SONGKONTEST - press release

Eurovision on your doorstep: a one-night competition for songwriters lands in Stoke Newington this Sunday.

15/8/2025, London

You may not be thinking about Eurovision right now, but if you’re a fan when it comes around each year, an experimental event in Stoke Newington this Sunday will be a welcome surprise.

In a quest to find the best new song, 12 songwriters from London and beyond have taken up the challenge. They will meet at The Others on Manor Road in Stoke Newington on Sunday evening and perform these songs, hoping to secure enough points to secure the prize of up to £100 cash, studio time with sponsor SAFO Music Group and the coveted SONGKONTEST trophy.

Doors open at 18:00 on Sunday and music begins at 19:00, with the host performing a specially-written SONGKONTEST theme tune before the 12 entrants perform their original tracks. These entries span a wide musical spectrum, including R&B, trip-hop, pop, rock and old school hip-hop.

Full details on this first running of SONGKONTEST and a link to tickets can be found at bit.ly/songkontest

Far from focusing on the popularity contest that independent competitions tend to be, the voting system, borrowed from the Eurovision Song Contest, lets the voters show love for what they believe to be the best 4 songs of the night in a tense voting sequence which keeps the entertainment going for the whole event runtime.

The contest will also include an interval act in the form of electronic pop artist Lunayru, who will perform a set while the votes are counted.

Organiser Eli Gumble says “This all began with a spreadsheet and a dream. I’ve put in a lot of work over the last few months to get this running and if everything goes as planned, it should be an incredible show.”

The organiser, Tolerable Music, has a history of running events with unique concepts, such as the monthly night “Rock & Robots”, which combines an indie gig with the spectacle of antweight robot fighting, also selling kits to get more people into the hobby.

Contact: Eli Gumble, songkontestuk@gmail.com

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