King B-Fine and Afrikaya Band (Freetown, Sierra Leone) is the first place winner in the 2021 Unsigned Only Music Competition with the song “E don Tay”. Second place went to the song “Bending Yaman” by Priyant Sundas (Darjeeling, India). Sophie Pecora won the Grand Prize.
The Grand Prize winner is awarded a prize package totaling $50,000, including $20,000 in cash (US) and more in merchandise and services geared toward helping an artist’s career. Selected from almost 10,000 entries from 120 countries, the winners share in over $150,000 in cash and prizes split among 38 winners.
The list of 2021 winners is as follows (see website for Honorable Mentions):
Grand Prize
Sophie Pecora (Danville, CA, USA) – “Anxiety”
AAA (Adult Album Alternative)
First Place: Notelle (Richmond, VA, USA) – “Sufjan Stevens“
Second Place: Teenage Joans (Adelaide, SA, Australia) – “Ice Cream”
Adult Contemporary (AC)
First Place: Hailey Belle (Santa Clarita, CA, USA) – “Right At The Wrong Time”
Second Place: Tayler Buono (Orlando, FL, USA) – “My Person”
Americana
First Place: Trent Beaver & The Damage (Molalla, OR, USA) – “Ramblin’ Kinda Man”
Second Place: Templeton Thompson Ft. Gina Jeffreys (Glen Rose, TX, USA) – “Recover”
Blues
First Place: Lisa Mann (Portland, OR, USA) – “It’s The Monkeys Or Me”
Second Place: Duffmusiq (Toronto, ON, Canada) – “I Can’t Get Over Losing You (AKA Ordinary Fool)”
Christian
First Place: Madeline Edwards (Houston, TX, USA) – “The Road”
Second Place: Holly Halliwell (Hoopeston, IL, USA) – “Brand New”
Country
First Place: The Olson Bros Band (Olympia, WA, USA) – “Kill Your Mom”
Second Place: Savannah Keyes (Sandy, UT, USA) – “I’m Not California”
EDM (Electronic Dance Music)
First Place: du0 (Brisbane, QLD, Australia) – “Come Home”
Second Place: Max M (Bry, France) – “Under Water”
Folk/Singer-Songwriter
First Place: Alexander Biggs (Melbourne, VIC, Australia) – “Madeleine”
Second Place: Lauren Jenkins (Fort Worth, TX, USA) – “Ain’t That Hard”
Instrumental
First Place: Alicia Enstrom (Topeka, KS, USA) – “Looping Concerto For Violin, Electronics, And Orchestra – Movement 1 – Frenzied Whispers”
Second Place: Christine Kharazian (Yerevan, Armenia) – “Valse Astolfi”
Jazz
First Place: Thana Alexa (New York, NY, USA) – “Ona”
Second Place: George Colligan (Portland, OR, USA) – “Waterfall Dreams”
Latin Music
First Place: Stefano Manrique (Bogotá, Colombia) – “Te Sigo El Juego”
Second Place: ANIA (Lima, Peru) – “Bien Bien”
Pop/Top 40
First Place: Hudson Thames (Studio City, CA, USA) – “Bruce Wayne”
Second Place: PipoBeats (Pasadena, CA, USA) – “Too Fresh”
R&B/Hip-Hop
First Place: Hiway (Eureka, CA, USA) – “Top Floor Ft. Tech N9Ne And Braye Nicole”
Second Place: shiv (Dublin, Ireland) – “You And I”
Rock
First Place: Jordan Adetunji (Belfast, Northern Ireland) – “Wokeup!”
Second Place: Flarelight (New Orleans, LA, USA) – “La Petite Mort”
Screen Shot
First Place: Tamsin (Brentwood, England) – “SOS”
Second Place: Richard Tichelman (Surrey, BC, Canada) – “The One”
Teen
First Place: Ada LeAnn (Battle Creek, MI, USA) – “Someone To Somebody”
Second Place: Aidan Gallagher (Los Angeles, CA, USA) – “4th Of July”
Vocal Performance
First Place: Anna Hawkins Mount (Maunganui, New Zealand) – “Wayfaring Stranger / Yea Though I Walk”
Second Place: Jasmine Crowe (Hilo, HI, USA) – “Love Is Love”
World Music
First Place: King B-Fine and Afrikaya Band (Freetown, Sierra Leone) – “E don Tay”
Second Place: Priyant Sundas (Darjeeling, India) – “Bending Yaman”
Fandemonium (online public vote)
Riccardo Moccia (Rome, Italy) – “2050”
Special Promotion Winners
Triple Play
Week One – Get Feedback
Madison Olds (Kamloops, BC, Canada) – “If You Wanna”
Week Two – Get Published
du0 (Brisbane, QLD, Australia) – “Come Home”
Week Three – Get Paid
Dustin Starks (Snowflake, AZ, USA) – “Winter To Spring”
Win Some Love – three winners (in alphabetical order)
Bun (Lichtervelde, Belgium) – “Burnout”
Desolo (Olympia, WA, USA) – “Mars”
Trent-Jean (Perth, WA, Australia) – “B4IDie”
Hop To It
Lachlan Edwards (Newcastle, NSW, Australia) – “Little Too Late”
Video Only
Professional Video: Max M Max M (Bry, France) – “Imaginary Problems”
Homemade Video: Zach Evans (Boerne, TX, USA) – “Little Bitty Man”
For more information and to enter, go to www.unsignedonly.com. To listen to the winning songs, go to: www.unsignedonly.com/winners
Author: World Music Central News Room
World music news from the editors at World Music Central