Gang of Youths, DMA’S, MAY-A and Genesis Owusu figure in the shortlist for the Vanda & Young Global Songwriting Competition, unveiled early Thursday (Feb. 17).
The Top 40 is boiled down from a total of 3,837 songs from 64 countries, organisers say, with the entry process raising $192,000 for good causes.
The coveted praises carries much more than bragging rights.
A first-place cash prize of $50,000 will be awarded to the winning songwriter, courtesy of APRA AMCOS, Alberts and Sony Music Publishing, while second place earns $10,000, by way of legal experts Banki Haddock Fiora.
A gift of $5,000 will go to the third place recipient, thanks to Aon.
More than half the shortlisted numbers are the work of unpublished songwriters, with one of those poised to score the $5,000 AMPAL Emerging Songwriter Prize, provided by Australasian Music Publishers Association Limited (AMPAL).
Continuing a new tradition, ten of the Top 40 finalists will receive a runner-up prize of $1,000, a present from an anonymous donor wishing to help songwriters during the pandemic.
Winners in the comp, which is open to songwriters from anywhere, doing all kinds of music, will be announced in March.
Named after the legendary songwriters and founding members of The Easybeats, Harry Vanda and the late George Young, the competition has honoured a range of songwriting talent, from Thelma Plum (2020), Matt Corby and Dann Hume (2019), Amy Shark (2018), Gretta Ray (2016), Husky Gawenda (2014), Isabella Manfredi (2013), Kimbra (2011) and Megan Washington (2009), and others.
Each song entry carries with it a $50 fee, with 100% of that sum benefiting the services of Noro Music Therapy.
Since the contest launched in 2009, those entries have contributed nearly $1.6 million for the music charity.
The judging panel this time included a mix of artists, producers, media and music industry professionals, including KLP, Jenny Morris, Anna Lunoe and employees from Double J, The Industry Observer, Billboard, reps from the three majors, and Jaxsta, which this year helped promote the competition to its worldwide network of songwriters and music creators.
Visit vandayoungsongcomp.com for more.
2021 Vanda & Young Global Songwriting Competition Top 40:
Song Title | Songwriters | Publisher | Performer | Another Day | Nicole McKinney | unpublished | Nicole McKinney | Apricots | Maya Cumming & Roberto De Sa | Sony Music Publishing | MAY-A | Artificial Light | Benjamin Hornstein, Bradley Beaman, Connor McCrae & Steeve Body | unpublished | Voyager Run | Better To Leave | Samuel Baird, Thomas Baird, Peter White, Miles Sly & Lucas Sly | unpublished | Lost Woods | Boring People | Benjamin Tan & Melodie Mezieres-Wagner | unpublished | SUNNY. | Cannonball | Peter Harding & Noah Cyrus | Kobalt Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing | PJ Harding & Noah Cyrus | Care Too Much | Isabella Losi & Joel Quartermain | Mushroom Music | Bella Deer | Chapel | Jack McAllister, Tim Anderson, Nathan Donmoyer & Tavon Thompson | Mushroom Music | Willaris. K | Come N’ See Me | Kate Steele & Graham McLuskie | unpublished | Katy Steele | Consider Me Gone | Chloe Styler | unpublished | Chloe Styler | Cool | Eloise Willis-Hardy & Barnaby Matthews | unpublished | Vigilantonie | Dangerous | Liz Stringer | Gaga Music | Liz Stringer | Fallen Soldier | Michael Hardy, John Turner, Clark Fivaz & Riaan Janse van Rensburg | unpublished | TDK90 | Gold Chains | Kofi Owusu-Ansah, Andrew Klippel, Kieran J Callinan, Michael Di Francesco & Julian Sudek | Kobalt Music Publishing obo Ourness Songs, Sony Music Publishing, Mushroom Music obo Ourness Songs, Kobalt Music Publishing obo Future Classic | Genesis Owusu | Grateful | Patrick Bolster & Scott Steven | unpublished | Patrick James | Guided By Angels | Amy Taylor, Fergus Romer & Bryce Wilson | unpublished | Amyl and The Sniffers | Half Awake | Louis Schoorl, Claire Howell, Alex McIntyre, Cameron Nacson & Grace Pitts | Universal Music Publishing, BMG Rights Management & Kobalt Music Publishing | GRAACE | HIGHWAY TO HELL | Lachlan Hodder-Trenwith | unpublished | HT | Him | Ngaire Joseph & Jack Britten | Universal Music Publishing & Embassy Music Publishing | Ngaiire | I Just Wanna Hold You | Courtney Keil, Rodney McCormack, Templeton Thompson & Samuel Gay | unpublished | Courtney Keil | Ice Tea Liberace | Phebe Starr, Xavier Dunn & Demi Barton | Sony Music Publishing & Universal Music Publishing | Phebe Starr | Junk Truck Head Fuck | John Took, Matthew Mason & Thomas O’Dell | Universal Music Publishing | DMA’S | Keep Rolling On | Yirrmal Marika & Neil Murray | Universal Music Publishing | Neil Murray, Emma Donovan & Yirrmal | Made For Silence | Miiesha Young, Lucian Blomkamp, Stephen Collins & Jordan Panasewych | Sony Music Publishing & BMG Rights Management | Miiesha | Mikey Might | Jerome Farah | Mushroom Music | Jerome Farah | Move | Danzal Baker, Dallas Woods, James Iheakanwa & Willie Tafa | Kobalt Music Publishing & BMG Rights Management | Baker Boy | Never Too Hurt To Heal | Aydan Calafiore, Michael Paynter & Michael DeLorenzis | Universal Music Publishing & Mushroom Music | AYDAN | OTHERSIDE | Daniel Kirkland & Taka Perry | Downtown Music | Kirklandd | Overdue | Jarryd Klapper, James Ho, Davon Prather & Francis Nguyentran | Sony Music Publishing | Jarryd James | Power Without Greed | Lance Ferguson & Kylie Auldist | BMG Rights Management | The Bamboos | PSYCHO HOLE | Aishwarya Shah & Jarrad Rogers | Native Tongue/Sentric Music & BMG Rights Management | ASHWARYA | Remember Us | Stan Walker, Natalie Dunn, Joanna Levesque, Devin Abrams & Ashton Sellars | EMI Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, Universal Music Publishing | Stan Walker | searching for freedom | Ziggy Alberts | Kobalt Music Publishing | Ziggy Alberts | Shining Light | Yirrmal Marika & Daniel Patterson | unpublished | Yirrmal | Slowly | Louis Schoorl, Peter Harding & Jessica Karpov | Universal Music Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing Australia | PJ Harding | Talk | Joel Slabb, Maya Cumming & Chris Collins | Mushroom Music & Sony Music Publishing | Budjerah & MAY-A | These Are The Days | Susan O’Neill & Simon O’Reilly | unpublished | Susan O’Neill & Mick Flannery | Time I Love To Waste | Maya Cumming, Roberto De Sa & Christian Lo Russo | Sony Music Publishing | MAY-A | unison | David Le’aupepe, Dominik Borzestowski, Maxwell Dunn, Thomas Hobden & Jung Kim | Universal Music Publishing | Gang of Youths | Waiting for the Sun | Tyler Millott | unpublished | The Terrifying Lows |
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This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.