For the second year in a row, the power of music seeks to perform a selfless act in the name of music education.
Applications are underway for Doing Good Network’s Bands4Good Challenge, a virtual musical competition designed to give up-and-coming artists a platform to share their music with the world while also raising money for music education, according to Doing Good Network co-founder Fred Fletcher, Jr.
Applicants must submit an MP3 audio recording, a photo of the solo artist or group and a short biography, according to the website. From there, a panel of judges will review the submissions and select which applicants will move on to the competition starting Nov. 4.
Feature judges will include include Doing Good Network Co-Founder and Director of Artist Development John Davenport, celebrity singer and songwriter Ira Dean, 2013 top ten finalist for The Voice and NC State alumna Kat Robichaud, 2013 Bands4Good winner Lauren Nicole and acting chair and Undergraduate Music Studies Director for Duke University Jonathan Bagg, according to the website.
Once selected, contestants must convince the public to vote for them and donate to the participating philanthropy that the contestants chose to support.
“We had these microsites we had to keep updating and really reach out to our fans and tell them our story,” Nicole said.
Participating nonprofits include: Little Kids Rock, Arts for Life, Street-Level Youth Media, Kid Pan Alley and Silverlake Conservatory of Music.
Fletcher helped start the competition last year as a fundraising tactic for his limited liability company Doing Good Network, a social enterprise dedicated to raising money for struggling nonprofits. He said he started the company in 2011 after his diagnosis with prostate cancer drove him to help people.
“Each year we pick a cause we want to pursue and then build a database of charities that support that cause, and then we pick ones that we think are qualified,” Fletcher said.
Since it began, the company has helped fund active duty personnel, pediatric care and organizations fighting animal abuse, with this year’s competition devoted to music education, according to Fletcher.
“Once I learned what the competition was really about, that made me want to dive into it even more,” Nicole said. “[My husband] was in the military, and the whole focus of the 2013 Bands4Good Challenge was to raise money for homeless veterans in North Carolina, and my husband – being deployed for over seven months in Qatar – when he came back he was actually considered a veteran, so the competition really hit home with me because of his experience and my experience being away from him for that long.”
Throughout the competition, Nicole said she got to meet representatives of many nonprofit organizations, such as the Veterans Leadership Council of North Carolina-Cares, which creates an environment for homeless veterans to reintegrate into society.
According to Nicole, the personal connection she made with people propelled her to win last year’s challenge in the midst of some tough competition.
Nicole said that her winning song “Innocent Eyes” was a 9/11 tribute she wrote. The song was from her first album, Hope and Desire, which released in 2011. According to the website, 2010 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee Chip Shearin produced the album for Nicole after hearing her in a Raleigh karaoke club the previous year.
This year, Nicole said she is excited to return to the challenge, this time as a judge.
“I love seeing artists out there doing the same kind of stuff that I am doing and delivering these songs from their soul, and really what I am looking for is good performance, good vocal, good writing and good song structure,” Nicole said.
An estimated 200 musicians will compete this year from across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, compared to last year’s 38 musicians limited to North Carolina, according to Fletcher.
With such a large expansion from last year, Fletcher said they hope to raise $250,000 for music education, a huge step up from the $22,000 they raised last year to support veterans. Future plans include adding a collegiate competition to the challenge in addition to the school division for grades 6-12 and the adult open division, Fletcher said.
As the challenge continues to expand, Nicole said she hopes to use the platform and her singing talent to achieve something for the greater good of humanity, since the music education she received growing up allowed her to evolve as an artist.
“I dealt with a lot of bullying, and music was my escape and I looked forward to my seventh or eighth period music class every day,” Nicole said. “I think it’s a shame now that we’re having such issues with school systems dropping music programs, because it’s important if you’ve got all these skilled musicians or these aspiring artists that want to be something someday and they don’t have the environment or opportunity to be nurtured…”
