Andrews takes first place in US songwriting competition

Carbonear native Duane Andrews has taken first prize (jazz category) in the 2007 USA Songwriting Competition for his song Isaac's Blues.
"I found out yesterday when the competition sent the paperwork through email," he said last Wednesday, Dec. 5. "There's actually a pretty extensive follow-up as they request a lot of info for their mass publicity campaign."
The $50,000 grand prize in the contest went to Where The Music Takes You - Ari Gold, Joe Hogue & Sean Petersen; New York, NY.
Andrews was delighted with his win in the jazz category.
"Each category winner gets $2200 worth of music industry merchandise, but it's the publicity directly from them and the opportunity to create your own that has the most value," he acknowledged.
"This really did come as a huge surprise mostly because of the magnitude of the competition."
Although it's called the USA Songwriting Competition, it is open internationally to any songwriter.
"So, they get a lot of great stuff coming in and also have a high end panel of judges from the music industry," the songwriter said. "It's really encouraging to get this kind of support, especially where my music is not mainstream."
According to the competition's website, since 1995 the USA Songwriting Competition, (the world's leading international songwriting event), has been honouring songwriters, composers, bands and recording artists everywhere.
"This is not American Idol," the site notes. "This is the professional songwriting competition that offers winners the clout that it takes to really make it!"