NSAI Reveals Winners Of The 19th Annual Song Contest

Pictured (L-R): Jacob Noe, Michael Roth

NSAI, along with presenting partners CMT and C.F. Martin & Co., is proud to announce Jacob Noe as the Grand Prize Song+Lyric winner of NSAI’s annual Song Contest with his entry “Weight of Words” (co-written with Canaan Stanley), and Michael Roth as the Lyric Only Winner with his entry “The Price Of A Song.”

With the addition of presenting partner C.F. Martin & Co. this year, the Grand Prize winning package was bigger than ever and included $5,000 cash, a one-year single-song contract with ole, mentoring sessions with legendary hit songwriter Craig Wiseman and musician, writer, performer and Martin ambassador Hunter Hayes, and a Martin guitar. Additional prizes included a round-trip flight to Nashville, TN, tickets to the 2019 CMT Music Awards, a mentoring session with a CMT executive, a performance slot during the 2019 Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival and more. The total prize package was valued at over $15,000. All eight runner-up entrants in the Song+Lyric category also each were awarded their very own Martin Dreadnought Junior acoustic electric guitar, as well as an industry meeting and a year membership to NSAI.

Roth, the winner of the Lyric-Only category won a prize package that included a mentoring session with hit songwriter Lori McKenna, a Martin guitar, industry access, a round-trip flight to Nashville, TN, a pass to the annual Music Biz conference and more.

Beating out nearly 2,600 entries, each placing song advanced through several levels of judging with the final judging event taking place on February 5, 2019, where the Grand Prize-winning song was determined by a panel of elite judges.

Pictured (L-R): Chris Martin, Craig Thatcher, NSAI’s Bart Herbison and Lindsay Gum, John Ozier, Jordan Walker, and Brett James

Judges included Chris Martin (Chairman & CEO, C.F. Martin & Co.), Craig Thatcher (Recording artist and International Clinician/Ambassador for C.F. Martin & Co.), Brett James (Grammy-Winning Songwriter/Producer), Jordan Walker (Manager, Music & Talent, CMT) and John Ozier (Vice President, Creative, ole). For the final judging, each song was played and received a score of 1-10 from each panelist. The song with the highest score in total was declared the winner.