Songwriting Contest Winners

Well, after listening to all 54 entries (at roughly 11 minutes each!) we finally have chosen a winner!

It was a very hard decision for us to make as so many of these entries were truly incredible and worthy of reward.
The amount of time and effort put foward by each and every one of the contestants really blew us away! There is so much talent out there among our fanbase and we are truly impressed....

Being there were so many great compositions, we wanted to think of a way to award more than just the Grand Prize winner...so in order to share their wonderful talents with everybody, we've decided to take the top 7 finalists and manufacture a CD with their entries to distribute through a future issue of the Dream Theater International Fan Club magazine "Theater of Dreams". (many of the regional fan clubs are going to take place in this CD promotion as well!)

So without any further ado:

1st Place Grand Prize Winner:
Andy Rowland and Ant Law (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Andy's entry will be played each and every night on the Dream Theater 2004 World Tour approximately 20 minutes before DT hits the stage.
He also wins 4 Tickets and Backstage Passes to the 2004 DT show of his choice, a copy of "Train of Thought" signed by all 5 members of DT, and a set of the 3 latest Ytsejam Records releases (for more information, visit www.ytsejamrecords.com).

2nd Place Winner:
Daisuke Kurosawa (Tokiwadai, Japan)

Daisuke's entry was a VERY close runner-up (we had to listen to the top 2 finalists several times back to back), so we'd like to reward his incredible efforts as well with 4 Tickets and Backstage Passes to the 2004 DT show of his choice.

Top 5 Runner Up Winners:
1. Linear Sphere Theater (London, England)
2. Richard Campbell (London, England)
3. Brian Wherry (Auburndale, MA - USA)
4. Redemption (Los Angeles, CA - USA)
5. Eric Clemenzi (Byfield, MA - USA)

Each of these entries (pending their permission) will be included on the upcoming Dream Theater Songwriting Contest CD.

Honorable Mentions:
Most Creative Entry: Eric Broughton and Umesh Madhavan (Sylvan Beach, NY - USA)
Best Musical Moment: Bass Solo from Godforsaken Project (North Hollywood, CA - USA)
Best Song Title: "Slightly Ominous Cheeseburger" by Divided Sky (Exton, PA - USA)
Best Band Name: Sweet Brown Otter Meat (Renton, WA - USA)

Congratulations to all of the winners and a big thank you to all of the contestants!

C-ya on tour,
Dream Theater