UK Songwriting Contest judging explanation
The judges’ scores that you can see on the website are out of ten. Most songs received scores of between 1 and 7. Only the winning song in each category received the maximum score of ten and all runners up automatically received a score of nine. Songs with scores of 6 and above passed into the semi-finals while scores of five and below did not make it past the semi-finals selection panel. All finalists (8 or 9) are considered for winner and runner up positions. A score of seven indicates that your song was very carefully considered for the finals but did not make it and it remained in the semi-finals.
Entries that almost made the semi-finals were awarded Highly Commended Entry status. Other songs that showed above average talent and ability were awarded Commended Entry status. All songs with a score of three or below were awarded Participant status. A judges’ score of one or two indicates that the song was considered particularly weak and the judges recommend that rewriting should be considered. A score of three indicates that the writer demonstrated a good understanding of song form and composition but the song was not strong enough to be awarded Commended Entry status and some re-writing may be necessary.
There were just under 5,000 entries and the most popular categories were the Pop, Rock/Indie and Folk/Country categories. Around 6% of songs made the finals. Approximately 23% made the semi-finals. All categories in the UKSC are judged independently and the same song entered in different categories may receive different results in each category. In this respect the UKSC is like ten separate song contests in one. Your song competes with the other entries in that category and its position will reflect the standard of the other entries in that category. It is also possible that you will receive different scores if you enter the same song in Lyrics Only and in another category as the lyric may be considered stronger than the music or vice versa.