The NMPA S.O.N.G.S. Foundation supports the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Theatre Wing each year to award the winners of their Musical Theatre Songwriting Challenge. Since 2017 the S.O.N.G.S. Foundation has contributed over $95,000.
2025 challenge winners
Learn more about the 2025 Songwriting Challenge Winners here.
2024 CHALLENGE WINNERS
Learn more about the 2024 Songwriting Challenge Winners here.
Meet the 2024 Winners (from R to L): Isabella Nguyen, Maya Johnson, Sydney Gray, Tabitha Moore, Luisa Paraguassu, Ale Fonseca, Gwendellyn Doerfler and Owen Yeh-Lee
About NEA’s Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge
This national contest is for high school students with a passion for writing songs that could be part of a musical theater production and the wide range of musical styles represented in contemporary musicals. The goal of the program is to engage the musical theater field in nurturing the next generation of songwriters.