Christmas Day when he learned that he had won the prestigious UK Songwriting Contest within the ‘Pop / Top 40’ category for his song Here.
Despite his quiet confidence in his music, the Aussie songwriter couldn’t help but be surprised that his song had beaten out thousands of entries that had flown in from over 100 countries.
“I just froze, thinking, ‘this is crazy!’ You know, I look up to some of the people on the judging panel, many of whom are Grammy award winners – even Elton John’s producer was a judge.”
With icons such as Ed Sheeran, BTS and Guy Sebastian as his main influences throughout his songwriting career, it’s no surprise that his pop songs carry similarly infectious melodies.
“In terms of dream Aussie collabs, Guy Sebastian is at the top of my list. His voice is incredible, his songs are powerful and above all, he’s a great human being,” he says enthusiastically.
But of course, as someone who grew up in a Sri-Lankan household in Australia, with Tamil and Hindi music constantly playing in the background, he straddles two worlds of music. That of the Indian film industry, and the American pop scene.
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“I listen to Bollywood and Tamil music all the time and its definitely influenced by music. Although, I don’t know if anyone else can hear that,” he concedes.
While these influences are less obvious, a musical collaboration between Mathan Sathy and Guy Sebastian would clearly be a match made in heaven. His award-winning pop ballad Here is an honest and unflinching display of love with lines like “I wanna be here…/Present to experience the truth/ Let’s live in the moment/leave no words unspoken.”
But it was a slow climb to finally winning the competition. He’s been working on his craft for over 10 years, having written his first song aged 18. He later released his debut EP, titled Mathan Sathy – Songwriter in 2022. His award-winning song Here was released in late 2023 and has since amassed 40,000 plays on Spotify. Like all his ballads, the song was inspired by his wife.
“I spent a really nice time with my wife at the Adelaide Fringe festival. It was a magical vibe there, I guess because of all the lights and just being around the artistic community…I went to the keyboard and it felt like the song just came out of me. And then the next day, all I had to do was fix up some dodgy lines,” he says.
As someone who immersed himself in the artistic community at a young age through Aussie organisations like Maya Arts, he could have chosen to become a singer or even an actor. But to him, songwriting was a no brainer.

“I think songwriting really just spoke to my heart the most…and it took some time to realise this. But it was the biggest weight off my shoulders once I was able to just narrow it down to that one thing.”
And clearly, it was the right decision. To Mathan Sathy, songwriting is something that is deeply intuitive.
“You just need to be true to the emotion that you feel from whatever has inspired you and to channel that musically. It’s important to get your mind out of the way when you do that…The most exciting part of a song is where the melody just starts to unveil itself. In that way, each song almost feels like a fluke because there’s almost no thinking involved,” he laughs.
But of course, that only happens on the good days. Otherwise, it’s a slow process of collecting inspiration during the weekdays and trying to produce something over the weekend. Whilst a lot of creatives might feel disheartened after years of trying to break through, Mathan Sathy remains ever hopeful for his big break.
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This fearless positivity is inherent to all his songs.
“I think I just want people to walk away from my music feeling really uplifted. Pop music should inspire people, and the songs that I love have always made my day brighter,” he says.
Despite his win, he’s shown no signs of losing the discipline that’s brought him this far. He’s already pitching his music to film and TV studio executives in hopes of popularising his work.
But is a Bollywood collaboration anywhere on the horizon?
“I have no chance of writing lyrics in Tamil sadly,” he laughs, “But yeah, I could definitely provide the melodic part of it, and I would absolutely love to give my ideas… For now, I’m just trying to find a community of musicians and to foster connections in whatever way I can,” he says.
Considering the deep commitment to his craft and sincerity in his lyrics, it’s only a matter of time before he builds a faithful fanbase.
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