We kicked off June with WXPN’s first-ever 24 Hour Song Challenge! In it, we received over 300 submissions from dedicated musicians who spent the first weekend of the month cooking up a new, original song written around a prompt: “Summertime.”
Our panel of judges is currently going through the submissions as we prepare to announce the finalists — that news is coming on Monday, June 24th — as well as the Grand Prize winner — look for that reveal on Monday, July 1st. While we wait, let’s spend this week looking at a few groups of entries that grabbed our attention.
Something truly special that happened in this contest was the profusion of songs very specifically, geographically, about Philadelphia. The prompt was simply “Summertime” — no mention of “Summertime in Philadelphia,” no instructions to take it any one direction — and yet that’s the route a lot of contestants went.
Philly artists don’t need to be told to rep their city — they just do it instinctively. Take a look at some of our favorite Song Challenge entries about Philadelphia, and stay tuned to meet the finalists on Monday, June 24th, and the grand prize winner on Monday, July 1st.