The annual Vanda & Young Global Songwriting Competition has revealed its Top 40 finalists and man, it’s juicy.
Some of Australia’s best songwriters from across a number of genres are represented this year; we’ve got the likes of Yirrmal, The Bamboos and Genesis Owusu alongside the likes of Gang Of Youths, NGAIIRE, Liz Stringer and MAY-A.
Speaking of MAY-A, she’s got three songs in the running – ‘Apricots’, ‘Time I Love To Waste’ and her collaboration with Budjerah, ‘Talk’.
North East Arnhem Land songwriter Yirrmal has two entries, ‘Shining Light’ (with Daniel Patterson) and ‘Keep Rolling On’ (with Neil Murray).
Over 3,500 entries from 64 countries made up the submission pool for the Vanda & Young Global Songwriting Competition, with entry fees going towards the support of Noro Music Therapy. In all, they raised $192,000 for their efforts. Since the competition began in 2009, the Vanda & Young Global Songwriting Comp has raised almost $1.6 million.
The winner of the top prize stands to win $50,000 cash courtesy of APRA AMCOS, Alberts and Sony Music Publishing.
The second place winner will receive $10,000 from legal services company Banki Haddock Fiora, while the third place artist receives $5,000 courtesy of Aon.
For another year, the Vanda & Young Global Songwriting Competition awards $5,000 courtesy of the Australasian Music Publishers Association Limited (AMPAL) for the Emerging Songwriter Prize.
Check out the Top 40 list of nominees below – the winners will be announced in March.
Vanda & Young Global Songwriting Competition
- Nicole McKinney – ‘Another Day’
- Maya Cumming, Roberto De Sa – ‘Apricots’
- Benjamin Hornstein, Bradley Beam, Connor McCrae, Steeve Body – ‘Artificial Light’
- Samuel Baird, Thomas Baird, Peter White, Miles Sly, Lucas Sly – ‘Better To Leave’
- Benjamin Tan, Melodie Mezieres-Wagner – ‘Boring People’
- Peter Harding, Noah Cyrus – ‘Cannonball’
- Isabella Losi, Joel Quartermain – ‘Care Too Much’
- Jack McAllister, Tim Anderson, Nathan Donmoyer, Tavon Thompson – ‘Chapel’
- Kate Steele, Graham McLuskie – ‘Come N’ See Me’
- Chloe Styler – ‘Consider Me Gone’
- Eloise Willis-Hardy, Barnaby Matthews – ‘Cool’
- Elizabeth Stringer – ‘Dangerous’
- Michael Hardy, John Turner, Clark Fivaz, Riaan Janse von Rensburg – ‘Fallen Soldier’
- Kofi Owusu-Ansah, Andrew Klippel, Kieran J Callinan, Michael di Francesco, Julian Sudek – ‘Gold Chains’
- Patrick Bolster, Scott Steven – ‘Grateful’
- Amy Taylor, Fergus Romer, Bryce Wilson – ‘Guided By Angels’
- Louis Schoorl, Claire Howell, Alex McIntyre, Cameron Nascon, Grace Pitts – ‘Half Awake’
- Lachlan Hodder-Trenwith – ‘HIGHWAY TO HELL’
- Ngaire Joseph, Jack Britten – ‘Him’
- Courtney Keil, Rodney McCormack, Templeton Thompson, Samuel Gay – ‘I Just Wanna Hold You’
- Phebe Starr, Xavier Dunn, Demi Barton – ‘Ice Tea Liberace’
- John Took, Matthew Mason, Thomas O’Dell – ‘Junk Truck Head Fuck’
- Yirrmal Marika, Neil Murray – ‘Keep Rolling On’
- Miiesha Young, Lucian Blomkamp, Stephen Collins, Jordan Panasewych – ‘Made For Silence’
- Jerome Farah – ‘Mikey Might’
- Danzal Baker, Dallas Woods, James Iheakanwa, Willie Tafa – ‘Move’
- Aydan Calafiore, Michael Paynter, Michael DeLorenzis – ‘Never Too Hurt To Heal’
- Daniel Kirkland, Taka Perry – ‘OTHERSIDE’
- Jarryd Klapper, James Ho, Davon Prather, Francis Nguyentran – ‘Overdue’
- Lance Ferguson, Kylie Auldist – ‘Power Without Greed’
- Aishwarya Shah, Jarrad Rogers – ‘PSYCHO HOLE’
- Stan Walker, Natalie Dunn, Joanna Levesque, Devin Abrams, Ashton Sellars – ‘Remember Us’
- Ziggy Alberts – ‘searching for freedom’
- Yirrmal Marika, Daniel Patterson – ‘Shining Light’
- Louis Schoorl, Peter Harding, Jessica Karpov – ‘Slowly’
- Joel Slabb, Maya Cumming, Chris Collins – ‘Talk’
- Susan O’Neill, Simon O’Reilly – ‘These Are The Days’
- Maya Cumming, Roberto De Sa, Christian Lo Russo – ‘Time I Love To Waste
- David Le’aupepe, Dominik Borzestowski, Maxwell Dunn, Thomas Hobden, Jung Kim – ‘unison’
- Tyler Millott – ‘Waiting For The Sun’
