‘This Is My Now’ wins American Idol Songwriting Competition
By Don • May 23rd, 2007 • Category: Songwriting Contests
Seattle songwriters Scott Krippayne and Jeff Peabody earn a publishing deal with 19 Entertainment by beating out 25,000 other submissions in the American Idol Songwriting Contest with the tune, “This Is My Now”.
“This song clearly resonated with the American Idol fans and was the clear winner of the Songwriter competition,” said creator and executive producer Simon Fuller. “Scott and Jeff wrote a song that speaks to why ‘American Idol’ is so popular – the pursuit and achievement of dreams and taking advantage of the moment.”
Last night the winners appeared on the show and both Jordin and Blake performed their own renditions of the song - which clearly favored Jordin.
We’ll talk more about that tomorrow.
Don is the founder, writer and editor of BloggingMuses.com. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina, USA.
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Not that I would have stood a prayer of winning … but this song is exactly why I just couldn’t enter the competition.
Don’t get me wrong … it’s got a nice melody and it’s crafted well. But thematically, it’s trite. The whole “I was nobody, now I’m somebody” theme is old and tired, especially for American Idol. The only way to revive it is to do what great songwriters are supposed to do … say something in a way nobody else has said it before. “That was then; this is my now” just isn’t fresh at all.
The point here is not to bash the song. The point is … that was the only type of song that had any HOPE of winning.
And really — how much of a struggle is it for a 17-year-old still in high school to have labels lining up to sign her? Jordin and Blake are good kids, and I wish them well, but singing covers in front of 80 million people every week isn’t struggling. Struggling is gigging with your own songs in front of 6 people in a coffee shop.
I tend to agree. No discredit to the songwriters. As Natalie Merchant sang in 10000 Maniacs “MMMMmmmmm MMMMmmmm …. give em what they want.”
-dm
I have to laugh…I had the opposite reaction, figured, oh, they’d have their pick of pop writers, why try…and then when I heard the finalists I thought, hm…shoulda given it a shot.
I don’t mind a challenge, writing on spec, often sparks something good…sometimes far away from what I intended, but excellent in its own right.
Next year…:)
What struck me the most about the “Songwriting Winner” announcement was how the winning songwriters were: #1 - sitting somewhere out in the middle of the audience, not in the front row, like “winners”.. and #2 - didn’t get profiled, or interviewed.
Did Idol think we didn’t want to know anything about those guys? They just wrote the song that will be released by the American Idol winner.
Why didn’t we get to see at least a small profile on Jeff Peabody and Scott Krippayne?
The writers should get their props.
I second that! Props to the winning writers. Good call, Denise.