Send us your compositions honoring Clean Water, Wild Nature, and Resistance to Destruction!

All genres welcome! Songs and instrumental, experimental and conventional, spoken word, rap, found sound, and more!

Not a musician yourself? Now’s the time to become one! Every Robin, Katydid, and Spring Peeper is a natural-born musician, and we humans are no different, whether we realize it or not! Otherwise, please share this contest with those in your network!

• OVERALL WINNER — $500 (USA)
• SUPERIOR REGION — $300 (MI, WI, MN)
• LOCAL — $300 (Upper Peninsula residents)

*** U.P. residents eligible for all three

Additionally, we plan to offer a variety of excellent non-monetary prizes for 4th, 5th, and 6th place entries (and more if we’re able). 

Perhaps you have a prize you’d like to offer: A hand-made necklace? A gift card to your restaurant? Free access to your online course? By making a prize available, not only will you help us incentivize participation, but we’ll promote your work throughout the course of the contest! Reach out with ideas here: ProtectThePorkies@gmail.com

All submissions which fulfill the requirements will be featured on a digital compilation album, to be promoted by Protect the Porkies to our social media following of 46,000 and 460,000 petition signers. That means fresh ears for your beautiful work!

Although the contest is aimed towards songwriters, we welcome instrumental, found sound, and experimental submissions to add diversity to the compilation album, provided that they are inspired by the themes of the contest.

For ages 16 and under, we will be offering non-monetary prizes, including campaign t-shirts and more! Children's compositions will of course be featured on the compilation album as well.

Judges still to be selected — stay tuned!

1. A recording of your composition (mp3, wav, or other common audio format, please)
2. Your full name, location, and a link to more of your work (if available)
3. A few sentences describing the inspiration and message of your piece, your relationship to Nature, and anything else you’d like to be made public.

1. What is the quality of craft and expression?
2. Does the piece communicate the theme of honoring Nature, protecting Water, and/or resisting ecological destruction?
3. BONUS: Good production is a plus but is not a deal-breaker — a great tune is a great tune even on old scratchy vinyl! But when possible we suggest asking a knowledgeable friend to help you record rather than just using your phone.

1. Maximum 5 minute duration
2. Human-made music only: no AI assistance! (That said, electronic elements are perfectly fine)
3. Protect the Porkies reserves the right to reject any submission that we deem not to be within the spirit of the campaign
4. USA-based submissions only
5. Pieces must have been recorded either specifically for the contest or within the last three years
6. Maximum of two submissions per person (we will only feature one on the compilation album)

PLEASE NOTE: By submitting a recording, you authorize the Protect the Porkies campaign to make it available on a digital compilation album, which will be offered for a nominal price to help raise funds for our mission of protecting Lake Superior, the Porcupine Mountains, and Wild Spaces throughout the region.

We can't wait to hear what you come up with! Please send any questions to ProtectThePorkies@gmail.com