The Rockford Area Convention and Visitor's Bureau (RACVB) wants you to stay home and write songs.
"Stay Home Songs" is a community song writing contest that is open to all ages and all types of musicians. There is no fee to enter and all genres of music are welcome. Musicians who live in Winnebago County and may enter one original song that is less than three minutes long.
Nick Povalitis is the vice president of marketing and sports development for the RACVB. He believes this contest creates an engaging way for people to stay together during Governor J.B. Pritzker's stay-at-home order.
"We want to do our part to tell stories and connect people," Povalitis said. "Musicians are some of our best creators and there are a lot of talented musicians within Winnebago County and the Rockford region."
This includes the contest judges. Jodi Beach, Vince Chiarelli, Duntai Mathews, Miles Nielsen, and Antonio Ramirez will select the winning songwriter. The winner will receive a $200 gift card to a local restaurant or retailer. Povalitis said the judges will be looking for a few key ingredients:
"The song submissions should focus on civic pride, city pride, and community pride -- and they should really speak to how much resolve we've got," he said. "That will be the winning song."
A couple of submissions had already rolled in by Monday morning. Povalitis said this was remarkable because the contest was just announced over the weekend. He anticipates many submissions, which is part of the reason musicians may only enter one 3-minute (or less) song. Other than that, Povalitis said, "We just don't know what type of songs we are going to get. We just know we are going to get quality content and we are going to thoroughly enjoy the process these next few weeks."
The contest deadline is 5:00 p.m. on Friday, April 24, 2020. Musicians should send their audio files or private YouTube links to social@gorockford.com. They also need to send the signed contest form with that email. To get complete contest information, visit the RACVB's COVID-19 Resource Center here.
