The 6th BSG Singing Competition Is Live!

warm up them pipes and belt it out!

3,452 views

Nothing we do compares to the BSG Singing Competitions, and it is time to announce the 6th installment! Last time we had a whopping 101 entries, and I’m scared to call for more, but I think we can do it again and set a new record! That is 101 people recording and submitting songs through 4 different categories all competing for part of a $600 pot. It is time to stop hesitating and warm up them pipes, it all starts now!

Quick details

Two main categories with $100 max grand prize for the good category and $100 max for the bad category.
For each main category there are 2nd Place prizes of $75, 3rd place prizes of $50, 4th place prizes of $25, and 5th place prizes of $15. Three additional $10 prizes, and two $20 duet prizes.
All solo category entries are submitted through this google form.
All duet category entries are submitted through this google form.
Open to anyone, not only blind singers.
All genres are encouraged and accepted.
Judging will be live on stream on Friday December 6th, and Saturday December 7th(or only December 6th) by Smoke & Hannibal. More on that below.
We are accepting song submissions starting with the release of this blog post on October 26, 2024.
Entries open until Saturday November 30, 2024 at 11:59pm eastern.
This is a competition of cover songs, and only unpublished cover songs can be submitted.
Optional mixing services provided by Quacker, but deadline of Saturday November 23, 2024 for those.
Everything else covered in the rules later on in this blog post.

What Is The BSG Singing Competition

Even though we had over 100 entries in the last singing competition, there are still a lot of people who don’t know how these are ran, and this section is here to explain the process and spirit of the competition. I promise this competition isn’t like any other, and this difference is what makes it so fun for everyone.
We have both a good and bad category for good and bad singers, The uniqueness comes from the idea that both sides are given equal prizes, and treated equally in all respects. Most people know why they enjoy good singing, it is well…good. On the flip side bad singing can be enjoyed just as much if for different reasons. One is a beautiful expression of art, and the other is art gone wrong in a comical way. At the start some people thought we were crazy for this stance, but as time has passed others have seen the enjoyment you can get from both good and bad singing, and it is why this competition keeps growing every year.
Note: more details on what the above paragraph means later in this blog post with examples.
This and every BSG Singing Competition is streamed live for everyone to enjoy at the same time together, and every song is listened to for the first time on stream by everyone including myself and Hannibal. There are two dedicated listeners who cannot enter the competition, and their job is to make sure every submitted song plays properly before the stream. This means we get to actually hear everything for the first time, and our reaction is the same as everyone listening to the stream. The month of anticipation and excitement comes out in every song we listen to, and our reaction to everyone’s entries is our proof..
The whole event is based on an idea that we can all enjoy the best and worst singers equally…if for different reasons, and this makes it an event packed with so much fun and surprise. Even those who said they could never enter a singing competition have submitted songs in the past, and afterwards all decided they’ll keep entering. It is just too much fun to let pass, so don’t just think about doing it, record a song and actually do it!

How Judging Works In Each Category

When we are listening to a song and comparing it to all other entries, there is a lot that goes into it. On the surface it may seem easy, who was the most pitch perfect, who was the most off pitch, but singing is so much more than the mathematics of sound. This section is my way of giving everyone a collective hint on how to make an impression on us and all the listeners with their performance. Read on to see how we look at both the good and bad category, and how we approach them when picking winners.

How We Judge The Good Category Of The Competition

Belting & singing loud isn’t a guaranteed win:
There are a lot of singing competitions out there that put a real heavy emphasis on who can belt the loudest, and really sing from their diaphragm the best. This is not how the BSG Singing Competition works however. It doesn’t mean that this is not important, it can be a show stopping performance if done right, but only if it is your style. You don’t need to feel the urge to belt when it isn’t what you feel comfortable with, putting on your best performance will come through to every listener, so do what makes you shine. If you are a world class belter, then vocal smack us and make us feel your song singing your best way. Just remember a robot singing perfectly is still a robot, and music is more than sounds, it is a feeling you want the listener to hear, so put on your best performance no matter what that is, and grab that 1st place spot.

We do not and will not be giving numerical scores for performances:
There are major flaws with this system, and because of those inherent issues with giving a numerical score we won’t ever be doing this. It does pop up from time to time so I feel it is important to explain why.
Simply put the first person you listen to will not be judged the same as the last person you listen to with a numerical system. Your scoring will change as you get farther into a live competition like this, and the last person will be judged harsher than the first person. The third song in a competition could seem like the best thing, and nothing could beat it, but then songs 50 through 55 could be way better. If you gave song 3 a score that was too high, then it messes up all the rest of the scores for everyone else. This causes headaches that can be completely avoided by doing it in another way, and to ensure the actual best performances are given the first through fifth prize.
Hannibal and I both have our own ranking document that we place people into as the competition goes on. That is our ranking, and this ensures people are only competing against one another, not the scores they were given earlier in the competition. At the end of all entries we compare and decide who the top 5 winners are based on these rankings which were updated as the stream was happening. This works perfect, and it is the best way we’ve found to ensure we can pick the correct winners in a live competition like this.

Winners don’t have to be technically perfect in every aspect of their song:
This is a point which is hard to convey with words, but one which people understand when they hear an example. Some voices may not be the best example of perfect singing, but they are a perfect example of the emotions of a song. There are those who can naturally convey love, loss, longing, loneliness, or any other deep human emotion through their singing, and in doing so they may not be hitting every note with exact precision. We understand this, and we are here for all of it. Music is more than the sound, it is an expression of the human condition, so if this is what you are good at slap us in our feels and show everyone your talent. Like above this doesn’t mean that pure emotion and great singing are exclusionary. if you can do both then you are a golden unicorn and we are so ready to hear what you got. Just realize that a few mistakes are not a deal breaker if you are making up for it in another area of your performance.

Song choice does matter:
This is the point which everyone has gotten better at as time has gone on. Early on there were some very odd song choices by great singers, but they just didn’t pick something to show everyone how great they are. If you have a beautiful voice don’t pick a monotone song that doesn’t show off your gift. On the other side if you have a beautiful voice that can convey your feelings don’t pick a song that is all belting just because you believe that is what people want to hear. Pick a song for you and your voice, then make it your own and show us all what you got. There are too many great singers to count, and they enter these competitions to compete with all the other great singers. You need that edge to set you apart, and more often than not it can be the choice of your song. Don’t just pick what you think others will want, pick what will make you a winner by showcasing your vocal slappers.

Conclusion:
read all the above points and use them as your guide to win this competition. We’ve never allowed ourselves to suggest songs or ideas to any individual, so this is the best we can give, just some basic information for everyone in the good category. Everyone is so damn talented, this is both the blessing and curse of the good category. It makes it so hard to pick winners, and more often than not it is the little things that separate the top 5 from the rest of the field, so do your little things right and take home some cash.

Examples of Past Good Category Songs

How We Judge The Bad Category

This side of the category is honestly a lot easier to judge, but surprisingly there are a lot of things from the good category that carry over. I’ll try to lay out some of them the same way I did above.

This is not about exaggerating your bad singing:
If you are bad at singing…well you are bad. There isn’t anything else you need to prove it, trust me we all know. The hard part is then being confident in your bad singing, that is what this category is about. It isn’t about exaggerating your lack of a beautiful voice, just being yourself and having pride and confidence in the noises you are making is enough.
The hard thing is walking the tight rope between singing bad normally and singing bad intentionally with the song you pick. Again with confidence, you have to pick a song you cannot sing, and sing like you are performing it at MSG for adoring fans, this will be covered more in the song choice part of this section, but just keep this idea in mind. Be yourself, don’t fake it, and sing bad with confidence. If you fake it we’ll know, and faking it won’t ever win in this category.

Be confident in your bad singing:
I touched on this earlier, but I want to expand on it more. This is literally how you place in this category, to sing bad with confidence, and it is so very difficult to do, even though it seems like it would be the easiest thing. You have to get past that mental block of knowing you are bad, and then sing like you are great. I learned this first hand when looking back at our first cover of whenever wherever compared to Mister Brightside. We were not confident early on, but as time passed and we overcame that block our performances really got a lot better.
Sing like you know you are going to get first place in the good category, but do it in your beautifully bad singing. If you can master this part of the process you are guaranteed to have a great performance, make people laugh, and place in the top five.

Song choice matters a lot:
In the good category choice of song matters, in the bad category it matters more. You have the ability to pick a song which would be hard for a great singer to perform, and then decide I got this and sing it with confidence…poorly. That is a recipe for complete greatness in the bad category. The song you choose has to be one that showcases your bad singing. This can be hard if you haven’t mastered your confidence in your bad singing, so really find that song that shows your talent for having a lack of talent and knock it out.
We’ve had a lot of people enter who could have won, but they didn’t pick a song to really showcase themselves in the bad category, and it is based on what you did not what you can do. So make sure to pick that correct song, and to make us all laugh, cry, yell, and to ensure you place in the top five.

Conclusion:
This is the easier category as far as singing goes, we all know we’re bad so it isn’t hard for us to continue being bad. Where it is more difficult is in the intangibles, the ability to really own your singing and be confident for no good reason other than you’ve decided you are going to be. If you can sing the correct song in your voice with confidence, then you are almost guaranteed to place in this category and maybe even win it all this time around.

Examples Of Past Bad Category Songs

The Two Categories, The Two Streams, The Bonus Categories, & How The Prizes Scale

Each one of the below points will be explained in their own section for those who aren’t use to it, but for those who have entered in the past this is all staying the same.

If we get enough entries it will unlock Two streams. One on Fri December 6 & another on Sat December 7.
IN both good and bad category there needs to be at least five entries for that category to happen.
Prizes unlock and scale depending on how many people enter in that category. So share it and encourage more people to enter to increase the pot.

Unlocking two streams

We did this for the first time in the 5th BSG Singing Competition and it honestly worked out better than I thought it would. The way this works is if we hit a certain threshold of entries we’ll split the singing competition into two streams. The good category will be on Friday and the bad category will be on Saturday.
To make this happen we need one of three totals to be met. Either over 25 good entries, over 15 bad entries, or a total of 40 entries all together and we’ll split the competition between two streams. Last time we got a total of 101 with well over 25 good and over 15 bad, so this shouldn’t be a problem to do. Still share the competition around and encourage your friends, family, and random people with talent to enter. The more the better for everyone involved.
If we do split the streams day one with the good singers we won’t be partaking in adult beverages, everything will be taken more serious as we’ll be listening to the good singers and their performances. On day two when the bad category gets to shine the gloves will come off and we’ll be throwing a party to conclude the end of the singing competition. I’ll be encouraging everyone to do the same and join us in celebrating another singing competition completed and to raise a glass to all the performers.
This also allows enough time to go back and listen to performances a second time at the end to compare them to later songs in the lineup. This ensures that a song listened to 5 hours before can be listened to with the equal intensity of a later song, and to make sure everyone gets placed in the top five exactly where we think they should be. Also chat will have an input on what songs they think we should listen to again, so make sure to be on stream and to vote on what songs you think deserve a second listen. This may also work as a tie breaker between me and Hannibal, so it can be more than just what song should be heard again.
If we don’t hit the totals to split the stream then everything will happen on Saturday December 7, and we’ll just rotate between good and bad category entries until we get to the end. I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this outcome because I don’t think it will happen, and if it does I’ll be very sad. Lets make sure there are two streams!

Unlocking Prizes in The Two Main Categories

The unlocking schedule for prizes in the two main categories is listed below.

At 5 entries in a category 1st place is unlocked.
It starts at $70 and goes up by $5 for each additional entry up to $100.
At 7 entries in a category second place is unlocked.
It starts out at $45 and goes up by $5 for each additional entry up to $75.
At 10 entries in a category 3rd place is unlocked.
It starts out at $25 and goes up by $5 for each additional entry up to $50.
At 12 entries in a category 4th place is unlocked.
It starts out at $10 and goes up by $5 for each additional entry up to $25.
At 15 entries in a category 5th place is unlocked.
It starts at $15 and stays at $15.
If 15 entries are reached every prize will be maxed out for each place.

This means the more people you can get to enter the better, since for each person the prize pool goes up. Honestly get everyone to join, the more the better. In the past even those who didn’t win were some of the favorites by myself, Hannibal and everyone listening. If you are reading this and on the fence, do it and enter. Even if you don’t think you’ll win you could end up very surprised, and no matter what it is just a hell of a lot of fun. We all come together to enjoy everything there is to enjoy about every spectrum of the musical world, and it is something beautiful more people should be a part of.

Unlocking Two Categories For The Duets

The first time we did this we barely squeaked out two categories for duets, so I’m keeping this the same for now. If we get both 4 good duet entries and 4 bad duet entries we’ll split the duets into a good and bad category. First place for both the good and the bad will be a $20 prize. If we get less than four good and four bad then we’ll just mix them all together and pick our favorite one of them all and that winner will get a $20 prize for being the best duet between all good and bad entries.
I understand a duet is more difficult since you have to find a partner to sing a song with, and you also have to mix it yourself, this is why there are only 4 required for each category to be unlocked. This is something people have been wanting since day one though, so as long as it is wanted we’ll keep on doing it, and maybe one day it can be expanded if there are enough groups out there wanting to sing together.
Note on duets: Quacker will not be available for mixing duets. There are too many artistic variables for each song, and that is something you and your duet partner have to decide on your own.

Unlocking The Wildcard Prizes

Back in the third singing competition we introduced Smoke’s wildcard and Hannibal’s wildcard Prizes. For the 6th BSG Singing Competition these prizes will once again be unlocked once we get at least 10 entries in both categories.
This is a simple concept, and wide open for anyone to win. It can go to anyone who impresses us but didn’t win, hits on a lot of BSG memes but doesn’t win, or anything else we personally decide on. This is completely up to us with no guidelines for judging, or anything concrete, it is just whatever we want. Each wildcard winner will get a $10 prize.

Unlocking The People’s Choice Award

This one is just unlocked by default. The people in chat will vote on who they feel should be their collective wildcard, and whoever gets the most votes will win a $10 prize along with the admiration of chat. There will be a straw poll posted during the live stream, and people will be able to cast their vote on who should get the people’s choice award. This will include both good and bad categories, and voting will not conclude until the end of the second day if the stream is split.
The winner of this prize will be someone who did not place in the actual competition rankings, rather someone who would not be taking home any cash at the end. For this reason we’ll be reading out the 0000000actual final results of the people’s choice award, and ending when we get to the first person who didn’t place in another category.

Conclusion on all the unlockables

Again the total of all potential prizes added together is $600, and it is up to everyone to unlock it to the fullest. The prizes and also the stream schedule is up to everyone reading and this and also participating, so share this around to everyone you can on social media. The more people who enter the better it is for those participating, and also the more people on stream the better it is for everyone. This is an event where the only goal is to have fun and enjoy the beautiful and horrible singing of everyone. We just put this event on, but it is the participants who enter and who watch the stream that truely make it so much fun, so lets make this one even better than the others.

Special Performances By Us, Sarah, & Past Winners

In all the past five singing competitions me and Hannibal have also performed songs together. Not only is this fun, but it is only right to sing bad if we expect others to do the same. This time is no different, and we’ll have a group of songs we’ll be debuting on the streams.

Past Champions Team Up For A Duet

Not only all the above is happening, but we also have a duet from the past two winners from the good and the bad category. Jeson has agreed to sing with Blurry, and when these two champions team up the world may bee changed forever. Like the ability of humanity to harness nuclear technology, we are yet to see if this is a good thing or something that will go horribly wrong and destroy mankind. I suppose you’ll have to make sure you are at the stream to find out.

Vote On The Duet Whiskey Nipples & Pocket Cheese Perform

In the past we have let people bid on our duet song, but this time we are putting it up to a straight vote. We have each come up with a list of five songs, and you can vote on one of these ten to decide what song we duet. There are some real bangers in the list, so have fun picking the song you’d like us to beautify. Anyone can vote, and we can’t wait to see what you all pick.
Vote on our song here.

The quartet With Sarah Joyce and Fayble

Every singing competition we have forced Sarah Joyce to sing a song on her own or with us, but this time we are adding another to the mix! Fable is also not allowed to join, so she gets the punishment of singing with me and hannible. This means everyone gets to enjoy the first ever BSG quartet of the four of us singing together, and it will be glorious in all the wrong ways. I can’t say much, but it will be great!

The Rules & How To Enter

If you submit your song then you are giving me(Smoke) permission to make it downloadable from BSG, or streamable via a link you provide after the stream.
Submissions for the 6th BSG singing competition open on October 26 2024 at 12:01am eastern. Submissions close at 11:59pm eastern on November 30 2024. Your song must be submitted to the proper Google Form between these times.
The grand prize scales in each category depending on how many people enter, up to $100 for first place, $75 for 2nd place, $50 for 3rd place, $25 for 4th place, and $15 for 5th place.
We will need both a minimum of five good submissions and 5 bad submissions for the stream to be scheduled, if we don’t get 5 and 5 there will be no stream or competition.
If we get over 25 good entries, or over 15 bad entries, or a total of 40 or more entries, we’ll be splitting it into two streams of good and bad singers on Friday December 6, and Saturday December 7.
The person submitting classifies their song as a good cover, or a bad cover. This way we know how to listen to and judge the song.
Submissions are open as of the publishing of this blog post on October 26, 2024. We will stop accepting Submissions at 11:59pm eastern on November 30, 2024.
Only completed songs will be accepted. If you submit an incomplete song you cannot resubmit after the deadline has passed. Contact me if there was an error before the deadline.
The two winners from the previous competition cannot enter, Sorry Jeson and Blurry. Winners from other competitions are welcome and encouraged to enter again however.
Anyone can enter, blind, sighted, and anything in between. The only acceptions are Smoke, Hannibal, Fable and Sarah Joyce who cannot enter.
Only cover songs: This is so we can relate to the song, and so we have a base to go off of. No originals.
The song has to be a recording just for this competition, not a previously released cover song.
Don’t put aggressive effects on your voice. Less is always better. We want singing, not covering up the singing. subtle effects are fine, but just don’t get carried away please.
No use of autotunes, Melodyne, or similar software to pitch correct your voice is allowed in any way at all. Using such tools may result in you getting disqualified.
No use of AI for vocals in any way. This will result in an instant lifetime ban from this and all future BSG competitions and giveaways.
If you cover a song actually cover the song with words, do not just make mouth noises or you will be disqualified and we will skip your song on stream.
Try to perform close enough to your microphone so we can hear you, this is especially true if you are playing music or an instrument on the recording. We need to hear your voice to judge your song.
A hard limit of 6 minutes and 30 seconds maximum length on each song: This is so we don’t have a 15 minute song to take up all the length of the stream.
This is about enjoying people’s covers and having fun, so we won’t be making fun of the submissions flagged as good.
Amine or Sarah will pre-listen to the song to make sure it is playable, so we can truly listen to each song for the first time on stream. I will mail you via the email you provide in this form to let you know your song plays and you are officially entered.
If you require your song to be mixed, we have someone to do this. Quacker will be mixing again, but your deadline will be 1 week earlier. So for mixing you must submit by Sunday November 23, 2024 at 11:59pm eastern time.
After submissions are closed I’ll randomize the order of songs using random.org, and publish the order in a blog post the week of the live stream.
Submissions are done completely through a Google Form this time, no other ways of submitting will be accepted.
The person who sings the song must be the one to submit it, unless they cannot because of physical or technological reasons. Then and only then a 3rd party can help by filling out the form and submitting on their behalf if the singer gives permission first.
When naming your file include the Category, Your Public Name, the Original Song Title, and the Original Artist. for example bad-CaptainHannibal-HipsDontLie-Shakira.mp3, or Good-SarahJoyceOcampo-Empire-Shakira.mp3, or Bad-FleshyImpactDrills-Thriller-MichaelJackson.mp3.

Lets Make This The Best Singing Competition Yet!

We have been expanding the reach of this event since day one, and it keeps growing beyond what we ever thought ws possible. This is completely because of you, all the people who have entered and made this the best BSG event ever. Without everyone sharing and submitting to the competition this wouldn’t be what it is today, so lets keep this going. Last time we got 101 entries, and this time I’m openly calling for at least 120 entries, so lets make it happen!
If you were on the fence get off it and enter, if you know anyone who could enter lets make it happen! Share this to friends, family, and anyone inbetween. The more the better, not only for the scaling prizes but for the fun everyone has during the stream. This is nothing without us all coming together to appreciate the best and worst of singing, so lets grow it even more! I can’t wait to hear everyone’s entries in December, make us overloaded with them!

smoke j

Site creator, admin, and Top Contributor

Follow the BSG Blog on Twitter
Follow Smoke on Twitter