The International Songwriting Competition (ISC) is an annual contest with a mission to provide opportunities to aspiring and established songwriters.
Having your song heard and liked by an audience is what most songwriters dream of. Making dreams a reality, ISC gives songwriters the chance to have their songs heard in a professional and international area by a prestigious panel of judges from all over the world.
Annually receiving around 20,000 entries from over 100 countries, the competition is entering its 13th year and submissions are open now until the 4th November. With 68 winners drawn in total, there are a range of categories for both amateur and professional songwriters to enter including Adult Contemporary, Americana, Blues, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Rock, Teen, Comedy, Children's Music, Dance, Folk, Performance, Pop, Lyrics Only, Music Video and Latin.
Giving away $US150,000 in cash and prizes, the Grand Prize winner is awarded with $US25,000 and $US30,000 in prizes. Judged by industry professionals, major artist judges include: Tom Waits, Avicii, Wayne Shorter, Sara Evans, Bastille, John Hiatt, Casting Crowns, Kenny Wayne Shepherd among others. There are also music industry presidents and CEO judges that come from multiple companies including Universal Republic, Atlantic, Elektra, Columbia UK, Virgin UK, Mercury UK, Sony Music Latin, Alligator Records and more.
In addition to cash and merchandise prizes, winners of the competition benefit from a multilateral promotional campaign which is designed to give international exposure and attention to their songwriting achievements. Though some categories have additional criteria, submissions are judged overall on creativity, originality, lyrics (excluding instrumental songs), melody, arrangement and overall likeability.
Considered to be placed well in the competition across all categories, many past winners have hailed from Australia including: Kasey Chambers, Kate Miller-Heidke, Gin Wigmore, Gotye, The Living End, Missy Higgins, The Preatures, Eskimo Joe, Kimra, Sparkadia, Sarah Blasko, Augie March, Troy Cassar-Daly, Claire Bowditch, Lior, Basement Birds, Bob Evans, Josh Pike, Sneaky Sound System, Guy Sebastian, Wes Carr and more.
Grand Prize winner of 2004, Gin Wigmore (originally from New Zealand, though she has lived most of her life in Australia) was completely unknown before winning ISC. The youngest Grand Prize winner ever, at only 18 her life was completely changed. Featuring on the covers of multiple magazines and courted by record labels from everywhere, Gin ultimately became the first artist to sign with Island Records Australia. Among her achievements, her debut album in 2009 'Holly Smoke' became the highest selling album in New Zealand that year.
First Australians to ever receive a Grand Prize win were Kate Miller-Heidke and Keir Nuttall for their composition 'Caught In The Crowd' – which was re-released in 2009 and has since been accredited as a Gold single. Directly assisting in scheduling industry showcases in the US, ISC helped Kate to eventually sign with 'Epic' in the US.
Encouraging creativity from all over the world, ISC will announce the winners in April of 2015. With no age restrictions to entering (except the Teen category which requires the entrant to be under 18), songwriters are able to enter as many songs as they want into the same or different categories.
Submissions for this competition have extended until the 4th November, so get creative and enter now!
