THE winners of a performing arts venue’s musical song-writing contest which attracted hundreds of entries have been revealed.

Last month the Mercury Theatre, in Colchester, launched a song-writing competition in association with Perfect Pitch and comedian and stage composer, Tim Minchin.

Part of the drama space’s online virtual season, set-up in response to the lockdown, the competition was designed to find, and then nurture, local talented songwriters.

Musicians of all ages with a penchant for penning stage show numbers were encouraged to enter by submitting what the theatre world calls an I Want song.

The tracks, which had to lyrically convey a leading character’s dreams and desires in true musical fashion, were uploaded in their hundreds.

After much deliberation and judging by the Mercury Theatre team and Wendy and Andy Barnes from Perfect Pitch, two winners were chosen.

Jade North, 16, from Colchester, entered the contest with a song called Say My Name, which was inspired by Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.

Epitomising the theatre’s ethos of finding and championing fresh talent from the East of England, Jade has been playing guitar and writing songs since she was seven.

In 2017, she even won the Essex Songwriters of the Year competition, and has already released her own album, Bit by Bit and featured in three Mercury Theatre pantomimes.

Although not the winner of the overall competition, the young melody writer received the Voice of the Future award, in addition to a very pleasant £250 cash prize.

Runners up Carlo Bosticco and Matt Randall, Earl Marrows and Sam Norman, and Isla van Tricht and Guy Woolf also scooped £150 for their efforts.

But it was the writing partnership of Willy Mukendi, Joseph Riley, and Millie Millington, which came out on top, landing the trio a £500 prize with their track, Alone.

Inspired by the coronavirus pandemic, the group created the successful song from three separate parts of the country, putting their combined vast experience to use.

Willy, for example, runs the UK’s largest musical theatre Facebook page, called MTAS, and she is currently in the process of writing her third musical.

Joseph, whose vocals can be heard on the song, is a first-year student at Trinity Laban, while Millie has been a music educator and performer for nearly 30 years.

The group said: "Working together in our three separate locations was tricky but so fun.

"It was almost like a relay race, where you would have to wait for one person to finish their part before you could start yours.

"We wrote it specifically for this competition so it‘s really humbling to see that pay off. This is so fantastic.

"We’re so thrilled. The other entries were brilliant and we are proud to have ran this race with such wonderful creatives.”

Ryan McBryde, creative director at the Mercury Theatre, said picking just five finalists out of a pool of hundreds of incredible songs was no easy task.

“We have been blown away by the amount of entries we’ve received from a multitude of talented songwriters from all around the UK,” he said.

“It was a tough judging process, but the panel were unanimous in their praise for the top five finalists.

“As the future of British theatre is so uncertain right now, it is more important than ever for organisations like ours to be reaching out to freelance artists and finding new ways to support and collaborate with them.

“I’m overjoyed with the results and look forward to championing these composers and lyricists in the future.”