International Songwriting Competition Announces Winners, U.S. Musician Grabs Grand Prize

NASHVILLE (Hypebot) – The International Songwriting Competition (ISC) has announced the
winners for the 2012 edition of the contest. ISC's Grand Prize was
awarded to Joshua Hanson of Irvine, California, USA, for his song
"Monsters With Misdemeanors," which was entered in the
Folk/Singer-Songwriter category.

That grand prize win nets Hanson $25,000 in cash (US) and an
additional $40,000 in merchandise and services. You might recognize the
grand-prize winning Hanson as the frontman and songwriter for the
award-winning indie folk/rock trio Yellow Red Sparks.

A total of 68 winners from 119 countries worldwide were selected from
over 20,000 entries, and for the first time this year, more than half of
the winning submissions originated from outside of the U.S. Past
winners of the contest include Gotye, The Band Perry, Kasey Chambers,
Amanda Palmer, Gin Wigmore, King Charles, Kimbra, Passenger, Andrew
Bird, and numerous others.

Winners were selected by a panel of judges drawn from both the creative
and business side of the music industry. The list of judges includes Tom
Waits; Nas; Janelle Monae; Martina McBride; Susan Tedeschi & Derek
Trucks; Black Francis; Avicci; Tegan & Sara; Susan Vega; Richard
Stumpf (President, Imagem Music US); Bruce Iglauer (Founder/President,
Alligator Records); Alison Donald (Co-President, Columbia Records UK);
Dan McCarroll (President, Capitol/Virgin Label Group); Steve Lillywhite
(Producer) and Monte Lipman (President, Universal Republic Records)
among others. 

The complete list of ISC 2012 winners is as follows.

Grand Prize Winner: Joshua Hanson

Grand Prize
Monsters With Misdemeanors – Joshua Hanson (Yellow Red Sparks) – Yellow Pine, Idaho, USA

AAA (Adult Album Alternative)

First Place
Love Letter – Clairy Browne, Darcy McNulty, Steven Schram (Clairy Browne
& The Bangin’ Rackettes) – Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Second Place
Brother – Matt Corby – Sydney, NSW, Australia

Third Place
Whispers – James David – Los Angeles, CA, USA

Adult Contemporary (AC)

First Place
K.I.S.S. – Lara Johnston, Robbie Nevil, Mike Krompass – Novato, CA, USA

Second Place
Drums – Alexander Gow (Oh Mercy) – Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Third Place
What Makes Me Happy – Jehangir Aziz Hayat – Peshawar, Pakistan

Americana

First Place
Love Inside A Jar – David Garnham (David Garnham & The Reasons To Live ) – Darwin, NT, Australia

Second Place
You Might Come Around – Dale Boyle – Dorval, QC, Canada

Third Place
When You’re Dreamin’ – Ed Romanoff, Josh Ritter – Brooklyn, NY, USA

Blues

First Place
How Long To Heal – Nico Wayne Toussaint – Bayonne, France

Second Place
Don’t Blow My Cover – William Troiani, Haykon Haye, Ian F. Johannessen, Alexander Pettersen (Billy T Band) – Oslo, Norway

Third Place
High Gas Prices – William Morganfield (Big Bill Morganfield) – Stone Mountain, GA, USA

Children’s Music

First Place
Always Be A Unicorn – Helen Austin – Comox Valley, BC, Canada

Second Place
Wag More Feat. Indigo Girls – Franklin Bunn (Boxtop Jenkins), Glenn Matullo – Atlanta, GA, USA

Third Place
Fairy Tale Love – Lisa Sniderman (Aoede) – San Francisco, CA, USA

Comedy/Novelty

First Place
Handjob, Blandjob, I Don’t Understand Job – Kate Micucci, Riki Lindhome (Garfunkel and Oates) – Los Angeles, CA, USA

Second Place
Mom Worked The Farm – Pat Godwin – Dallas, PA, USA

Third Place
There’s A Picture – Eric Schwartz – Los Angeles, CA, USA

Country

First Place
This Ain’t A Love Song – Denis Dufresne, Lynae Dufresne (Pear), Bryan Wayne – Calgary, AB, Canada

Second Place
Anonymous – Rachel Honza – Nederland, TX, USA

Third Place
The Suitcase – Liz Hengber, James Dean Hicks, Anthony Smith – Franklin, TN, USA

Dance/Electronica

First Place
Crystallize – Lindsey Stirling, Marco Glodolja – Gilbert, AZ, USA

Second Place
Unity – Thierry Matrat (Funk Embassy) – Montreal, QC, Canada

Third Place
Urban Daemon – Jose Gustavo Gallo Aranibar (THEREMYN–4) – Lima, Peru

Folk/Singer-Songwriter

First Place
Golden Hearts – Teejay Terblanche (Black Handed Kites) – Cape Town, South Africa

Second Place
Blood And Bone – Wes Carr (Buffalo Tales), Eric Silver – Sydney, NSW, Australia

Third Place
Festival Song – Tim Easton – Nashville, TN, USA

Gospel/Christian

First Place
All Things New – Alan Thomas – Little Rock, AR, USA

Second Place
Cross Of Love – Derek Henbest (The Waiting Kind), Phil Wickham – Boise, ID, USA

Third Place
Chasing Me – Joseph Pfeifer, Jimmy Robeson – San Diego, CA, USA

Instrumental

First Place
Auctioneering Everything – Jaron Freeman-Fox (Jaron Freeman-Fox & The Opposite Of Everything) – Toronto, ON, Canada

Second Place
New Life – Valters Puce (DaGamba), Richard Cerenkov – Riga, Latvia

Third Place
Remembrance – Jens Olav Haugen – Akkerhaugen, Norway

Jazz

First Place
Angustia – Omar Sosa – Camagüey, Cuba

Second Place
Benny’s Tune – Lionel Loueke – Brooklyn, NY, USA

Third Place
Black Lace Freudian Slip – René Marie – Warrenton, VA, USA

Latin

First Place
Ultimo Aire – Montserrat López Ros (Montse), Néstor Alejandro Martínez Lara – Mexico City, Mexico

Second Place
Isabela – Oscar Jimenez – Sydney, NSW, Australia

Third Place
Hasta Que Te Vi – Oscar Olavarria – Santiago, Chile

Lyrics Only

First Place
I Wanted New York – Leonie Casanova – London, England

Second Place
Grace Me With Your Love – Sukanya Sreedhar – New Delhi, India

Third Place
The Boulevard – Richard Dames (Endless Naps) – New York, NY, USA

Music Video

First Place
Honey – Kahn Morbee (The Parlotones) – Johannesburg, South Africa

Second Place
Follow Me – Maïa Vidal – Ithaca, NY, USA

Third Place
Building Houses – Wesley Jensen (Wesley Jensen And The Banquet) – Redding, CA, USA

Performance

First Place
Separated – Stijn Cole (Stan Lee Cole) – Antwerp, Belgium

Second Place
Fire Escape – Matthew Mayfield, John Paul White – Birmingham, AL, USA

Third Place
Mr. No Regrets – Yohan Sung (John Sung) – Manila, Philippines

Pop/Top 40

First Place
Good Intent – Kimbra Johnson (Kimbra), Francois Tetaz – Auckland, New Zealand / Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Second Place
Lay Down Your Ghosts – Stephen Hughes, Ed Carlile, Andy McConkey, Leon Rossiter (MoRo) – London, England

Third Place

Reaction – Acres Of Lions – Victoria, BC, Canada

R&B/Hip-Hop

First Place
Battle Scars Ft. Lupe Fiasco – Guy Sebastian, Lupe Fiasco – Sydney, NSW, Australia / Chicago, IL, USA

Second Place
Jay-Z Stole My Girl – John Davenport – Memphis, TN, USA

Third Place
A Happy Day – Kaindu Chiluba (Blaze Blackheart) – Cape Town, South Africa

Rock

First Place
Cold Heart – Tyler Bryant (Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown), Jaren Johnston – Nashville, TN, USA

Second Place
Let It Live Free – Robert Kolar (He’s My Brother She’s My Sister) – Los Angeles, CA, USA

Third Place
Six Months In A Cast – Thomas Calder (The Trouble With Templeton) – Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Teen

First Place
You Would Know – Louis McDonald (Five Mile Town) – Auckland, New Zealand

Second Place
Drift Away – Victoria Celestine – San Antonio, TX, USA

Third Place
Backs Of Our Eyelids – Matt Jaffe (Matt Jaffe & The Distractions) – Mill Valley, CA, USA

Unsigned Only

First Place
Misdiagnosed – Harry Hookey – Cowwarr, VIC, Australia

Second Place
Swimming With Sharks – Ilya Lagutenko (Mumiy Troll) – Vladivostok, Russia

Third Place
Broken Bones – Tommy Ashby – Peebles, Scotland

World

First Place
Bahlawan-Acrobat – Mira Awad – Rameh, Israel

Second Place
Sofrimento – Waldemar Bastos – Los Angeles, CA / Luanda, Angola

Third Place
Boom Boom – Dachee – Maplewood, NJ, USA

People’s Voice Award

Coming Home – Paul Cowderoy, David Carter, Jane E Robertson – Brisbane, QLD, Australia