The Biggest Event in Positive Music!
The emPower Posi Awards were introduced in 2005, honor the songwriters and artists who are spreading an emPowering message through music.
Posi Awards celebrate the powerful music and extraordinary artists who are transforming lives and helping to create a world that works for everyone through the power of Posi-tive music. Songs considered for awards include themes or messages that are: upbeat, uplifting, peace centered, transformational, motivating, affirmational, and socially conscious.
The eight categories for submission are:
- Uniting: these are songs that emphasize the similarities between us and of our connection as one human family sharing one world. Uniting songs promote global peace, and honor all spiritual paths. These songs help us see through the politics that separate us and to the humanity that unites us. These songs will advocate peace in our world but they are not protest songs. Posi music is not “anti” anything, but “pro” oneness, unity, diversity and peace.
- Personal Transformation: These songs encourage us to grow into our full potential as human beings. They emphasize our journey through life and our constant evolution toward something better. We’ve all been changed at depth at one time or another by hearing a song that met us right where we stood at that time. They are songs about change, epiphanies and “ah-ha” moments. These songs are usually very personal for the songwriter yet are about topics we can all relate to.
- Healing: Songs in the Healing category speak to us of our journey from wounded-ness to wholeness. These songs are about healing our relationships, our finances or our belief systems as well as physical and emotional healings that seem miraculous. They can be personal or tell the story of another’s healing.
- Social Justice/Action: Posi music is all about creating a world that works for everyone on a personal as well as a global level. These songs are about social justice, the environment and recognizing our inter-dependence. They are meant to spur us to action, whether it be to start recycling, adopting a homeless child, or standing up for the rights of others.They’re not critical, negative or political but rather food for thought for a world hungry for positive change.
- New Thought: Posi music crosses religious lines with a universally spiritual message that can appeal to any and all faiths. These songs specifically address our relationship with our higher power and include spiritual chants, musical prayers and songs with theology that embraces all beliefs and finds a thread of commonality that runs through all faith traditions.
- Music That Matters: You will know a “Positive” song when you hear it. It may be an inspirational story put to music, a feel-good sentiment, or any positive thought or idea that uplifts us or makes us smile. These are not typical love songs but can be about transcendent love or love with a spiritual aspect. If it doesn’t quite fit into any of the previous categories, it’s probably Music That Matters.
- Spoken Word: The Spoken Word and its most popular offshoot, Slam Poetry, is used to inform or make an audience conscious of some human aspect pertaining to life. This is a performance category and submissions will be judged on content as well as performance. An audio performance of your piece must be submitted along with the words. Music is allowed as a backdrop for the performance but should not be part of the composition of the submission. Topics for these submissions should fit into one or more of the existing musical categories: Uniting, Healing, Personal Transformation, Social Action & Justice or New Thought. The spoken word piece or poem should not exceed the length of an average song – 3 – 5 minutes maximum.
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Video: Yes, a picture paints a thousand words! Set your Posi song to video, load it up onto YouTube and submit the link as your submission.The video award is given to the artist, not the songwriter, although in many cases they are one and the same. Music videos are rated on their originality and must include actual video. (Photos laid over the music will not be considered.) The song featured on the video must be a “Posi” song that would fit into one of the seven categories if submitted separately.
The Posi Awards are part of a nationally recognized event held in January called the Posi Music Festival.
After initial screening for appropriateness and quality, submitted songs go through 2 more levels of voting, first by emPower Music & Arts past award winners and finalists and our Pro Members to determine the Finalists' that are featured on the emPower Posi Award Nominees Compilation CD. And finally by a panel of industry professionals who determine the winners in each category.
If your song is one of the Finalists selected, you will be invited to perform at the 9th Annual Posi Music Festival and your registration for the entire weekend will be paid. Artists recieving Honorable Mentions will be given a performance slot on the opening night concert and a Pajama Jam Music Showcase.
The Posi Awards currently recognizes excellence in SONGWRITING. A Posi Award is given to the songwriter(s) not the artist, if they are different people.
The Posi’s have grown from relatively few submissions in 2005 to about 500 songs submitted in 2012, indicating that the Posi Awards have quickly gained national attention.
The Posi Music Festival is a weekend long event featuring some of the most talented Posi artists on the planet. With concerts, workshops, jam sessions and a chance to meet your favorite Posi Artists this is THE Posi Event of the year! Click here for more details.
All of the nominated songs are featured on the annual emPower Posi Award Nominees CD.
