The Young Songwriter 2024 showcases
The Young Songwriter 2024 competition shines a spotlight on the next generation of songwriters and celebrates their talents. Judges included: Cathy Dennis, Lost Boy, MNEK, Eg White, Jimmy Napes, Naughty Boy, Emily Phillips, Plested, Jon Maguire, Nina Nesbitt, Connie Talbot, Kenny Barber and Dan Gillespie Sells.
Song Academy is the world’s leading songwriting platform for young people of all backgrounds. It plays an important role in the music industry, discovering, nurturing and encouraging the next generation of songwriters and artists. As well as the highly prestigious and competitive annual International Young Songwriter Competition, Song Academy runs a range of workshops, residential summer camps and mentoring programme (The Ad Lib. Club).
This year’s Young Songwriter 2024 UK showcase was an outstanding celebration of some of the best songwriters across the UK. The top 5 finalists in each of the UK categories of The Young Songwriter 2024 competition, plus selected top 10 finalists performed at the iconic Tabernacle in Notting Hill, London. The Young Songwriter 2024 International showcase was held via instagram live and celebrated the top 5 finalists from across the world – including from China to Brazil and from Dubai to the USA.
SAYS24 Winners
UK/Ireland 8-12 year old category
1st Heartbreak Melodies – Ben Mansell
2nd Starlight Of My Life – Leonora Simmonds-Heins
3rd First Kiss – Bethan Tudor
UK/Ireland 13-15 year old category
1st Tearing At The Air – String ‘N’ Bone
2nd Fell For You – Samuel Khanna
3rd Princess – Storm Henshaw
UK/Ireland 16-18 year old category
1st God’s Stargirl – Sophia Saudi
2nd Frio – Chuksy & Dreamm
3rd Little Major – Mia White
UK/Ireland 19-22 year old category
1st Seconds – Jas Ratchford
2nd Breakfast On The Roof – Ellie Evans AND Girl On A Walk – Hamish Ogilvy
International 8-12 year old category
1st Hard To Breathe – Leyla Sabo
2nd The Top – Mutsawashe Chipoyi
3rd Happily Ever After – Lilia Asha Wheeler
International 13-18 year old category
1st Matchbook – Summer Brennan
2nd Wildflower – Zachary Zwelling
3rd Wishing Star – Dere Arat
International 19-22 year old category
1st My ????!!?!?? Therapy – Last Minute
2nd I Wrote This Song – Lindsay Liebro
3rd Thirty Seconds – Alexine Sakkers
SAYS24 HIGHLIGHTS VIDEO
About The Young Songwriter 2024 competition
The Song Academy Young Songwriter competition is the leading international songwriting competition for young people aged 8-22. This year attracted over 1,000 high quality entries. Song Academy gives the unheard youth a voice and platform to express themselves and be heard. The standard of finalist songs entered this year was exceptionally high. To select the top songs we listened for inventiveness, creativity & bravery with lyrics & melodies illuminating our imaginations. Young people have a unique way of expressing themselves, they are a new generation experiencing life in the most vivid and visceral way.
SAYS24 Star Judges included Cathy Dennis, Lost Boy, MNEK, Eg White, Jimmy Napes, Naughty Boy, Emily Phillips, Plested, Jon Maguire, Nina Nesbitt, Connie Talbot, Kenny Barber and Dan Gillespie Sells.
Official sponsors of The Song Academy Young Songwriter 2024 competition are Shure, PRS for Music, YouTube Music, Focusrite, Soundtrap and ICMP.
Official partners are Ditto Music, IK Multimedia, Amazing Radio,First News, MUSIC:ED, songhouse, and Music News.
The winners also receive trophies designed & created by Finnian Smith a designer, musician, songwriter and graduate of Central Saint Martins.
SAYS24 prizes include a Focusrite Scarlet studio bundle (all-in-one studio recording set-up with Scarlett Solo interface, microphone and headphones) and Novation keyboard, Shure legendary SM58 and new MVX2U interface, a recording studio session with the top producer Charlie Thomas, one year membership of the Song Academy mentoring programme and performing at The Young Songwriter 2024 showcase.
Naughty Boy (songwriter, producer, DJ and SAYS24 judge) says “Young songwriters are the future of music. A great song will always stand the test of time far beyond our years. I think this competition is important because every songwriter I’ve worked with was always waiting to be discovered.”
Tom Odell (singer songwriter and Young Songwriter judge) said “When I was 13 years old I started writing songs, and over the following years I became more and more obsessed with it. But the thing that always kept me awake at night was how to get them out there for people to hear them. This is why I think the Song Academy Young Songwriter competition is a great way to inspire and help through this process, and it’s something I wish had been around when I was starting out.”
Many of our past finalists are now making waves in the industry, including Gayle, Matilda Mann, Oscar Lang, Lexie Carroll, Wasia Project, Cassa Jackson, Oscar Welsh, Natalie Shay, Joshua Shea, Tom A. Smith, Andrea Turk, Cathy Jain, Sebastian Croft, Miriam Nyarko, Sophie Griffiths, Rosie Sullivan, Melanie Baker, Alien Blaze, Sweet Mylo, Hetta Falzon, Conor Marcus, Sophie DeMasi & Mullally.
The Young Songwriter 2025 competition
Get ready to enter next year’s competition, open for entries from the 1st February to 31st March 2025. Click here for more information.
