Talent search
Local musicians in national contest
Clare Maguire is taking her shot in a competition that could mean a big break for her future in music.
Clare Maguire has been writing music since she was 13.
Taking inspiration from what she was doing and how she felt at the time, the Bible Hill teenager could turn anything and everything she did into a song.
Growing up in a musical family, her parents were always supportive when it came to her music and writing. So when her mother called one night while she was studying to suggest she submit a song to CBC’S Searchlight, she decided to take a shot.
“I already had a track that was partially recorded and the application process was pretty simple, so I figured why not,” said Maguire.
Maguire, along with more than 2,000 other artists across Canada, submitted an original song to the Searchlight competition, a nationwide song contest that highlights Canada’s up and coming artists.
Competition winners will have the chance to perform at Juno Fest during the 2019 Juno Awards, receive a performance slot at the CBC Music Festival in Toronto, and will receive a week-long residency at the National Music Centre in Calgary to record new music.
As she already had it recorded, Maguire submitted her song Rosemary & Thym’ to the competition, a soft yet heartfelt piano-driven piece about missed opportunities.
“The song is about a few different things put together,” said Maguire.
“There is a friendship aspect in it, a bit of romance, and a part about being stressed out as well. It’s about having a chance and missing it by a hair, so there is like a hundred different ‘almosts’ in the song.
“It’ll be really ironic if I don’t make it to the next round with this song.”
Her song is currently in the first
round of the competition, which wraps up on Wednesday, Feb. 28 when the 2,073 submitted songs are reduced to a selection of 100; of these, 50 are chosen by judges, the other 50 are selected by public voting. The same process is followed for round two, reducing it to 10 finalists.
Maguire is currently enrolled at Mount Allison University where she’s studying psychology and French. Even though music isn’t part of her studies, it’s an important part of her life.
“I knew university was going to be busy, so I went and joined as many music things as I could,” she said. “Right now, I’m in the audition choir at Mount A as well as the a cappella society.”
Winning the competition won’t come easy. Her song is pitted against thousands of other Canadian artists, including local talent, Charlie A’court.
A’court began performing on stages with his father as a teenager and has released five albums since
2003 while touring Canada and Australia. His most recent album, Come On Over, won the 2015 Blues Recording of the Year award for both the East Coast Music Awards and the Nova Scotia Music Awards.
While A’court’s music career is solid regardless of how the competition turns out, for Maguire, winning could mean the difference between performing at open mic nights or performing at festivals.
“Winning would mean I could follow this crazy dream without worrying too much about how it is going to happen,” she said.
“Right now, I’m just performing at a few coffee houses, so it would be nice to get some more gigs, and one of my future goals is to put together an EP.”
Artists can be voted for once a day on the CBC Searchlight website (www.cbcmusic.ca/searchlight), and voting is open until this Wednesday. Maguire’s song Rosemary and Thyme can be found at www. cbcmusic.ca/searchlight/3954 and A’court’s song Refuse to Fear can be found at www.cbcmusic.ca/ searchlight/4482.