West Pride announces a competition for this year Pride anthem song !

The winning entry will be West Pride's official pride anthem song and will be chosen by a jury consisting of Karin Gunnarsson, Melodifestivalen's competition producer, Ronny Larsson, QX magazine's editor-in-chief, artist and songwriter Fredrik Kempe and Anders Olsson, producer for West Pride's stage program.

With the competition, we want to give artists and songwriters the chance to write music that in some way celebrates, describes or elevates the life situation of LGBTQI people around the world. Last year’s competition was highly appreciated, so we look forward to conducting another song competition, says Tasso Stafilidis, operations manager of West Pride.

After last year’s success with almost 50 submitted entries, we are of course running a competition again. The winning entry gets the honour of being West Pride’s official pride song and the artist or group that performs the entry also gets to perform the song on stage in front of thousands of visitors in Pride Park in Bältesspännarparken, says Anders Olsson, producer for West Pride’s stage program.

West Pride‘s stage last year included the artists Tusse, Mariette, Isak Danielson, Browsing Collection, Patrik Jean, Sylve and Julia Alfrida, who won last year’s pride song competition with the song «Coming Out».

This year, West Pride takes place on 5-11 June 2023. Which artists will perform in Pride Park will be revealed in connection with the program release during the month of May, when the winning entry for this year’s West Pride anthem song will also be announced.

West Pride is Gothenburg’s most colourful festival – a unique art and culture festival that highlights criticism of norms and the life situation of LGBTQI people through art and culture.

The festival is free for visitors and our purpose is to make visible a diversity of expression by coordinating and arranging art and culture.

West Pride want to encourage an open social climate that counteracts prejudice and discrimination due to sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression. Through our events and partners, West Pride are a catalyst for positive change locally and globally. The festival is primarily aimed at LGBTQI people in Gothenburg and Västra Götaland, but also at a wider public nationally and internationally.

The competition opened on 2 March, 2023 and runs until 3 April, 2023.

Competition rules

The contribution must be submitted to West Pride no later than 3 April, 2023 in the form of a listenable sound file or a link to the sound file to the email address pridelat@westpride.se The competition entry must contain both a song and a proposal for an artist or group to perform the work, both on West Pride’s stage and on platforms where music is available.

The contribution must not have been presented officially on a previous occasion.

The contribution must, in consultation with West Pride, be made available on Spotify and similar platforms for music no later than in connection with the official program release.

The contribution must in some way celebrate, describe or highlight the life situation of LGBTQI people around the world.

The group or artist performing the song on the recorded version must be available for West Pride’s stage program in Gothenburg on 8, 9 or 10 June 2023.

Whoever owns the copyright to the song must give West Pride the right to use the song free of charge in its PR, marketing and communication.

If given the opportunity, West Pride owns the right to stage the song with a music video where the theme is Pride and which in some way celebrates, describes or highlights the life situation of LGBTQI people.

The anthem song must follow West Pride’s core values.

The main part of the lyrics must be in Swedish or English.