U2 have been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for ‘Ordinary Love’ from the film Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. This follows the band’s recent victory in the Golden Globe awards with the same song.
U2’s ‘Ordinary Love’ will be up against ‘Alone But Not Alone’ from the film of the same name (written by Bruce Broughton and Dennis Spiegel), ‘Happy’ from Despicable Me 2 (Pharrell Williams), ‘Let It Go’ from Frozen (Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez), and ‘The Moon Song’ from Her (Karen O and Spike Jonze).
After receiving the Golden Globe award, U2’s Bono said: “This really is personal, very very personal. This man [Nelson Mandela] turned our life upside down, right side up. A man who refused to hate but he thought love would do a better job. We wrote a love song because it’s kind of what’s extraordinary about the film. It’s a dysfunctional love story.”
The Oscars will be presented on March 2.
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“How [Not] To Write A Hit Song! – 101 Common Mistakes To Avoid If You Want Songwriting Success” is available from Amazon as a paperback, or as an eBook from Amazon’s Kindle Store, Apple’s iTunes Store (Books/Arts & Entertainment/Music) and Barnes & Noble’s Nook store.
Read a FREE sample of the book HERE (USA), HERE (UK), HERE (Australia) and HERE (Canada).
U2 have won this year’s Golden Globe award for Best Original Song From a Motion Picture for their song ‘Ordinary Love’ from the Nelson Mandela biopic Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.
The U2 song beat Coldplay’s ‘Atlas’ from The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, ‘Let It Go’ by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez (from Disney’s Frozen), ‘Please Mr. Kennedy’ by Ed Rush, George Cromarty, T Bone Burnett, Justin Timberlake and Joel and Ethan Coen from Inside Llewyn Davis, and ‘Sweeter Than Fiction’ by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff from One Chance.
After receiving the award, U2’s Bono said: “This really is personal, very very personal. This man turned our life upside down, right side up. A man who refused to hate but he thought love would do a better job. We wrote a love song because it’s kind of what’s extraordinary about the film. It’s a dysfunctional love story.”
Meanwhile, Alex Ebert beat legendary film composers John Williams and Hans Zimmer to win the Golden Globe for Best Original Score for his work on the Robert Redford movie All is Lost.
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“How [Not] To Write A Hit Song! – 101 Common Mistakes To Avoid If You Want Songwriting Success” is available from Amazon as a paperback, or as an eBook from Amazon’s Kindle Store, Apple’s iTunes Store (Books/Arts & Entertainment/Music) and Barnes & Noble’s Nook store.
Read a FREE sample of the book HERE (USA) and HERE (UK).
“The good news is that melody is back in pop music again,” Michael Bolton told Billboard magazine in a recent interview.
The blue-eyed soul singer-songwriter added: “There’s a lot of melody in music now – right across the board from hip-hop to country, and that’s where I’m the most comfortable. It’s made me roll up my sleeve and get on the phone to my manager and publishers and say ‘I feel like going on a writing run for the next few months’.”
As a result, said Bolton, he is planning to work with some of today’s biggest contemporary songwriters on a new album. He has already collaborated with Lady Gaga and Ne-Yo in recent years, but he won’t reveal the names of his new ‘crew’ just yet. However, he calls them “the new hot guns”.
As experienced songwriters know, no matter which music genre you’re writing for—whether it’s pop, rock, country, R&B or any other style—the melody line is second only to the title as the most important part of a song.
The late Robin Gibb once explained that the Bee Gees always made sure they had a great melody before they started writing the lyrics. “The principle is to let the melody dictate the flow of the lyrics,” he said.
After all, the melody is the first thing that listeners catch when they hear a song for the first time. If they like the tune, they’re more likely to want to start listening to the words. That’s why melodies need good hooks, and why a strong and memorable melody is the chief reason why most songs become successful.
As the great Irving Berlin once remarked: “It’s the lyric that makes a song a hit, but the tune is what makes it last.”
Do you agree with Michael Bolton that melody is back in pop music again? Or do you feel that melody never went away in the first place, especially in mainstream pop?
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“How [Not] To Write A Hit Song! – 101 Common Mistakes To Avoid If You Want Songwriting Success” is available from Amazon as a paperback, or as an eBook from Amazon’s Kindle Store, Apple’s iTunes Store (Books/Arts & Entertainment/Music) and Barnes & Noble’s Nook store.
Read a FREE sample of the book HERE (USA), HERE (UK), HERE (Australia) and HERE (Canada).
A recent study by researchers in Germany suggests that health problems can affect the style, creativity and inspiration of songwriters and composers.
Studies have already shown how Beethoven’s progressive deafness resulted in his three different (and increasingly poignant) styles. But in a paper – published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) – researchers show how German composer Richard Wagner used his disabling migraines and headaches to compose his operas.
Wagner’s medical problems have often been investigated and he even described his headaches and symptoms as the “main plague of his life”. However, the latest study closely examines the structure of Wagner’s opera Siegfried, the third part of the Ring Cycle, to highlight how the composer’s ailments influenced his work.
The researchers say Siegfried opens with a pulsating thumping which gradually becomes more intense until it reaches an “almost painful pulsation”. At the climax, the main character cries out “Compulsive plague! Pain without end!” which the researchers believe is a representation of a “painful, pulsating sensory migraine episode”.
In his memoirs, Wagner gives an account of the symptoms he had in September 1865, around the time he composed Siegfried. The composer openly voiced his suffering caused by the “nervous headaches” he had while composing this opera.
Wagner’s depiction of his migraines included a “scintillating, flickering, glimmering melody line with a zig-zag pattern” while a main character sings of “Loathsome light!” and “rustling and humming and blustering”. The researchers say the music has all the characteristics of a typical migraine and the experimental flicker frequency gives “important clues” about the performance speed intended by Wagner.
The researchers conclude that, although Richard Wagner was “severely burdened” by migraine, he used his suffering creatively – “letting future generations take part in his emotions and perceptions”.
There is a video extract from the study’s findings HERE…
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“How [Not] To Write A Hit Song! – 101 Common Mistakes To Avoid If You Want Songwriting Success” is available from Amazon as a US paperback, UK paperback and as an eBook from Amazon’s Kindle Store, Apple’s iTunes Store (Books/Arts & Entertainment/Music), Barnes & Noble’s Nook store, and from KoboBooks.
Read a FREE sample of the book HERE (USA), HERE (UK), HERE (Australia) and HERE (Canada).
Following on from our recent story about the John Lewis ‘Reworked’ competition, Keane have chosen singer-songwriter Matthew Fearon from Leicester as the winner.
The ‘ReWorked’ competition invited aspiring artists to upload a video of their version of Keane’s 2004 hit, ‘Somewhere Only We Know’. The song, as sung by Lily Allen, provides the soundtrack for John Lewis’s 2013 Christmas TV advert which features the animated story of best friends Bear and Hare at Christmas.
Matthew Fearon will now receive an all-expenses paid trip to London where he will record ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ with Lily Allen’s producer Paul Beard. The recording will then be featured in a special 90-second version of the advert which will be shown live on ITV1 on Christmas Day.
Fearon’s winning video was appropriately filmed in a John Lewis store whilst he sat on a footstool entertaining the Christmas shoppers. Here is the video:
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“How [Not] To Write A Hit Song! – 101 Common Mistakes To Avoid If You Want Songwriting Success” is available from Amazon as a paperback, or as an eBook from Amazon’s Kindle Store, Apple’s iTunes Store (Books/Arts & Entertainment/Music) and Barnes & Noble’s Nook store.
Read a FREE sample of the book HERE (USA), HERE (UK), HERE (Australia) and HERE (Canada).
How would you like to become Lily Allen on Christmas Day?
John Lewis Retail, which operates 40 John Lewis stores across the UK, is running a YouTube competition – called ‘ReWorked’ – which will give one aspiring artist a chance to take Lily Allen’s place in a special TV advert to be aired nationwide in the UK on Christmas Day.
John Lewis’s popular 2013 Christmas TV advert features the animated story of best friends Bear and Hare at Christmas, set to Lily Allen’s cover of Keane’s 2004 hit, ‘Somewhere Only We Know’.
All you have to do to take part in the ‘ReWorked’ competition is to upload a video of your version of ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ at www.youtube.com/JohnLewisRetail.
The competition closes on December 3, 2013 and a winner will be chosen by December 6, 2013 by a panel that includes a member of Keane.
If you win, you’ll be given an all-expenses paid trip to London where you will record the track in a professional studio with producer Paul Beard (who also produced Lily Allen’s ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ cover).
Your recording will then provide the soundtrack for a special 90-second version of the advert which will be shown live on ITV1 on Christmas Day.
Craig Inglis, marketing director at John Lewis, says: “In previous years, we’ve been overwhelmed by the number of people sending and uploading their versions of songs from our Christmas ads. This year, with the support of Lily Allen and Keane, we want to give someone a Christmas they’ll never forget – the chance to hear their song on our advert on Christmas Day.”
He adds: “Absolutely anybody can take part. We’re really looking forward to seeing the entries come in!”
Here is the 90-second version of the John Lewis Christmas ad that will be used in the ‘ReWorked’ competition:
“How [Not] To Write A Hit Song! – 101 Common Mistakes To Avoid If You Want Songwriting Success” is available from Amazon as a paperback, or as an eBook from Amazon’s Kindle Store, Apple’s iTunes Store (Books/Arts & Entertainment/Music) and Barnes & Noble’s Nook store.
Read a FREE sample of the book HERE (USA), HERE (UK) or HERE (Australia).
The BPI has announced that composer Hans Zimmer will receive the Outstanding Contribution To Music Award at this year’s Classic BRIT Awards. The event will take place on Wednesday, 2 October 2013 at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
The ceremony will include a special tribute to the works of Zimmer.
In his 30-year career, he has scored over 100 films and won a multitude of awards, including an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, four Grammys and a Classic BRIT award.
His works have included Gladiator, The Lion King, Thelma and Louise, Mission Impossible 2, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Da Vinci Code, Driving Miss Daisy, Inception, Rain Man, The Thin Red Line, As Good As It Gets, True Romance, The Last Samurai, and most recently Man of Steel and The Dark Knight Rises.
Zimmer has also worked in other areas, such as the computer games industry, and compiled the soundtrack for Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
Co-chairmen of The Classic BRIT Awards committee Dickon Stainer (president of Decca Records) and Barry McCann (director of Avie Records), said: “We are absolutely delighted to be honouring the outstanding talent of Hans Zimmer with this award.
“Hans Zimmer’s recent work, including Inception, has been a dominant force for classical music specifically in the digital download era.
“It is only appropriate that four years on from his 2009 win for Soundtrack of the Year for The Dark Knight he should receive the Outstanding Contribution to Music at this year’s ceremony.”
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“How [Not] To Write A Hit Song! – 101 Common Mistakes To Avoid If You Want Songwriting Success” is now available from Amazon’s Kindle Store for only US$7.22 or GB£4.78.
Read a FREE sample of the book HERE (USA), HERE (UK) or HERE (Australia).
Also available from Apple’s iTunes Store (Books/Arts & Entertainment/Music), and Barnes & Noble’s Nook store.
The Songwriting Charity has announced that English musician, songwriter and record producer Rupert Hine is to become a patron of the London-based music charity.
Launched in 2011, The Songwriting Charity addresses the emotional health and well-being of children and young people of all abilities through the art and craft of songwriting and music technology. It helps children to generate creative energy around issues that impact on their lives, through songwriting and performance.
Rupert Hine follows British songwriter Guy Fletcher, who joined as a Patron last summer.
During his 35-year career, Hine has worked with a wide a range of gold and platinum-selling artists – including Tina Turner, Chris de Burgh, Rush, Bob Geldof, Stevie Nicks, Kevin Ayers, Thomson Twins, The Waterboys, Kate Bush, and Suzanne Vega.
As a songwriter, his songs have been recorded by million-selling artists such as Tina Turner, Stevie Nicks, Dusty Springfield and Wilson-Phillips.
Hine said: “The Songwriting Charity powerfully illustrates how children working together creatively as a team can rise above their individual practical difficulties and limitations and create something fun or even beautiful in a field that is very close to my heart. I fully endorse their vision and look forward to helping to expand their reach in any way I can.”
Nathan Timothy, CEO of The Songwriting Charity, said: “This is another landmark in our charity’s young life. Rupert shares my passion for developing artistry and for using songs and songwriting to positively change the lives of people all over the world. I’m so proud that Rupert Hine has agreed to become a Patron. And I’m delighted to welcome him as part of the team as we celebrate the charity’s second birthday!”
The Songwriting Charity has so far worked in 450 schools around the UK and has linked with projects in Italy and Canada. The charity’s work has positively impacted on the well-being, self–esteem and confidence of more than 12,500 children and young people.
Its unique one-day workshops present children with opportunities to sing, write lyrics, perform and record their ideas both individually and as a team.
So far, some 460 songs have been written by young people for young people – covering concerns such as bullying, world peace and friendships. The songs are hosted on the charity’s Soundcloud page and have been streamed more than 91,000 times.
Find out more about The Songwriting Charity, or make a donation, HERE…
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“How [Not] To Write A Hit Song! – 101 Common Mistakes To Avoid If You Want Songwriting Success” is now available from Amazon’s Kindle Store for only US$7.22 or GB£4.78.
Read a FREE sample of the book HERE (USA) and HERE (UK).
Also available from Apple’s iTunes Store (Books/Arts & Entertainment/Music), and Barnes & Noble’s Nook store.
British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran has teamed up with Martin Guitar to produce a Signature Edition six string guitar. It is based on Martin’s classic 23 inch ‘Little Martin’ LX1E model which is said to have been Sheeran’s guitar of choice since his early teens.
Over the past two years, Sheeran and his own well-used LX1E have graced prestigious stages worldwide – from the London Summer Olympics opening ceremony in 2012, to the 2013 Grammy Awards where he teamed up with Sir Elton John.
The new Signature model carries the orange plus sign from the cover of Sheeran’s 2011 debut album (which was titled ‘+‘), along with the words “Est. 1991” which is the year in which Sheeran was born. He will be playing the new guitar during the rest of his current tour with Taylor Swift.
Proceeds will go towards a Children’s Hospice charity in England.
“It was a huge privilege to have the opportunity to collaborate with Martin Guitar,” said Ed Sheeran. “I have been a fan of Martin since I started playing guitar and songwriting, and I am honored to have a Signature Edition that bears my own personal imprint.”
He added: “All of the royalties from every purchase from my Signature Edition will go to the East Anglia Children’s Hospices. I can’t wait to get on stage and perform with it for my fans.”
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“How [Not] To Write A Hit Song! – 101 Common Mistakes To Avoid If You Want Songwriting Success” is now available from Amazon’s Kindle Store for only US$7.22 or GB£4.78.
Read a FREE sample of the book HERE (USA) and HERE (UK).
Also available from Apple’s iTunes Store (Books/Arts & Entertainment/Music).
Emeli Sandé won two awards at the 58th Ivor Novello Awards in London today. Her song ‘Next to Me’ (co-written with Hugo Chegwin, Harry Craze and Anup Paul) was voted the ‘Best Song Musically and Lyrically’. The same song also won the PRS for Music award for ‘Most Performed Work’.
Calvin Harris was voted Songwriter of the Year, while Randy Newman, Noel Gallagher, Alt-J and The Maccabees also won big at the prestigious event which is staged annually by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA), in association with the UK collection society PRS For Music.
The ‘Ivor’ awards are judged by the British writing community and are designed to celebrate, honour and reward excellence in songwriting and composing. They are regarded as the most important awards for UK music writers.
Full list of winners at the 58th Ivor Novello Awards:
Best Contemporary Song – ‘Pelican’ (written by Sam Doyle, Rupert Jarvis, Orlando Weeks, Felix White and Hugo White).
PRS for Music Most Performed Work – ‘Next to Me’ (written by Hugo Chegwin, Harry Craze, Anup Paul and Emeli Sandé).
Best Television Soundtrack – Lucian Freud: Painted Life (composed by John Harle).
The Ivors Inspiration Award – Marc Almond
Album Award
Alt-J’s An Awesome Wave (written by Thomas Green, Joe Newman, Gwilym Sainsbury and Augustus Unger-Hamilton).
The Ivors Classical Music Award – Errollyn Wallen MBE
PRS for Music Award for Outstanding Achievement – Justin Hayward
Best Original Film Score – Anna Karenina (composed by Dario Marianelli)
Best Song Musically and Lyrically
‘Next to Me’ (written by Hugo Chegwin, Harry Craze, Anup Paul and Emeli Sandé).
International Achievement – Gavin Rossdale
Songwriter of the Year – Calvin Harris
Outstanding Song Collection – Noel Gallagher
PRS for Music Special International Award – Randy Newman
Watch the official video for Emeli Sandé’s ‘Next To Me’ HERE…
Watch the official video for The Maccabees’ ‘Pelican’ HERE…
Watch the official video for Alt-J’s ‘Tessellate’ HERE…
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“How [Not] To Write A Hit Song! – 101 Common Mistakes To Avoid If You Want Songwriting Success” is now available from Amazon’s Kindle Store for only US$7.22 or GB£4.78.
Read a FREE sample of the book HERE (USA) and HERE (UK).
Also available from Apple’s iTunes Store (Books/Arts & Entertainment/Music).
SONGWRITING: THE HIT FORMULA 