Calling All Aspiring Young Songwriters UK & International

Here at Musical Futures, we are always keen to support projects and initiatives from the wider music education community that support young people on their musical journey and so we are delighted to highlight The Young Songwriter Competition 2023.

Musical Futures has a long history of supporting musical creativity – not just through performance, but also through original composition. During Musical Futures’ research phase back in the early 2000s, the Leeds Pathfinder team developed a resource to support young songwriters – Writers Unblocked – which you can download for free HERE.

Members of our Ultimate membership tier will also be familiar with how the carefully scaffolded SongwritingSessions resources help learners to understand the songwriting processes of lyric writing and creating a chord sequence and melody. Not an Ultimate member? Then take a look at these two samples below, part of our comprehensive selection of songwriting resources designed to take your students through the process step by step.

SongwritingSessions: Choosing a Song Topic
SongwritingSessions: Adding Your Lyrics to a Backing Track (Classic Rock)

What is SAYS23?

Now in its 13th year, The Young Songwriter Competition 2023 (SAYS23) is the world’s leading songwriting competition for young aspiring songwriters, aged 8-18 (under 19 years), to get their songs heard by leaders in the industry & connect to a talented community of young songwriters across the world – both aspiring young songwriters who already have some experience, and those writing their first song!

The competition stands for the craft and art of songwriting in its purest form, enabling young songwriters to aspire to the very best melody, lyric, structure, concept, harmony, mood and impact a song can have. It inspires young people to think about and speak up about things that are important to them personally, in their community and in the wider world and get their voices heard. It’s a supportive community where young people feel brave and can express themselves, celebrate individuality and be themselves. The benefits from this unique community are far reaching, especially the positive boost to mental health.

SAYS23 has 5 categories for young people worldwide:

• UK/Ireland 8-12 year olds
• UK/Ireland 13-15 year olds
• UK/Ireland 16-18 year olds
• International 8-12 year olds
• International 13-18 year olds

SAYS23 judges include a whole host of singer songwriters such as the likes of Tom Grennan as well as a who’s who in songwriter royalty who have worked with Adele, Stormzy, Dave, Mabel, Jessie Ware, Dua Lipa, Pink and many more.

What are they looking for?

The judges will be looking for pure songwriting talent. Professional recordings are not required as songs will be judged on their originality, lyrics, melody, composition and hit-making potential! Every song is judged on on three key elements: lyrics, melody & chords/instrumental (see below). Then there’s the ‘S Factor’ – is it a sensational song?

Lyrics: Demonstrates both technical and artistic competency, highlighting emerging originality. Material is imaginative and technically accomplished with rhyme, meter & creative language.

Melody: Compliments the chord progression and other surrounding musical characteristics. Melodic content demonstrates variety by using range, rhythm and pitch effectively. Demonstrates the ability to write functional harmonic progressions that complement the melodic content. The melody is memorable.

Chords/Instrumental: Harmonic progressions are balanced and provide a sufficient amount of interest throughout the song in relation to the other musical components.

For more information and to download an entry form HERE. Good luck!