Anna, 38, made it to the semis of the Americana category with her just released single Little Bluebird, which follows the release of Climb from her Crossing The Sea album.

"There were 26,000 entries from all around the world so it's huge in the songwriting industry," she said.

"It's funny, you see the list of semi finalists and there are a couple from the USA, a couple from interstate in Australia, one from Budapest, one from Denmark, and there it is ... one from Cessnock. Whoo-hoo!

"But I'm thrilled to even make the semi finals, to be honest. I think Kasey Chambers might have won it a few years back."

She describes Americana as "blues and roots, with a touch of country - that's my version anyway".

Little Bluebird was a song about persistence and to keep pushing.

"Climb has got some big, full sounds and so I wanted to write a song that was stripped right back, just me and the guitar," she said.

"I was reflecting on my early days singing in pubs and how the crowd might be noisy but you keep plugging away, keep singing, and eventually you win them over."

The winner of the overall competition will win $20,000 - "geez, wouldn't that be handy" - but for Anna it's more about the exposure.

"The final is judged by really high profile musicians ... Tom Waites has judged, Coldplay.

"It would be great just having your song played for them."

In the meantime Anna is planning a busy 12 months.

"With places starting to open up again, it's a really good time to get busy again."

She has come a long way since she turned all four judges chairs on The Voice back in 2013.

After that she got to work on team Delta Goodrem, has supported the likes of Colin Hay and Daryl Braithwaite, moved to Cessnock ... but most importantly, learned some of life's hard lessons.

And it has taken its toll, including periods of depression and anxiety.

On the music side of things, after a burst of activity and four albums after The Voiuce, the last few years had been very quiet indeed.

"I wrote Climb about a friend of mine who was going through a tough period," she said.

"It's about climbing out of dark places and into the sunlight. But as I was writing it I suddenly realised I was writing about myself too.

"Looking back on it, I'd say I was suffering from anxiety when I was appearing on The Voice all those years ago."

She's back now, and it's pretty obvious the music is better than ever.

The International Song Writing Competition launched in 2002 and past Australian winners include Tones and I, Gotye, Vance Joy, Kasey Chambers, and Kate Miller-Heidke.