Songwriting Contest

Gil’s Hootenanny is delighted to announce that Christine Graves has won the 2017 “Songs of Hope and Protest” Sing-Along Songwriting Contest for her inspirational song “Rise Above”.

All finalists performed their original songs at the Ottawa Grassroots Festival on Saturday, April 22. According to contest judges Tony Turner, Mark Evenchick and Marty Hamer, “this year’s contest featured a number of strong song submissions and it was difficult to narrow the field to the five finalists”, who were (songs and songwriters): Continue reading…

Come cheer on the five finalists for the annual Gil’s Hootenanny “Songs of Hope and Protest” Sing-Along Songwriting Contest as they perform their original songs at the Ottawa Grassroots Festival on Saturday, April 22, 2017 at 4pm, in Room 7 (The Parlour) at Southminster United Church, 15 Aylmer Avenue, Ottawa, ON.

The five finalists (songs and songwriters) are:

• We Are the One : Harmony Siu
• Your Wall Will Come Down : Jan Bentham
• The Baby King : David Mayerovitch
• Race to the Bottom : Tom Clairmont
• Rise Above : Christine Graves

Continue reading…

One of Ottawa finest singer-songwriter’s life and career were forever changed by his participation in Gil’s Hootenanny, after his song won the 2015 song-writing contest.

Tony Turner

Tony Turner’s winning composition about then Prime Minister Stephen Harper, “Harperman”, thrust him into a media spotlight that few could have anticipated. After officials got wind of a video of the upbeat song by Ottawa filmmaker Andrew Hall, the federal government suspended Tony from his job at Environment Canada. Much to Tony’s surprise, his suspension alarmed many Canadians and “Harperman” took on a life of its own. Millions of people viewed the video, and Tony became an unintentional, international public crusader for freedom of expression. Continue reading…

April 1st is the deadline to submit your song to the Gil’s Hootenanny “Songs of Hope and Protest” Sing-Along Songwriting Contest. Linked to May Day celebrations, this contest has given rise to some excellent musical creations from Canadian songwriters such as Tony Turner, who won in 2015 with his legendary song, Harperman.

Now open for entries, the contest encourages sing-along song submissions from songwriters in two categories:

• “Open” (19 and over), and
• “Young Composer” (18 and younger).

Continue reading…

Congratulations Mark Evenchick. The winning song is Believe Again.