Here's my children's songwriting friend Marla Lewis, from the Great American Song Contest website, where they hung her photo right under the words "Grand Prize Winner"! That's right, her children's song, "Mighty Jackie (The Strikeout Queen)," took grand prize! (And she landed two other songs in the "Outstanding Achievement" category in children's further down the page, too!)
My song, "1907," can be found if you scroll to the bottom, click "Honor Awards" and scan the "Top Finalists" in the Contemporary Acoustic/Folk category. That's right, I figured the judges might scratch their heads a bit at the stunning depth of sophistication I achieved in this historical ditty about Oklahoma's statehood if I claimed it to be children's fare, so I plopped it in "Contemporary Folk" just to see what would happen.
Meanwhile my friend Marla was busy proving that stunning depths of sophistication can be reached and appreciated in children's music!
I've had conversations with many folks speculating whether a song from the children's category in a big-time song competition would/could ever rise to the very top. It just doesn't often seem that our genre commands that kind of respect.
I mean when they (meaning your random representative song competition) do stuff like lump us into a "special category" with "Patriotic" and "Gospel" and "Mountain Yodeling" like so many apples and oranges and cumquats in a bin, it makes you wonder. Do they really give the best of the children's songs any serious consideration for grand prize winner?
I guess sometimes they do, and Marla proved it! You go girl!!
For my own part I'm very pleased to have received an "Honor Award" in Contemporary Folk, but I think I'll stick with my native genre from now on! Maybe given enough deep and sophisticated children's entries we'll earn a whole new category all to ourselves one day.
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