Aussies dominate six categories in global songwriting competition

Australians took out the first prize in six of 25 categories in the 2020 International Songwriting Competition (ISC), announced overnight.

They were Birds of Tokyo and ‘Good Lord’ for Adult Contemporary, The Presets and ‘Paradise’ for Electronic Dance Music, and Merci, Mercy and ‘Fucked Myself Up’ for Adult Album Alternative.

Mia Rodriguez’s ‘Psycho’ was first place in Pop/Top 40, Lucy Parle from Lisarow, NSW, took out the top spot in Teen with ‘Back Up’, and Jarred Taylor X Crawford Brothers from Hinton, NSW, trumped in the Unsigned Only category with ‘I Won’t Sleep Tonight’.

Among the runners-up were Brisbane’s Du0 who were second place in Electronic Dance Music with ‘Come Home’, Melbourne blues singer Mia Wray whose ‘Work For Me’ was ranked #2 in Performance, and Eskimo Joe took third place in Rock with ‘Say Something’.

Sheppard had global recognition with a third place spot in Pop/Top 40 with ‘Die Young’.

There were almost 30 songs performed by Australians in honourable mentions in various categories including Dami Im, Casey Barnes, FALLS, Mason Watts, Winterbourne, Emily Who, Joe Mungovan, Jordyn Richards and Nick De La Hoyde.

Also among the honourable mentions were Gareth Leach, Ida Maree, Nurseratched, Anya Alchemy, SANNIA, Asha Jefferies, Steve Seaton, Bree Rusev, Alt-Fiction, Trent-Jean, Georgi Kay, Chuditch, Aminah Hughes, Loren Kate, Georgie Raft, and SAFIA.

The Golden Prize went to Swedish folk-pop duo Smith & Thell and producer Peter Kvint.