Burnsong is a unique, bi-annual songwriting project, created to encourage songwriting in Scotland, inspired by the songwriting and song-gathering of Robert Burns.

Patricia Ferguson, Minister for Culture, and Jenny Wilson, DGAA Director launched The Gathering on 25 January 2005.  They invited anyone living in Scotland to write and submit a song in any style or genre. By 31 May, well over 800 songs had been received from all kinds of people from across Scotland - a powerful response.

16 songs were selected over the summer by a prestigious panel of songwriters and music experts to have their songs premiered at The Big Gig! on 30 November at Burnsong - Live!

The next round of song submissions opens on 25 January 2007.  To register for a submission pack contact us at

Gavin Bolus EDINBURGH: Song: Rose Street Rose
Alison Burns GALLOWAY: Song: A Pebble on My Tongue
Daisy Chute EAST LOTHIAN: Song: Promises to Keep
Kim Edgar EDINBURGH: Song: Thaw
Kirstin Fairnie ORKNEY: Song: Drifting Isle
Alisdair Fleming GLASGOW: Song: Maria's Clean
Simon Frazer EDINBURGH: Song: What Are You Thinking
John Fyfe EAST LOTHIAN: Song: Last O' the Pearl Fishers
Stewart Hinshelwood GLASGOW: Song: Queen Margaret Bridge
Alex Hodgson EAST LOTHIAN: Song: Isobelle
Scott Keenan GLASGOW: Song:  16 Again
Pauline Meikleham ANGUS:  Song: Ignited Nation
Ian Petrie & Ron Lindsay DUNDEE: Song: The Leaf O' Bonnie Doken
Sally Thomas EAST LOTHIAN:  Song: The Scarecrow
Melanie Whittle GLASGOW:  Song: Feel Good Factor
Siobhan Wilson MORAY:  Song: Open Your Eyes

LUCY BANNERMAN  Glasgow Herald - September 22 2005

THEY came in their hundreds; raps, rock ballads and lullabies penned in response to a national search for new songwriting talent. Yesterday, the 17 winners, whose entries will be showcased at the inaugural Burnsong Live! festival, were revealed.  

The collection of songs will be performed on St Andrew's Day in Dumfries, kick-starting a five-day celebration of the musical legacy of Robert Burns. Among the amateur songwriters to be showcased is Alison Burns, an aptly named 45-year-old mother-of-two. The community musician  from Castle Douglas joins an eclectic mix of songwriters on the winners' list, which includes a 12-year-old girl from Orkney and an ambulance driver from Edinburgh. She said: "It is very hard to live in this area and not be influenced by Burns's life. I wrote the song for unaccompanied voices and I can imagine a jazz singer singing it. "I'm really excited and looking forward to hearing the other winners' songs."

Organisers plan to run the event on a two-year cycle, culminating in 2009 – the 250th anniversary of the poet's birth and the big year for Burns retrospectives. The idea of the Dumfries and Galloway Arts Association, Burnsong invited anyone living in Scotland to write a new song in any style or genre. The winning entries were decided by a panel of established musicians and songwriters, including Sally Beamish, the classical performer, and Colin MacIntyre, of Mull Historical Society fame.

Jenny Wilson, director of DGAA, said: "We were to some extent unsure when we set out just what type of response we would get – would there be 100 or 200 entries? "But I think the amount – around 800 – and the quality of what came in disproved our anxieties. We have the whole life span represented, from teenagers to people in the third age. We didn't ask for any particular style. Hopefully, we are picking up on things that Burns himself would have encouraged."

Launching the festival yesterday, Patricia Ferguson, the culture minister, said: "This song search has uncovered a treasure chest brimming with Scottish songwriting talent. "It illustrates the power Burns still has to inspire new generations of Scots." The festival, which also includes "sangschools" – workshops – comes after this year's Burns An A That!, now in its fourth year, which has raised interest in the poet's work. Dr Gerard Carruthers, an expert in Burns and 18th century culture at Glasgow University, added: "It is quite clear that over the past 200 years, people have found that he still strikes a human chord in so many senses. "One of the reasons he appeals to people, and Scotland should be a bit more aware of this, is that he was our Cole Porter, our Lennon and McCartney, in terms of his breadth. He wrote about everything, love, sex, slavery, politics."