Civic Commons Song Contest Needs Your Vote

When the Civic Commons announced a songwriting contest where aspiring singers and rappers were asked to rap about a favorite civic issue, and set it to a beat, established Northeast Ohio musicians like Dee Jay Doc and Harry Bacharach stepped up to meet the challenge. 

Young lesser-known artists like Matt LeSeur also contributed an original video and the Civic Commons team even contributed a video, which is, by their own admission, “neither worthy of, nor eligible for the $500 prize.”

Contestants were tasked to “Make up lyrics about an issue you care about. You can sing or you can rap. Any idea you have for fixing your community or a pressing issue you want to talk about? Sing or rap about it and get it out there. Do you have a brilliant plan to make your town more beautiful? Do you think trash collection is not working the way it should? Everything sounds better when you sing or rap it.”

Deejay Doc, a musician, deejay, music producer and teacher, rapped about the importance of getting to know your neighbors with a sunny confident flow. Harry Bacharach crooned about Cleveland’s place in the world of music, and Matt LeSeur focused his spoken word contribution on the importance of green energy. 

But the contest isn’t over. The submissions are just the first step. Now it’s time for the community to watch the videos and vote on the best submission. To vote on the winner, all you have to to do is go to http://theciviccommons.com/pages/Civic-Commons-Song-Contest and sign in to the Civic Commons. You can invite your friends to participate with Facebook, Twitter, or other social media. The voting takes place over the next several weeks. The $500 prize winner will be announced later in July. 

The Civic Commons Website is designed to be the 21st century town pub or coffee house, where people come together to share ideas, make plans, and get stuff done to improve their community. Members can start a conversation, invite others to join them and take action with tools like petitions, votes, organization profiles and more on the way. Offline, the organization does hands-on community engagement in Northeast Ohio. 

For more information, citizens can go to theciviccommons.com or contact the Civic Commons team at (800) 530-8507.

Daryl Rowland is Marketing Manager for the Civic Commons, an online pub, where citizens meet, share ideas and forge plans to address community issues.