United States of Song

History

 

2016 was our inaugural year for this contest. Since then, we've expanded upon the concept, and the 2021 edition was our best edition yet! To learn more about each edition, songs, and states of this contest, click one of the links below.

FAQs

 

How do I know when to vote?

• When the contest is active, there is a Vote link in the header at the top of the page. New editions typically start around December or January - be on the lookout for announcements!

 

How does the voting work?

• There are two types of voters. Jury voters assign points to their ten favorite songs: the jury member gives a score of '12' to their favorite song, a score of '10' to their 2nd-most favorite, then 8, 7, 6, all the way down to '1' for their 10th-most favorite. This is similar to the Eurovision Song Contest. Each song receives 'points' from those votes, and those points are combined with all other jury votes to determine a final score. Everyone else listens to five groups of 5 songs each, and rates those 5 songs on a scale of 1 to 7. If they love the song, it gets 7 points; if they don't like it at all, they give it 1 point. Public votes are collated into a single score, and then that score is summated later into an overall score.

• Only jury voters vote in the semifinals. The Top semifinalists with the highest scores proceed to a Final Round, along with the song representing the host state.

• In the Final Round vote, both the Jury and Public votes are collected for the remaining songs. The winner of the competition is the song that receives the most points in the Final Round. The winner is announced in an epic Results video after the polls are closed!

 

What happens if there is a tie?

• The song which received the most sets of "votes" between the tied songs gets the highest rank. If there is a tie in that count, then the song with the most amount of first-place ranks receives preference. This practice is continued through 2nd place, 3rd place, and so forth until the tie is officially broken. In the extremely rare event that the tie still remains, a coin flip will be used (keeping it classy!)

 

How are states grouped? How is the order of states determined?

• Starting in 2017, states were grouped into two semifinals of 25, in randomized order. Grouping will likely be done this way until we have a reason to change it.

 

Why are places like Puerto Rico or Guam included in the contest? They aren't part of the USA.

• Up until 2020, our contest was named "50 States of Song." We started including U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico, Guam, and other territories in the contest in 2017. After the 2020 edition, in part due to the changing social climate, we have decided to not limit participation to 51, meaning none or all US territories are eligible to compete each edition.

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Are you making money on this? Is there a reward for winning?

• No - so calm down. This is an unofficial online contest. Everything here at the moment is considered fair use, including the graphics, apps, and fonts, which were provided by Wix, dafont.com, and other various online sources - or they were designed by us! The logos are designed by the website owner, and we graciously give credit when asked.

• You could argue that the video recaps are not fair use, but the content has been reformed. The videos never includes more than a 25-second clip of the video/audio mix. YouTube does not permit these videos to be monetized.

• Starting in 2019 there were previously unregistered copyright issues with some of the music included in the video recaps, which resulted in many of our videos being blocked. We will work to resolve these issues between editions.

 

I want a certain song to represent my home state!

• Every year we hold a submission period where fans like you can submit your favorite songs from the past year. To submit a song, click the link in the header above (if it is available).

• A song must obey the rules of the competition. For example, the performance and/or lyrics of the song cannot be vulgar in manner. No speeches or gestures of a political nature are permitted. No swearing or unacceptable language is allowed. Songs with an overt religious message are discouraged. Send an email to fiftystatesofsong AT gmail DOT com for more information.

 

I'm an artist/band and my song was chosen, but I do NOT want my song included in this contest. Remove it right now or face the wrath of my army of attorneys!

• We apologize, and we will be happy to remove it. Please send us a private message to discuss a solution to the problem. Please note that removal of your song may result in disqualification of the state from the contest of that year (and a lot of disappointed people).