Does the music played in shops and on the radio in the lead-up to Christmas make you think 'I could do better than that!" Well, here's your chance.
Photo: 123RF
After the success of last year's Best Cover Band competition, (won by White Chapel Jak) Jesse Mulligan is proud to announce this year's music contest.
He and Afternoons producer Caitlin Cherry came up with Christmas theme as a way to ensure people would submit songs written especially for the competition.
Jesse tells Yadana Saw that songwriters can use the Christmas theme and the songs don't have to be religious or even mention Christmas: "Keep it broad."
One of Jesse's personal favourite seasonal songs is 'O Holy Night' (by Adolphe Adam), which – like 'Jingle Bells' –makes no mention of the Yuletide. (Another of his favourites is 'White Christmas' by Irving Berlin).
"There are terrible Christmas songs but there are wonderful Christmas songs, as well.
"We hope you'll put your songwriting cap on and use this as a launching point, rather than a ring fence."
The winning song will be recorded and mixed by award-winning music producer Ben Edwards at his Lyttelton studio The Sitting Room, then mastered by masterful sound engineer Chris Chetland at Kog Studio.
Entries close at 5pm on 17 July 2019. You can find all of the details here.
Finalists and the winning song will be included in the RNZ Christmas music playlist on Spotify:
Photo: RNZ
