Should I send my creations out for just anybody to scrutinize, or should I be strategic about what I share and with whom? That’s the question artists need to ask before submitting their work for a competition.

“Your job, as an artist, is to gracefully accept those for whom you are not their cup of tea and focus on connecting with the folks who are yearning for your special brand of sauce. Not every competition is going to be for you.”

Recently a local magazine held an open competition for musicians to submit a cover song. The winner could get $500. When so many of us have lost our gig economy income this feels like a nice chunk of change. What could it hurt to enter? - I thought.

The magazine suggested entrants choose a pop song released within the last 20 years. I like a lot of obscure music from the past 20 years and for a few days I couldn’t think of anything between 2000 and 2020 that I liked enough to cover. Then I remembered that I have a genuine love for Katy Perry’s “Firework”. The simple uplifting message gets me every time. I, too, believe that everybody has something beautiful to share! But, when I sat down to work on it I had an anxiety attack. I realized that I wasn’t sure about who or what I was covering the song for.

I needed to weigh the effort required for the entry to actually win against my odds of actually winning. It’s an economy of energy equation that all artists must become practiced in. I watched videos of the previous years’ winners. Their production levels were very high. They obviously had professional level video equipment. Their sound quality was great. Were they running things through a DAW? Their songs choices seemed pretty hip, somewhat recent, not too big, not too small. What kind of investment would I need to make to have a comparable product? What if the judges hate Katy Perry? What if I spend an inordinate amount of time making it sound good on GarageBand and iMovie (the only programs I currently have) and they still don’t pick it? Would I care?

I had to reconnected with my personal goals. I want folks to connect with who I am as an artist. I don’t produce slick things. I really like it when I hear singers just a little off key in their recordings (the newest Fiona Apple is a good example of this btw). I like roughness and oddity. I also like authenticity, which is pretty much the reason I like “Firework” in the first place. I’m not sure who the judges of this competition are, but I have some familiarity with their readership - the folks who pay to consume the magazine. I can reasonably assume the judges are looking for the competition to be mutually beneficial for their business interests. I’m a weirdo - even if they liked my version of Katy Perry would they be fans of my more out there stuff? Will it ultimately help to bring new audiences to my music?

I don’t think this competition is the best use of my time.

Once I’d decided not to enter the competition my anxiety disappeared so I knew I’d made the right decision for me. I still wanted to cover the song just for the hell of it, but I felt free to interpret it as I had imagined and not for anybody else’s approval. I also felt a strong link between the lyrics and the emotions I have for my son, who has been so deeply misunderstood by his teachers this year. He has struggled a lot to find a comfortable place for his precious soul in a world of nice, little, round pegs. I am dedicating my cover of “Firework” to him. I was pretty delighted when he tried to be my director, accidentally paused the video in the middle and lovingly interrupts me to tell me. It actually makes the video all the better, and it’s the kind of edit that I think would have made it an impossible “win” for the official competition.

If your art is good (and it probably is, or is on it’s way to being good) then you should expect that only some small percentage of folks will like it. Your job is not to win everybody over. Your job is to gracefully accept those for whom you are not their cup of tea and focus on connecting with the folks who are yearning for your special brand of sauce. Not every competition is going to be for you. Don’t enter competitions that fail to aid your primary objectives - connecting with people who will love you as soon as they find you.

I hope you enjoy my rendition of Katy Perry and that you’ll watch to the very end to catch the last little clip of Oscar’s adorable voice chiming in.