Chad VanGaalen And The Besnard Lakes In Running For ECHO Songwriting Prize

Voting for the second annual ECHO Songwriting Prize is now in the home stretch, so act now if you want one of the five finalists to pocket $5,000.

A panel of 10 judges chose the five finalists, and members of the public have until 4:59 p.m. on Sept. 28 to visit the ECHO website, listen to the songs and vote for their favourite.

The five finalists for the SOCAN-presented award are:

"Scarecrow," written by Keri Latimer and performed by Nathan
"Graveyard," written and performed by Chad VanGaalen
"Doppelspiel," written by Jeremy Strachan and David Weinkauf and performed by Feuermusik
"Pedal Pusher," written by Andrew Bernstein and Rodney Pleasant and performed by Abdominal
"Devastation," written by Olga Goreas, Jace Lasek, Stephen Raegele, Nicole Lizee, Kevin Laing, Jeremiah Bullied and Jonathan Cummins and performed by The Besnard Lakes

The Prix De La Chanson ECHO, which honours francophone Canadian songwriters, is running concurrently. Ten judges also chose those finalists, who are vying for $5,000 of their own. Their songs can be heard on the ECHO site, but the voting deadline for that contest is two days earlier. Here are the finalists:

"L'ours," written by Catherine Leduc and performed by Tricot Machine
"Les Partitions De L'amour," written by Frank Martel and performed by Frank Martel And L'ouest Celeste
"Montreal (Cette Ville)," written by Xavier Plante and performed by Xavier Cafeine
"Chewing Gum Fraise," written by Jerome Rocipon, Gabriel Lacombe, Simon Weiskopf and Louis-Philippe Jeanbart and performed by Numero#
"Au Gre Des Saisons," written by Steve Dumas and performed by Dumas