“SG:SW 2022 I Write The Songs” Songwriting Festival Open Call

The annual SG:SW I Write The Songs will be returning for its 6th edition in 2022, which aims to discover and develop a new generation of aspiring local music talents and give them a platform to showcase their talents. 

Participants of the 2022 edition can look forward to mentorships from renowned Taiwanese lyricist, Vincent Fang（方文山）, and producer-songwriter, David Wu (吴大卫). Vincent has written lyrics for hits like Jay Chou’s ‘Blue and White Porcelain’《青花瓷》, ‘Qi-Li-Xiang’《七里香》, and ‘Secret’《不能说的秘密》and S.H.E’s ‘Tropical Rainforest’《热带雨林》, while David was the composer behind Jolin Tsai’s ‘Pretty Pretty Day’, A-Mei’s ‘Betrayal’《背叛》, and more. 

As part of the songwriting festival, these mentors would be sharing their feedback for the Top 10 entries from the competition, as well as their experiences and tips with the participants.  

Local singer-songwriter Ben Hum will be spearheading the festival as the SG:SW I Write The Songs 2022 Ambassador, where he will be hosting promotional activities, as well as inviting local singer-songwriters  to share their song-writing journeys. 

In line with the nation’s reopening, SG:SW 2022 will also see a return to the physical format. Attendees  can finally watch and listen to their favourite songwriters from this year’s festivals up close. A ‘Live Showcase’ and ‘Finale Concert’ will be held to showcase the performances of the participants.

The top 20 song entries received during the ‘Open Call’ of 2022 SG:SW I Write The Songs will be selected to perform in the ‘Live Showcase’, where judges will pick the top 10 song entries to proceed to the next round. The songwriters of the top 10 song entries will be eligible to attend the ‘Masterclass’ by mentors, and perform at the ‘Finale Concert’. 

Seven winners will be crowned at the ‘Finale Concert’ and six of those songs will be recorded professionally and produced as an EP, along with a music video.

Songwriters of other ethnicities and language backgrounds are also welcomed to take part in the competition. Songs with multi-cultural influences  can qualify for the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre (SCCC) Xchange Award. 

The SCCC Xchange award is awarded to exceptional compositions that incorporate multi-cultural elements in the form of lyrics, melody, or arrangement. Past winning compositions include Ku Mahu (2019) and Love Deserter (2021). 

To Sea and Love Deserter, winning songs from the 2021 edition, have gone viral on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, achieving more than 17 million and 2.56 million views respectively. 

This year’s workshops have also been specially organised to share  more about the songwriting process, which includes:

• Open to Public: ‘Exploring Cross-Cultural Elements in Music Composition’
• For SG:SW 2022 Entrants only: ‘Introduction to Mandopop Landscape’ and ‘Introduction to Music Copyrights’
• For the Top 10 Finalists only: ‘Mastering Stage Presence’

Singapore Citizens, Permanent Residents, or foreigners living in Singapore with a valid student, work visa, or long-term visit pass, aged 15 years old and above, are eligible to participate in this festival.

All entries must be original songs written by individuals or as a group (with consent from all songwriters involved). Entrants may submit multiple songs, with a maximum of three sets of lyrics and three sets of melody composition respectively associated with each songwriter, regardless of the songs submitted by themselves or other entrants.

The Open Call Submissions will run from 30 May 2022 to 10 July 2022, 23:59 hrs. Submission link: https://sgsw.sg/en/online-submission/