Deadline:
February 15, 2025
Location(s)
Online
Overview
The John Lennon Award is an annual competition open to student songwriters and composers of contemporary musical genres including alternative, pop, rock, indie, electronica, R&B, and experimental. Over the past twenty years, more than $400,000 in scholarships has been awarded to talented young musicians throughout the United States, making this award one of the nation’s most esteemed accolades for emerging songwriters.
Details
Established in 1997 by Yoko Ono in conjunction with the BMI Foundation, this scholarship program honors the memory of one of the preeminent songwriters of the 20th century. Lennon’s enormous creative legacy includes “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” “Strawberry Fields,” “Imagine,” “I Am the Walrus,” “All You Need Is Love,” and “Come Together,” and continues to inspire and uplift new generations of music lovers around the world.
Through the generosity of Ono and Gibson Musical Instruments, three scholarships totaling $20,000 are presented annually for the best original songs submitted to the competition. Works are judged by a prestigious panel of music publishers, songwriters, musicians, and executives. BMI’s Vice President, Creative, New York Samantha Cox, and Tim Pattison, Director, Creative, New York, oversee the competition. Together they bring over 30 years of experience working with and developing the careers of emerging songwriters and artists.
Opportunity is About
Eligibility
Candidates should be from:
Description of Ideal Candidate
Eligibility Requirements
All applicants:
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must be between the ages of 17 and 24 as of February 15, 2025.
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must be in residence in the United States or its territories.
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may only submit one application per BMI Foundation awards program.
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may not submit the same musical work to more than one BMI Foundation awards program.
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may only submit works that have not been assigned to any major music publisher or major record label.
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may only apply if they have not previously won the John Lennon Award. (Honorable mention may apply again.)
Dates
Deadline: February 15, 2025
Cost/funding for participants
AWARDS
Scholarships totaling $20,000 will be available for the competition. The Foundation reserves the right to make the total number of awards, to make no award, or to award prizes totaling less than the full amount. The BMI Foundation shall have the right (but shall have no obligation) to license up to three public performances of a winning composition and authorize appropriate musical arrangements to be made for such performances. The BMI Foundation shall also have the right to post or share a recording and/or written lyrics of any winning composition on the bmi.com and bmifoundation.org websites and social media profiles and to authorize the reproduction and distribution on CD of no more than twelve (12) copies of each winning work. The BMI Foundation reserves the right to limit the total number of entries in the 2020 competition to the first 5,000 entries received. All other rights under the copyright law remain vested in the composer and lyricist.
Un-save Opportunity
Internships, scholarships, student conferences and competitions.
