The John Lennon Scholarship competition is open only to U.S. college students between the ages of 17 and 24. Three scholarships with prizes totaling $20,000 will be awarded to the best original songs submitted to the competition. Established in 1997 by Yoko Ono, this scholarship program honors the memory of one of the preeminent songwriters of the 20th century, John Lennon. Lennon’s enormous creative legacy includes such songs as, “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” “Strawberry Fields,” “Imagine,” “I Am the Walrus,” “All You Need Is Love,” and “Come Together” and continues to inspire and uplift new generations of music lovers around the world. More than $340,000 in scholarships have been awarded over the past fifteen years.
Specific Eligibility Criteria
- Applicants must be a current student or alumnus/alumna of a U.S. college or university.
- The submitted work must be an original song with lyrics accompanied by whatever instrumentation is chosen by the applicant. Both lyrics and music must be original and not based on any prior work.
- Applicants may submit only one song to the competition.
- Applicants must have reached their 17th birthday as of the submission deadline and be less than 25 years of age as of that date. In the case of a joint or co-written song, all applicants must meet all qualification requirements and each co-writer must submit a completed application with the entry which must be submitted in one mailing.
- Former winners of the John Lennon Scholarship Award are not eligible to enter the 2013 competition. Songwriters who have previously received an Honorable Mention in the competition may enter the 2013 competition. The applicant must warrant that he or she has not assigned any rights in the submitted work to a major music publisher or major record label.
- If the winning work was written by two or more qualifying applicants (e.g., a composer and lyricist), the scholarship award will be divided equally between them.