Kelsey Butt won the Mya-Moe Ukulele Contest earlier this year. (CBC)A Labrador City teenager who taught herself how to play the ukulele has won an international prize with a song about her hometown she recorded in her bedroom closet.

Kelsey Butt, 18, picked up the ukulele for the first time last December.

She did that after she saw a website announcing a Washington State ukulele maker was holding a songwriting competition called the Mya-Moe Ukulele contest. The top prize was a top-end ukulele worth $1,500.

"You had to write a song about your home, or do a cover of a song, and make a video, make it creative, post it on YouTube and they were going to pick a winner," said Butt.

Butt wrote a homage to growing up in Labrador City, western Labrador, and with some help from friends, made a video that she posted online.

A few weeks later she was named the winner and last week her shiny new ukulele arrived.

"I was really, really excited. It was different. I really didn't expect it. I just kind of put the video up to get my name out there more. But it's really cool."

Kelsey said Monday she is now writing many more songs and hopes to have an album recorded by the end of the summer.