2017 USA Songwriting Competition opens

American Authors: 2013’s USA Songwriting Competition winning rock band

The annual contest is accepting entries from around the world, offering a top prize of $50,000 in cash and merch

Entries are now being accepted for the 22nd Annual USA Songwriting Competition, giving songwriters worldwide a chance to vie for the top prize of $50,000 worth of cash and merchandise such as music gear. Songwriters can enter in 15 different song categories such as: Pop, Rock/Alt, Folk, R&B, Hip-Hop, Jazz, Instrumental, etc.

Spokane, Washington based songwriters Jerad Finck, David Hodges and Steven Solomon won overall Grand Prize at the 21st Annual USA Songwriting Competition with their song Criminal. The song has now received on radio airplay on various pop radio stations in the US as well as Sirius XM Radio.

Las Vegas star Terry Fator, Jesse Blaze Snider (son of Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider) and Trev Lukather (son of Toto guitarist Steve Lukather) are some of the category winners of last year’s contest. Snider, along with his co-writer Freddy Scott, also won the overall third prize as well as first prize in the Novelty/Comedy category with his song Fight To Death – the first time a Novelty/Comedy song has made it to the top three of the competition.

For the second consecutive year, all three of 2016’s top winners were collaborations, with the finalists in the Country and Pop categories also being collaborative efforts as well. For example, Tim Gates, Brad Hull and Will Nance of Nashville won the overall second prize, as well as first prize in the Country category entered as the group Due West, who had songs on Billboard’s Country Charts.

The USA Songwriting Competition has been honouring songwriters from all over the world, with winners originating from Australia, Japan, Canada, UK, Germany, Brazil, South Africa and, of course, the USA. Previous winners have landed recording contracts, getting their songs placed in film and TV as well as getting cuts with major artists. For example, the 2013 contest’s winning rock band American Authors hit No 1 on the Billboard Charts and went double platinum, selling over two million copies, and the 2007 winner Air Gold hit the Top 10 with his winning song six months after the competition. The 2005 winner of the Country category had his winning song cut by country superstar Faith Hill and the 2005 winner of the Pop category was subsequently signed by Interscope Records.

For more information and to enter this year’s competition, visit: songwriting.net/sm

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