USA Songwriting Competition Announced

Posted on February 11, 2000

The USA Songwriting Competition has announced the launch of the Year 2000 songwriting event. Entrants have a chance to win a grand prize of over US$50,000 in cash and merchandise. Songs may be entered in 15 different categories including Pop, Rock, Country, R&B, World, Hip-Hop/Rap, Folk, Jazz, Latin and others.

Last year's Grand Prize went to singer/songwriter Adrianne Gonzalez of Miami, Florida. Trina Belamide from the Philippines won the overall second prize and Mary Coppin of Riverside, California won the overall third prize. This was the first time that all top 3 prizes were won by women. Judges include representatives from Warner/Reprise Records, Walt Disney Music Publishing, SONY Music, Peer Music, ASCAP and Tommy Boy Records.

USA Songwriting Competition's spokesman and president Lee Lyndes said that the key motivation behind the development of the new event was to attract both professional and budding songwriters in search of the best new songs and songwriters. Lyndes added: ``many indie (independent) singer/songwriters and bands have generally been left out by major record labels and need to be heard.'' A portion of every application fee will be donated to Music Cares.