SOCAN (the Canadian Performance Rights Organization -ed.) announced today the Canadian songs nominated for the inaugural ECHO Songwriting Prize. The 5 nominated songs, as selected by an independent panel of eight (8) music community tastemakers, are:

“Destroyer” Olivier Corbeil, Timothy Fletcher, David Hamelin, Liam O’Neil

“This Lamb Sells Condos” Owen Pallett

“You Are a Runner and I Am My Father’s Son” Daniel Boeckner, Hadji Bakara, Arlen Thompson

“A Speculative Fiction” Chris Hannah, Todd Kowalski, Jordan Samolesky

“Deception Island Optimists Club” Laura Barrett

The nomination process was rigorous. Panelists each nominated three songs and from there they reviewed these songs and, using a point-value system,
determined the five songs to present to the public for voting.

SOCAN will invite the public to cast their vote for their favourite song online. The contest runs from August 31 until October 12.

“In a year when the Canadian music scene seemed to be producing great songs on a daily basis, it was enormously hard to pick just five,” says Carl
Wilson, music writer at The Globe & Mail and Zoilus.com. “But the ECHO prize helps more of the public hear these emerging songwriters and can give a boost to their careers.”

The Prix de la chanson ECHO, celebrating the songwriting talents of some of the best independent, up-and-coming Francophone songwriters in Canada, is launching concurrently.

(via Broadcaster Magazine)