William Joel MacDonald Plaskett is a Canadian rock musician and songwriter based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was a member of Halifax alternative rock band Thrush Hermit in the 1990s. Plaskett performs in a number of genres, from blues and folk to hard rock, country, and pop.
Jonathan Kingham is a folk, pop and jazz musician from Nashville, TN. He was born in Woodland, California and graduated from Woodland Senior High School in 1992. Kingham has released three full-length albums, one EP, and appeared on Meet The Bixbys as a band member for The Bixbys in 1999. Since 1997 he has toured nationally. His singing has been featured in WB network's show Felicity. Kingham is among a group of Seattle artists whose music is featured when a person calling the City of Seattle is put on hold. He is currently playing keyboard and slide guitar with Toad the Wet Sprocket, supporting the release of New Constellation, and tours extensively with the band's leader singer, Glen Phillips, in his solo shows. Kingham also teaches songwriting workshops with students all over the country with Ryan Shea Smith with a program called "Songwriting Made Simple"
A songwriting competition is a contest whereby musicians submit original music to a third party or forum, generally to win a prize or some other benefit. Songwriting competitions have existed long before the advent of the Internet, but today many are conducted through websites or musician forums. An example is the John Lennon Songwriting Contest in New York, which was founded by Yoko Ono in 1997 and has existed both online and offline. Other important songwriting competitions are the Unisong International Song Contest in Los Angeles or the International Songwriting Competition in Nashville.
Melissa Ann Lawson is an American country music singer. On August 4, 2008, she was declared the winner of the television program Nashville Star, a country music singing competition which aired on NBC. Signed to Warner Bros. Records Nashville, she released her debut single "What If It All Goes Right" that year, and charted on Hot Country Songs with it. Although Lawson's label released her before she debuted her first album, she is currently performing and released 2 EPs in 2010.
Patrice Pike is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. She's been a professional musician and songwriter since she was sixteen.
Jennifer Kate Foster is an American singer-songwriter, musician, performer, record producer, and owner of her own record label Fosterchild Records. Her music incorporates elements of rock, pop, R&B, folk, country, and dance. She has released 3 studio albums, 3 EPs and has contributed to various film, television and multi-media soundtracks and exceeded sales of 50,000 units as an independent artist.
American Songwriter is a bimonthly magazine, established in 1984 covering every aspect of the craft and art of songwriting. It features interviews, songwriting tips, news, reviews and lyric contest. The magazine is based in Nashville, Tennessee.
Christopher Robert Volpe was an American songwriter and folk musician. Starting in 2006, he won more than twenty international songwriting awards including an Independent Music Award for Best Folk Album.
Rain Perry is an American folk-rock singer/songwriter. Her song "Beautiful Tree" was the theme song for the CW Network series Life Unexpected. "Yosemite," her celebration of the pains of growing up, won the Grand Prize in the 2000 John Lennon Songwriting Contest and has been recorded by Tom Russell and Nanci Griffith. She is the author of autobiographical one-woman, multi-media show Cinderblock Bookshelves and the director of the documentary The Shopkeeper, about the state of the music business as told through the story of Austin music producer Mark Hallman.
The Country Showdown is an annual talent contest to find undiscovered country music singers across the United States. As many as 100,000 acts compete in the Country Showdown annually, which is considered to be the largest country music talent competition in the United States.
Lunic is award-winning songwriter, singer, electronic musician, & multi-instrumentalist Kaitee Page. A classically trained violist/violinist, Lunic fuses contemporary and classical instrumentation with electronic music composition. Lunic's most recent album, "Future Sex Drama", is a blend of dark ethereal synthpop and electronic rock similar to Metric, The xx, Lights, or Ladytron. "Glossy enough for the dance floor but retaining that sinister edge." Originally from New York, Lunic is currently based in Dallas, Texas.
Matthew Davidson is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter originally from Shreveport, Louisiana and now based in Nashville, TN. He is currently touring with Travis Denning. He has performed at the Grand Ole Opry, on Today with Hoda and Jenna, and on Broadway in downtown Nashville at venues such as Dierks Whiskey Row, The Stage, Legends Corner, Second Fiddle, Jason Aldean's, and Luke Bryan's 32 Bridge. He graduated in 2020 from Belmont University with a Bachelor of Music in Commercial Guitar. Matthew has played guitar for supporting artists opening for Walker Hayes and Willie Nelson.
Luke Robert Laird is an American country music songwriter and producer. He has written over 20 number one Billboard singles, including Carrie Underwood's "So Small", "Temporary Home", and "Undo It"; Blake Shelton's "Gonna"; Sara Evans' "A Little Bit Stronger"; Rodney Atkins's "Take a Back Road"; Eric Church's "Drink in My Hand", "Give Me Back My Hometown", and "Talladega"; Little Big Town's "Pontoon"; Luke Bryan's "I See You" and "Fast"; Thomas Rhett's "T-Shirt"; Kenny Chesney's "American Kids"; Lady Antebellum's "Downtown"; and Jon Pardi's "Head Over Boots." He has also written and produced songs for Tim McGraw, Rascal Flatts, Kacey Musgraves, Toby Keith, Ne-Yo, John Legend, Darius Rucker, and many others.
Dulce Maria Gonzalez Aldaz, known professionally as Maria D'Luz, is a Mexican-American singer and songwriter.
Dilpreet Bhatia is an Indian singer-songwriter and technologist, born in Ludhiana in a Punjabi Sikh family. His song Tere Bin Dil, won in World Music Category of International Songwriting Competition. In September 2014, he was selected as Grand Prize winner in Season I of John Lennon Songwriting Contest in the World Music category.
Himig Handog is a multimedia songwriting and music video competition in the Philippines based in Quezon City. The competition is operated by ABS-CBN Corporation and Star Music, the music subsidiary of ABS-CBN. The contest ran from 2000 to 2003 and was later revived in 2013. The theme of the contest has been love songs since 2002.
Tess Henley is an American singer-songwriter and pianist from Kent, Washington, United States. Born into a musical family, Henley studied and performed since childhood before launching a career performing soul music. Since 2008, she has released several full-length albums, EPs, and singles and made her television debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2015.
Xavier and Ophelia is an American indie rock and electropop music duo based in Nashville, Tennessee. Formed in 2009, members include DeAnna Moore (vocals) and Dave Tough. The band has released two albums including their debut Xavier & Ophelia, which had songs win industry awards. "Falling Down," a track from their 2012 sophomore album I Hate Birds, won Grand Prize at the 2013 John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Their songs have been placed in movies, television and commercials, and in 2013 their song "Heartbeat" was featured on Twisted.
Dave Tough is an American multi-instrumentalist, producer, engineer, songwriter and music industry educator. He is also a member of the band Xavier & Ophelia who released their debut album X&O in 2011. Tough has released two solo albums, one in 1999 and one in 2005, and he has won the grand prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest twice, in 2009 in the country category, and in 2013 in the electronica category. He has also written and produced songs for shows such as Hart of Dixie, Nashville, Hemlock Grove, and the Seth Rogen film Observe and Report. Tough has won two GMA Covenant Awards for his work producing, engineering, and writing songs with guitar instrumentalist Sean Spicer.
The Great American Song Contest is an international music competition run annually by Songwriters Resource Network since 2000.
