Songwriting Competition

2024 Songwriting Competition Rules and Instructions

Registered attendees** may submit one (1) song to the 2024 Hawai'i Songwriting Festival songwriting competition. Please follow the instructions below.
This competition is held in conjunction with the Hawai'i Songwriting Festival and is entirely optional.

**Only registered conference attendees are eligible to submit.

Quality recordings are appreciated, but the entries are judged on the songwriting, not the recording, performance, or presentation of the song. Rough demos are acceptable.

Six to ten finalists will be chosen and announced at the opening ceremony on the first day of the conference (May 30), and must be present at the conference on May 30, 2024 in order to be considered a finalist. They will each perform their song that evening for all the attendees, and a panel of judges (selected staff mentors) will choose 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners.

In addition to receiving various prizes from our sponsors, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners will perform their winning song in the concert on Saturday night (June 1).

After reading the rules on this page, email your entry (with a lyric sheet) to [email protected] with "2024 Contest Entry" as the subject line.
You may send a mp3 or direct us to a link on SoundCloud, BandCamp, etc.

If you are interested in performing in our showcase at the Blue Dragon Tavern on 6/2/24, indicate so in the body of your email.

DEADLINE is 11:59PM HST on Sunday, May 26, 2024.

Submission information and rules:
**If you do not follow these rules, your entry will not be considered!

To submit your song, you must first be registered to attend the 2024 Hawai'i Songwriting Festival. Entries from people who have not registered to attend will not be considered.
The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners from 2023 cannot enter again in 2024, but all other previous finalists and winners can enter this year.
All entries must be accompanied by a lyric sheet.
For the purposes of the competition, a song must have both lyrics and music.
All songs must be original, unpublished songs that have been written or co-written by the entrant(s). For competition purposes, "unpublished" means not published by a major music publishing organization.
Only amateur songwriters (including co-writers) are allowed to submit entries to the competition. For competition purposes, "amateur" is defined as anyone who has never had any song they wrote appear on any of the Billboard charts.
Prizes for the Songwriting Competition will be announced at the event. (For reference, past prizes have included various acoustic and electric guitars and recording equipment.)

Blue Dragon Showcase
6/2/24:

Additional Performance Opportunity!

We will be hosting a songwriter showcase at the Blue Dragon Tavern at 6pm on Sunday, June 2 (the day after the 2024 conference ends). Songwriters will be selected to play one (1) song each (or more, if there is time!)

If you will be available to perform on June 2 and would like to be considered, please let us know in the body of the email when you submit your songwriting competition entry. Showcase performers will be selected and notified by announcement during the conference.