Anna Calvi announces winner of Shure Songwriting Competition

Shure & The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance are delighted to announce the winner of this year’s Shure Songwriting Award supported by BMI, as chosen by the Mercury Prize and Brit Award nominee Anna Calvi. This innovative scholarship competition for aspiring singer-songwriters saw a record number of applicants compete for a place on the Institute’s prestigious BA in Songwriting degree course, worth £5,750.

Ten finalists were chosen through a combination of public voting and a panel of experts from the Institute’s impressive songwriting faculty. All the finalists and their videos were then presented to Anna Calvi, who has been making a notable impact in the music industry with her self-titled debut album. Anna was so impressed by the high level of the entries that she chose a winner and two runner-ups to also take partial scholarships. The winner of this year’s Shure Songwriting Award goes to Mairead Furlong, taking a full scholarship at the Institute.

Mairead now has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to professionally develop her talent and skills on this fantastic course. As well as enjoying this great opportunity to learn, Mairead will also benefit from the many opportunities that arise at the Institute to write, collaborate and perform in live London showcase events in front of the Institute’s unparalleled network of key industry professionals.

The highly successful competition is now in its fourth year of issuing places on Institute Songwriting courses. Last year successful songwriting students included Elena Tonra and Igor Haefeli – aka Daughter who are now signed to 4AD records, the home of artists such as Bon Iver, Iron & Wine and The National. 2012 promises to be a big year for Daughter with a busy summer playing various festivals across the UK and Europe.

If you are interested in applying for this competition in the future, the Shure Songwriting Award 2013 will be launched later this year. For further information visit www.shuresongwritingaward.com or contact the Institute directly

Shure & Audiojack launch Singing Competition

If you are a budding singer and you think you have got what it takes you might want to think about entering a new competition from Audiojack and Shure.

How to enter

Simply go to the competition entry page, download the tracks, practise singing, and then video yourself performing the song. One track has been created for a female singer, and one for a male singer. You will be able to download the playalong, the song lyrics and the chords from the entry page.

Don’t be afraid to be creative!

If you want to change the lyrics, add different rhythms, play additional instruments or anything else feel free to do so. Just remember that we are looking out for your voice so ensure that your voice can be clearly heard!

The Prizes

The finalists will all be invited to perform at Shure UK.  The winner will get to spend half a day with a Shure Engineer and pick their perfect mic and headphone after trying out a whole range of studio and live mics (to the value of £1000). They will then get to use their new mic at a studio session in a London studio.

The two runners up will get an Shure SM58 (the worlds biggest selling microphone) and a pair of   Shure SRH440 headphones.

You have from now until July 31 to get your entry online.

We wish you good luck!

The Shure Songwriting Award 2012, judged by Anna Calvi is now live…

Shure, in conjunction with The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance are delighted to announce the launch of the 2012 Shure Songwriting Award. Previous judges have included KT Tunstall, Amy McDonald, K.T. Tunstall, Paloma Faith and Everything Everything, and we are very pleased that Anna Calvi has agreed to judge this year.

Anna was included on BBC’s Sound of 2011 and gained critical acclaim for her poetic filled album A Velvet Wall of Sound, which  was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize  and a BRIT Award.

If you are a songwriter looking to make a career out of your talent, why not take part in this year’s award competition? First prize is a unique opportunity to attend, free of charge, the fantastic one-year Cert HE in Songwriting course at the Institute worth over £5,000!. This will obviously be accompanied by some Shure goodies!
To enter, all you have to do is upload an original song to the award website before 16th March 2012. You will then have four weeks to try and gain as many public votes as possible. Finally a combination of an expert panel of judges will select a top 8 and then Anna Calvi will be making her selection for this year’s winner!