50SS 2019 Entries: Maryland, Connecticut, North Dakota, New Mexico
Come along, friends. We are about halfway through announcing this year's entries (it only took us a month -- it'll go faster after this, we promise.) We think this last bunch is a great balance of theatrical, country, and soft rock. So, strap in!
Maryland
Steep Steps - "Sophia"
This group is from Baltimore and their music is some sort of amazing theatrical mix intertwined with deep, industrial, electronic sounds. They even advertise their music as being for "film and television," front-woman Athena Hiotis and producer/engineer Tony Correlli challenge you to close your eyes and unravel the different synths and beats.
Connecticut
Lisa Heller - "Quicksand"
Lisa Heller grew up in Simsbury. After winning a songwriting award in 2015, her 2016 single "Hope" had viral recognition in parts of the world, and inspired Heller to install a "Wall of Hope" on her website where individuals can stories of courage and bravery in rough times. This philosophy of social interaction has been a part of her music ever since. "Quicksand" is her latest effort, a song about that feeling of helplessness, of defeat, in these particular times.
New Mexico
Bri Bagwell – “If You Were a Cowboy”
So there was a really great Spanish-language song from Nosotros that was unfortunately disqualified because it was originally released in 2016. Just a gentle reminder that it’s the song that matters most; not just the music video date can save an entry! Outside of Nosotros, I found quite a bit of country, so the Land of Enchantment is going that route in 2018.
Bri Bagwell is originally from Las Cruces, and oh golly, is this about as American Country as you can get! In that way it might be our most 'charming' entry in the first semifinal!
North Dakota
Tigirlily – “Wild Creatures”
Welcome to the land of nothing! Yes, if you hadn’t guessed, this was the state that gave us days’ worth of trouble. Circumstances led us astray, and we found a couple things that could have worked, but nothing very high quality. It didn’t help that a Spotify-generated list called “The Sounds of North Dakota Indie” had mostly metal and hard rock music – so back we go to these lovely girls for the 3rd year out of 4, and they are the only returning act in this semifinal.
The best news is that we *do* have a song that can compete (thanks to the music video upload date), and we've learned a lot about the Dakotan music scene. There’s also some stuff for 2019 that we've found already that should break the chains free. That being said, this is a sweet song!
And that does it! We've announced every entry in the first semifinal for this year's contest! That means that within the coming week we should be able to get started. It's an exciting time of year where anything can happen, so hoepfully what happens is an amazing 2019!
