Nine-year-old singer competing against Raffi, Fred Penner for award

Nine-year-old Stella Swanson maintains she is not a rabbit as she sings in the title song to her debut album I'm Not a Bunny.

But the Vancouver Island singer-songwriter does have hoppin' tunes that can compete with the likes of Raffi, Fred Penner and Bobs and Lolo.

Along with those veteran children's musicians, Swanson's album has been nominated in the Children's Recording of the Year category forthe 2015 Western Canada Music Awards, taking place Sunday, September 20.

She's the youngest nominee and the only child to be nominated.

"It's always kind of a shock at first, and then it's more of an 'Oh my gosh, I can't believe it!'," Swanson told North by Northwest host Sheryl MacKay.

That's not the only award she's up forher album has also been nominated for Children's Album of the Year atthe Canadian Folk Music Awards, taking place in November.

She is also the only child to be nominated in that category.

Started singing at 2

Swanson said she has been singing since she was two years old, and wrote her first song when she was six.

"I was just sitting on the back porch, strumming randomly at my little red Christmas gift from Santa Claus, which was a ukulele, and making horrible sounds with itwhile singing something," she said.

"Mom came up behind me and took a little video, so that's basically how the whole songwriting process began."

Swanson's mother, a photographer, convinced Juno Award-winning artist Helen Austin to hear her daughter's music, in exchange for taking pictures of Austin's new band Big Little Lions.

Austin was so impressed that she produced Swanson's album I'm Not a Bunny.

A family affair

Three of the songs on that album were written by Swanson, and the other six original songs were collaborations with her seven-year-old sister and Swanson's mother.

"They are a big part of it as well," Swanson said.

"They help write the songs, they play all of the background singing and the music. Usually we come up with a chorus when we're playing and stuff and then we record it and then the three of us work on the verses and the musicality of the rest of the song.".

Swanson said singing is a "nice way to express stuff."

"It gives me something fun to do, whether I'm playing or doing a show, or just running around in a grocery store and singing Frozen."

To hear the full interview listen to the audio labelled: Nine-year-old Vancouver Island singer competing against Raffi for music award