Weekly Wattpad Contests

Contest #43 Results

Well, well, well, what do we have here? A bunch of musicians? The rebels and the dreamers? Authors of unfathomable courage?

First of all – I say this with my sincerest respect – you are all awesome. I've tried and I've tried, and I couldn't get my participation up, so the fact that you've managed to is amazing. It takes courage, commitment and passion to bare yourself to others, so what you've done is remarkable.

As a side note: my co-judge is currently preparing for a tour to Europe. She has twenty new songs in her collection and she's very busy practising all of them, so she hasn't had an opportunity to really look at the entries yet. When she does, however, I'll be sure to notify you all.

First Place: TheRivalryEndsHere - In Love With Me (in 'I Wrote A Song')

This song has powerful lyrics and it suspends me in an emotion – I'm not good with emotions, I never understood them – but I can live the feeling of a complicated love when I listen to this.

If I were to say why I like the music I do, it would be because I find a (so to say) unsung power that comes with being emotionally intelligent and expressing it well. With that, the implication that the music is somehow comprehensible and intuitive, beyond simply the lyrics. We might have talked about emotional and conceptual relevance before – I don't remember, I'm an idiot – but I feel it's needless to say that music with a message which is universally true is music that can be universally accepted.

In the end, this song tells us that love is complicated. It tends towards something while, at the very same time, veering away from it. It is by human design and human flaw that these things happen the way they do, and we're just helpless to the over-all human experience.

It's a definite win for me.

Second Place: VinSkaro – Hiding Our Feelings (in 'The One That Loved Me Back)

All that I said in first place applies here. Now, I must declare that I do not like music, novels or stories based on love and romance. In fact, my favourite music has nothing to do with that general emotion. I prefer story-telling, where battles are won, where liberation is achieved, where conquest marches against toils of society.

The fact that I really, really like this song is a testament to how well written it is. I can identify – more than that – I can empathise with these feelings, understand them and at the end, be convinced that I'm in love with somebody justified by the fact that we're both just hiding our feelings.

While, objectively, I know this not to be true, I cannot escape the immediate emotional response this evokes.

It's so well written. (Also, as a side note: I imagine P!nk singing it.)

Third Place: I-eat-carrots – Paper Thin (in ' Original Song weekly Wattpad #43)

This is up here because of – what I like to call, at least – the spirit of music and lyrics. If you've been with me for a while, you might remember the 'Poetry' contest, in which I pointed out how the lyrics to music are like poetry. I even had that song 'Poetry' from my co-judge.

This song doesn't outright tell you everything about it. You are left with a metaphor – you are paper thin and crumbling, yet, somehow, surviving. You are left with the concept, and it is your duty to assign your own meaning to it (mostly).

It is evidently about some relationship toil, but I like to fill in the blanks and think that maybe it's about gay love in a society that tears it apart, or maybe it's about a broken relationship between two complicated siblings. Who knows? You can feel the hovering air of familiarity laced with the insidious strings of disconnect.

Make of it what you will, it's my number three.

Honourable Mention: EmilyDae – Somebody Once Said (in book of the same title)

This is more my cup of tea – not exactly, mind you – but it's close. It's a music that deals with social and personal issues. If there is ever one goal for music, it should be to share your story with the world, to help some other soul to know they're not the only one, and that is what this is. It's deeply personal, and I can honestly empathise.

In my line of work, self-image is everything, and, in lieu of self-image you fake self-confidence, but there are always the critics who judge you (not surprisingly, since actors literally try to sell themselves). It's hard, it sucks, it happens, and this song says it for me. Thank you, @EmilyDae , you are my voice.

Final Notes:

WHETHER YOU MADE IT ON THIS LIST OR NOT, YOU SHOULD ALL BE SO PROUD!!! YOU SHOULD GO SHARE YOUR SONGS WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILIES AND THEY SHOULD BE PROUD!

They have a beautiful, talented creature in their midst, and if they don't appreciate that fact, if they don't encourage you, then I have some choice word to share with them.

At the very least, I'm proud of you. I hope you are proud of you too.

Incredible amounts of respect and love,

TimberWoolf