The Great American Song Contest is an international music competition run annually by Songwriters Resource Network since 2000.

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The contest^[1] runs annually, organised by Songwriters Resource Network,^[2] an educational resource for songwriters, lyricists and composers.^[3] According to the book 2015 Songwriter's Market^[4], the purpose of the contest includes helping songwriters develop their craft, market their songs and learn about songwriting opportunities^[5] It judges works from songwriters and lyricists,^[6] performance and production quality is not weighted.^[7]

It is notable because it is a long running competition^[8] run by songwriters for songwriters, composers and lyricists, it is facilitated by high profile industry players and is responsible for discovering, promoting and preserving important works, some examples:

• It recognised a song which now forms part of the Nelson Mandela Memorial Collection^[9] and another that went on to be used in Idols as well as in films,^[10]

• Judging and reviews are by people in the music industry^[11] like Pat Pattison, whose students have won Grammys, including John Mayer and Gillian Welch and Robin Frederick, former Director of A&R for Rhino Records, past president of Los Angeles Women In Music and co-founder of the Indie Nation Music Conference.^[12]
• John Stano's This Old Guitar from his Digging Out in the Heartland album that made the finals of “The Great American Song Contest.” charted on a Folk DJ list at #2 out of 100^[13]

Importantly, it offers the chance to co-write with top artists that have included Rodney Crowell, Ashley Monroe, Chris Stapleton, Bobby Braddock, Lee Brice and Mary Gauthier.^[14]

Entries are limited to 5,000 per contest.

The stated aim is to identify and develop songwriting talent. Each entry receives feedback on the submitted work.^[15]

Artists submit work from a number of categories: Pop, Adult Contemporary, Folk/Americana, Singer/Songwriter, Country, Rock/Alt, Special, R&B/Hip Hop, Christian/Inspirational, Instrumental, Lyric Writing.^[16]

Notably, South African songwriters Kalla Bremer^[19] and Don Clarke won the Grand Prize in this competition in 2013 with "The Long Walk is Over/Ode to Nelson Mandela". A copy of the song is stored on CD and is now part of the Nelson Mandela Memorial Collection.^[9] Previously, This Is Our Time, a song that won the adult contemporary category became the official graduation song for UCLA Extension and was the debut single for the 2014 winner of Ottawa Idol, Bernice Reyes^[20] It was used in the films, like A Sunday Horse.^[10]

^[16]

A music competition review rates the competition in the Top 5 Best (Legit) Songwriting Competitions.^[41]