Frequently asked questions about the Song Contest

In the following, you will find the answers to the most frequently asked questions about the Song Contest.

The Song Contest “Dein Song für EINE WELT!” (Your song for ONE WORLD) calls on children, teenagers and young adults aged between 10 and 25 to musically deal with the topics of ONE WORLD and to write and compose their own songs on these topics.

You must be between the ages 10 and 25 to take part in the song contest. Text and music must be written and composed by the participants themselves.

People who are already registered with a licensing society (for example GEMA) may not take part in the Song Contest, unless they provide a certificate of exemption for their entry from the licensing society.

The song must address global topics in the content (you can find our explanation on what we mean by global topics here) and the song may be a maximum of 3:50 minutes long. An instrumental accompaniment is not a requirement; a sung melody is enough to participate.

If you are registered with a licensing society (for example GEMA), you can only participate in the song contest if you can present a certificate of exemption for your song from the licensing society until the deadline.

You can write your song in any language. Of course, we can check your song faster if you supply a German translation of any lyrics in foreign languages, however, that is not a requirement for participation. If the language of your text is particularly rare, please specify which language it is. This makes it easier for us to find a suitable translator.

No. The participants must write and compose the lyrics and music themselves. Here you can find tips on songwriting.

All formations are allowed! Soloists, bands, choirs and everyone else who enjoys music may participate.

The deadline for the fifth round of the Song Contest has passed. From the beginning of 2025, songs for ONE WORLD can be submitted again.

Registration is a two-step process: You must first register with a valid email address via the registration tool.

Note: If you are participating with a group, you must name a contact person. This person must register on behalf of the group using his or her e-mail address.

Once you have successfully registered, you can log in, add all necessary information to your profile, upload your song and submit it.

If you are for example a teacher and would like to submit an entry for a school class, you can register on our website. You can also create several entries within one profile. The data of all participants must be entered for each entry, for this purpose there is also an Excel template available. For participants who are minors, we require a consent form for each person, filled out and signed by themselves and their parents.

In order to properly submit your entry, you need

  • An audio or video file of your song; permitted file formats are: .mp3, .mp4, .mov, .avi, .flv and other files
  • If you are in a group with more than nine musicians, you must fill in this table with the names and dates of birth of all participants (Note: Only the participants that you entered upon registration and/or that are listed on the table are officially registered for the song contest as members of the group. No additional participants can be subsequently registered and prizes are non-transferable.)

You can submit your songs for the fifth round until the deadline on 15th June 2023, 12 pm (CEST).

Yes. We need the first name, last name and date of birth of all people involved in the creation of your song. Please ensure that no participants are older than 25 or younger than 10 years on the deadline (that is 15th June 2023).

Pupils or rather children, teenagers and young adults from Germany and countries of the Global South between the ages of 10 and 25 may take part in the song contest. Here you can find a list of the permitted countries outside of Germany.

There are cash and material prizes to be won and all participants will receive a personal certificate from the German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development. The best songs will be professionally produced in a studio for the EINE WELT album (ONE WORLD album). Furthermore, there will be awards for the “Cooperative Collaboration”, “Africa” and “Best Song Lyrics” special prizes. An overview of all prizes is available here.

The first prize will be entitled "EINE WELT Song" and will accompany the school competition on development policy as an anthem. You will win a studio production, a spot on the EINE WELT album and a professional music video shoot.

All participants under the age of 18 on the deadline must have a consent form signed by their legal guardian and sent to us (one consent form per minor). Please remember that you and your legal guardian must sign the declaration.

Unfortunately, we cannot publish your song until we have received the consent form. Only when you have submitted all the documents and we can publish your song, will you officially take part in the competition!

Important: If you are the contact person in your group and are already 18 years old, but other musicians are still minors, they must still submit a consent form.

Underage participants from abroad must also send us a consent form signed by their legal guardian, if they are not yet 18.

The best way is to upload the signed declaration of consent directly with your entry in the registration tool under “upload file“.

Please remember that you and your legal guardian must sign the declaration.

You can also print out the declaration of consent and send it by post or scanned via e-mail. Alternatively, you can also sign the declaration of consent digitally in PDF format and send it to us via e-mail.

Please send the declaration of consent via e-mail to songcontest(at)engagement-global.de or by post to the following address:

Song Contest „Dein Song für EINE WELT!“
Geschäftsstelle

Engagement Global gGmbH
Service für Entwicklungsinitiativen
Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 40
53113 Bonn
Germany

Note: Postage charges for sending by post will not be reimbursed.

After the deadline has passed, you have another week to submit your legal guardians’ declaration of consent (if sending by post, the date as postmarked applies). Your song will only be published once we receive the declaration of consent.

A total of 30 winning songs as well as up to 5 finalist songs for the special prizes will be determined by a preliminary jury. From these songs, an independent main jury (experts in education, music and media) selects the top 5 songs for the main prizes, 15 more songs for the EINE WELT album (ONE WORLD album) and the special and recognition prizes.

The top 5 candidates will present their songs in another appointment for the main jury, which will then determine the EINE WELT song (ONE WORLD song).

The preliminary jury consists of representatives from Engagement Global, partners and patrons of the Song Contest and music experts. The main jury consists of independent experts from the fields of global development, music and media.

The jurors for the 2021 Song Contest were:

  • Partners: Sabine Bomblat (Lugert-Verlag), Tatjana Friedrich (Lugert-Verlag), Thomas Franz (Johanniter-Auslandshilfe), Imke Häusler (Kindernothilfe e.V), Ute Kister (Cornelsen Verlag), Udo Krzyzynski (Verband deutscher Musikschulen e.V.), Ulrike Oltmanns (Grundschulverband e.V.), Tanja Scheller (missio – Internationales Katholisches Missionswerk), Polina Boyko (SPIESSER- Chief Editor)
  • Patrons/music: Berthold Brauer (Banda Internationale), Sebastian Tomaszewski (Banda Internationale), Philip Lenk (Kafvka), Jessica Schöne (Moderatorin), Johnny Strange (Culcha Candela), Mico Wuppermann (Musician and music producer), Rhani Krija (Musician and percussionist), Ezé Wendtoin ( Musician and former winner oft he Africa special prize)
  • Global development: Ursula Eid (former State Secretary Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)), Magdalena Metzler (Saxon State Ministry for cultural affairs), Kafalo Sékongo (Speaker and ESD multiplier EPIZ Reutlingen), Doreen Siebernik (Board of Directors Youth Welfare and Social Work GEW Berlin), Sabine Cordes (Principal Primary School Am Wingster Wald), Rainer Maehl (Institute for Vocational Education Hamburg), Dr. Kambiz Ghawami ( Executive Chairman World University Service), Silke Bell (Deputy Rapporteur ESD of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs), Klaus Schilling (Federal coordinator of UNESCO project schools)
  • Media: Franziska Görner ( Reporters Without Borders), Christopher Resch (Reporters Without Borders)

After the official deadline for entries, all published songs can be accessed on the song contest website for user voting purposes. Users can vote for your song by e-mail or SMS for a period of three weeks. The song ranked first in the user voting will be awarded the Public’s Prize and will be one of the winning songs on the EINE WELT album (ONE WORLD album). Songs ranked second to fifth in the user voting will receive recognition awards.

Yes! In the evaluation, our preliminary jury will pay particular attention to the potential of your song. If you have written good lyrics and composed a nice melody to go with them, your song is definitely in with a chance of being one of the best entries! There is also a special prize for the best song lyrics specifically for songwriters!

However: Lyrics themselves are not enough – we will definitely need a melody as an audio file to rate your entry, even if it is just humming that you have recorded on your phone.

The prizes are awarded per entry/song. However, all participants receive a certificate with their names on.

Your age will be taken into account when judging the songs, but prizes will not be awarded for different age categories.

The results of the preliminary jury will be announced at the end of September / beginning of October 2023. The results of the first main jury (namely the top 5, the songs to be included on the album as well as special prizes) will follow in the course of October 2023, the announcement of the winner will prospectively to take place in December 2023.

If you have problems registering or other questions regarding the song contest, you can contact the team by e-mail at songcontest(at)engagement-global.de or call the office at +49 (0)228 20717 2347.