Unwritten: Life Illuminated, in Association with Tuacahn High School for the Performing Arts announced winners of their 2019 Songwriting Competition on Monday, April 20th.

An original song and composition by Autumn Best, ‘Tell it Like it Is’ won the Grand Prize in a Songwriting Competition which challenged students to inspire others in their community to seek to write their next chapters in life to be epic. Students were provided a brief and outline of what judges were seeking in a winning song.

“With the aid of their talented songwriting instructor, Ryan Tilby, our planning team conveyed to the students the idea that much of their own story is yet to be written. We wanted to encourage them to write it well, no matter what happens around them. We wanted to encourage them to choose positive over negative; light over darkness- the high road over the low road. We wanted to encourage them to cultivate their most excellent character traits. Then we challenged them to write a song which best conveyed these messages to our community,” said Daniel Lightborn, an Unwritten: Life Illuminated planning team member. “I was amazed by the wisdom contained in the lyrics of these young people. They all seemed to really understand, which is inspiring to all of us.”

Autumn Best, with her song, ‘Tell it Like it Is’ more than met that challenge, submitting a lively, upbeat, energetic demo of her composition with lyrics sung to her playing the ukelele. For her Grand Prize submission, Autumn won a $500 cash prize, the opportunity for her song to be professionally recorded and engineered, and the opportunity to perform her song live on the main stage at Unwritten: Life Illuminated, a community event to be held on August 17th, 2019 at The Dixie Convention Center in St. George.

‘Chapters to Go’ was the title of second place winner, Rebecca Gent’s contest submission. Rebecca also more than met every expectation of the panel of judges with her thoughtful work- a piano composition with lyrics which moves engaged listeners along with the melody. Rebecca also won the opportunity for her song to be professionally recorded and engineered by Ryan Tilby, and the opportunity to perform her song live on the main stage at Unwritten: Life Illuminated on August 17th.

Unwritten: Life Illuminated planning team members Luke Randall and Mikalene Ipson announced winners in Ryan Tilby’s songwriting class. Both Luke and Mikalene are professional singers, composers, and songwriters who will be featured performers at Unwritten: Life Illuminated, joining an impressive lineup of performers to also include Kechi Okwuchi.

Howie Mandell said to Kechi after her much-deserved Golden Buzzer moment on America's Got Talent - The Champions, "you're so much more than your songs and your sound; more than a champion of singing and of talent. You're a champion of life."

Unwritten: Life Illuminated utilized the talents of a judging panel comprised of local music industry singers, songwriters and composers to select these deserving winners.