Listen: East Lansing Announces Finalists For First-Ever Songwriting Contest, Event Details

Dustin DuFort Petty August 26, 2026August 26, 2026

Allie Siarto was vacationing when she heard the song “Whole Lotta Lubbock,” a song celebrating the Texas city of about a quarter of a million people. The tune inspired Siarto, the chair of the East Lansing Arts Commission, to pitch an idea to the rest of the commission: East Lansing needs a song.

Siarto and the Arts Commission moved to create a songwriting competition that invites artists to make songs about East Lansing. A selection panel whittled submissions down to eight finalists, which will perform their songs at the city’s first-ever EL Vision event downtown on Sept. 18. There, a winner of the contest will be selected.

Heather Majano, the city’s Art Festival and Arts Initiative Coordinator, said the songwriting contest was advertised through a press release and posters throughout East Lansing, Lansing, Okemos and Michigan State University’s campus.

Majano said the contest winner will retain the rights to their song, but will sign a contract allowing the city to use the song in the future. The winner of the contest will receive a $1,000 prize and have their song professionally recorded.

“Uses of the song are still up in the air,” she said. “We may use it during the city council or planning [commission] breaks on the TV, the recorded versions of those meetings. The high school may choose to use it during their football games. The big dream is that MSU would be attached to it and use it during their football or basketball games.”

On Sept. 18, the finalists will perform their songs at the city’s EL Vision event downtown at the Ann Street Plaza. An audience vote will narrow the choices down to a final three, a group the city’s Arts Commission will select a winner from.

“I’m only one opinion,” Majano said when asked what residents should expect from a city song. “I’m only one experience in the city. So many people have so many different experiences in the community. They come to us from all different walks of life and all different parts of the world, so everybody’s experience is going to be different. I think that the song should feel like the community, so not focusing on just one experience.”

On Wednesday, the city released recordings of the songs that will be performed at the Sept. 18 event. The songs by Ryan Wilbert, Debbie Walton, Mike Lawrence, Katie Thorington, Joel Jacobs, N.E.W., Anuya Gawaskar and Aiden Shelle can be listened to below:

“Sleeves” by Ryan Wilbert