Winning the overall grand prize of the 1999 USA Songwriting Competition, the world's largest international songwriting event, was singer/songwriter Adrianne Gonzalez of Boston, MA with her song Say Em Strong followed by Trina Belamide from the Philippines (second) and Mary Coppin (third). This was the first time that all top three prizes were won by women. Making South Africa proud was Don Clark of Westville who won an honorable mention award with his song Sanbonani. This also marks the first for a South African! Judges include representatives from Warner/Reprise Records, Walt Disney Music Publishing, SONY Music, Peer Music, ASCAP and Tommy Boy Records.

The USA Songwriting Competition also announced that the grand prize of the Year 2000 songwriting event will be over US$50,000 in cash and merchandise, the largest prize ever to be awarded to a winner in any songwriting competition. Songs may be entered in 15 different categories including pop, rock, country, R&B, world, hip-hop/rap, folk, jazz, Latin and others. Entries are accepted from now through May 31, 2000.

For more information on this event's rules, regulations and entry forms visit the competition website at http://www.songwriting.net or call toll free: (781) 397-0256