Now the catchy tune penned by Melbourne songwriter Sally Seltmann could be named the APRA song of the year.

1,2,3,4 has been nominated alongside Silverchair’s Straight Lines, Powderfinger’s Lost and Running, The John Butler Trio’s Better Than and Thirsty Merc’s 20 Good Reasons for the Australasian Performing Right Association’s (APRA) top gong.

The song, which Seltmann wrote and gave to Feist, was nominated for a Grammy award and won Feist single of the year in Canada.

But Seltmann said this nomination was a bit more personal for her.

“This one probably involves me quite a bit more than the other awards because it is for the songwriting,” Seltmann said.

“It’s nice to think you get some recognition for something that you’ve worked on.”

Despite the success of the song, which charted in the top 10 in the US, Canada and the UK (and number 36 in Australia), Seltmann said she did not regret giving the song away.

“No I don’t, because I write a lot of songs and I think that Feist made this the song that it is because of the way she performed it,” she said.

“I just love that I can continue to do my own stuff with New Buffalo but give songs to other people as well.”

“However, I ... tried to write a song for Cyndi Lauper and I just loved it so much I thought ‘I’m not going to give this song to anyone, I’m going to sing it myself’.”

The APRA award nominations were announced in Sydney yesterday morning, with The John Butler Trio leading the tally with songs in three categories.

The band features twice in the blues and roots field, with the songs Good Excuse and Funky Tonight.

A collection of radio-friendly hits feature in the most played Australian work category, including Eskimo Joe’s New York,

Evermore’s Light Surrounding You, Silverchair’s Straight Lines, Powderfinger’s Lost and Running and Thirsty Merc’s 20 Good

Reasons.

Sneaky Sound System and Rogue Traders lead the nominations in the dance category with two each, while songs by Troy Cassar-Daley, James Blundell and Lee Kernaghan are among the nominees for country work of the year.

The 30,000 members of APRA will decide the winners of most of the awards, which honour

songwriters.

The APRA board of writer and publisher directors decides the songwriter of the year, the Ted Albert Award for outstanding

services to Australian music and the breakthrough songwriter.

These awards will be announced at the ceremony on June 16 in Sydney, along with the award for most played Australian work overseas.