The songs appear on Berklee’s web site, bekrlee.edu. To hear them, click here.
Boston, MA – Five Berklee College of Music student and alumni from the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Colombia, have been named the winners of the first Berklee Canta en Espanol singer-songwriter contest, presented by Berklee College of Music and SGAE. Winners received cash prizes totaling $10,500. Judged by renowned artists and producers from the Latin music community, the contest awarded $5,000 for first place, $2,500 for second place, and $1,000 to the remaining finalists.
The winners are:
- First-place: «Aunque Falte el Aire» by Daniel Dayz, alumnus from Mexico City.
- Second: «Confieso» by Cristal Marie, alumna from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
- Third: «Hacia Atras» by Joel Waldman, student from Bogota, Colombia.
- Fouth: «Amor Febril» by Rique Colon, alumnus from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
- Fifth: «Noche Azul» by Juan Corpus, student from Mexico City.
The songs appear on Berklee’s web site, bekrlee.edu. To hear them, click here.
Berklee student and contest organizer Javier Samayoa received nearly 50 submissions by Berklee artists from 10 Latin American countries. Styles ranged from pop, rock, folk, and jazz to salsa, merengue, bossa nova, and house. Judges based their sores on performance, creativity, and musicianship.
Judging were Aureo Baqueiro, alumnus, recording artist, producer, composer (Sin Bandera, Aleks Syntek); Edgar Cortazar, songwriter and lyricist (Luis Miguel, Cristian Castro); Benny Faccone, alumnus, producer and engineer (Sting, Mana, Soda Stereo); Daniel Freiberg, alumnus, producer and songwriter (Marc Anthony, Paquito D’Rivera); KC Porter, producer and engineer (Ricky Martin, Santana, Selena); Nir Seroussi, alumnus, VP of Marketing and A&R (Sony BMG Los Angeles).
The Spanish language songwriting competition is another result of a new cultural partnership between Berklee – the world’s largest independent music college, which is based in Boston – and SGAE, the Spanish performing rights organization whose members include artistic creators around the globe. The pair announced in 2008 that it would build a new college for global contemporary music education in Valencia, Spain. Berklee Valencia will open in 2012.
Berklee has a current population of over 130 students from 22 Latin American countries and Spain, and an alumni pool of more than 700 musicians from 25 Spanish speaking countries.
About the winners:
Daniel Dayz (aka Daniel Diaz) is a 25-year-old Mexican-American singer/songwriter and pianist. Raised in Mexico City, he was born into an artistic family of actors, musicians, writers and painters. In 2005, Dayz enrolled at Berklee, where he honed his writing, performance, and entrepreneurial skills. In 2007, Dayz was awarded the prestigious BMI Foundation Inc/Peermusic Latin Scholarship for his song «Todo Lo Que Necesito,» at the BMI Latin Awards, in Las Vegas. After graduating from Berklee later that year, he won first place in the BMI Foundation/Pepsi Music Enrichment Fund national songwriting competitio
