Scholarship Description
The Dolly Parton Songwriters Award is an annual, nationwide competition open to aspiring songwriters. The award was established in 2015 as the Nashville Songwriting Scholarship by BMI to celebrate the company’s 75th Anniversary year and pays homage to musical epicenter and “Songwriting Capital of the World,” Nashville, Tennessee. The revised program offers $20,000 for up to two of the best original song entries in any of the following genres: Americana, blues, bluegrass, contemporary Christian, country, folk, and roots. Judges for previous competitions have included GRAMMY-winning artist Kacey Musgraves, hit songwriter Rodney Clawson, and Nashville music industry veteran Mark Brown among others.
No rights to the submitted work may have been assigned to a major music publisher or to a major record label and applicant must not be a prior BMI Foundation Nashville Songwriting Scholarship winner (excluding Honorable Mentions). Note: Nashville Songwriting Scholarship entrants who are also applying to the John Lennon Scholarships must submit different songs for each contest. Dual applicants may NOT submit the same original work to both competitions.
