Welsh singer songwriter up for international songwriting award

Stephen Price

Singer-songwriter Brook Fox has shared his elation after receiving a nomination in the Song Academy’s worldwide Young Singer Songwriter 2025 competition.

The top 10 songs of the hotly contested competition were revealed recently, with this year’s competition attracting over 1,000 entries from aspiring young songwriters aged 8-22 across the world – both experienced young songwriters and those who’ve written their first song.

And flying the flag for Wales is none other than rising star, Brook Fox, who hails from Carmarthenshire, with his anthemic single, Wonderful.

Emily Phillips, songwriter and lead judge of The Young Songwriter 2025 competition said: “This year just under a 1,000 songs were submitted to the Young Songwriter Competition 2025. It has been a total pleasure to come across new talent and some great songs from young songwriters in the UK and around the world.

“For the writers whose songs did not make the top 30, your creativity and input to the competition is so valued. The process of judging is not an absolute or determining factor in the value of a song – The Beatles were turned down 5 times by record labels before landing a deal!

“That said, we try to be as rigorous as possible in deciding which songs are selected. Concepts, lyrics, melody, structure, originality and harmony are some of the aspects that we listen out for, but also, sometimes simply the X factor, which is a mysterious indefinable quality a song can have. In other words, in some cases, a hunch or a feeling might be what persuades us to choose one song over another.

“I’m happy to see that lots of songs this year have been written in collaboration with other songwriters. Professional songwriters nearly always collaborate. The average number of writers on top 10 hits in the US is around 6. That goes some way to revealing how much brain power can be needed to write about love in a way that hasn’t been said before.”

New generation of talent

The Song Academy is the world’s leading platform in nurturing young songwriters to express themselves.

The Young Songwriter 2025 competition attracted a diverse group of aspiring young songwriters. 75% of entries were from across the UK/Ireland (60% outside of London) and 25% from around the world – from Shanghai, Delhi, Melbourne and Istanbul to Mexico, Los Angeles, Toronto and Cape Town. Gender breakdown was: 70% of entrants were girls, 23% boys, 6% who have a unique gender identification. Age breakdown was: 31% aged 8-12, 34% aged 13-15, 18% aged 16-18 and 16% aged 19-22.

You can listen to the top 10 finalists’ songs, including Brook’s, on the Song Academy SoundCloud account.

The UK/Ireland winners (in the 8-12, 13-15 & 16-18 age categories) will be announced on Saturday 4th October 2025 at The Young Songwriter 2025 live showcase held at The Tabernacle, Notting Hill, London.

The UK/Ireland winner of the 19-22 years old category will be announced at the showcase on Monday 29th September at The Troubadour, Earl’s Court, London.

The International winners will be announced at the online showcase on Sunday 5 October at 2pm GMT, during the event featuring star-studded judges including Tom Grennan, GAYLE, Miranda Cooper, Nina Nesbitt, MNEK, Toby Gad, Calum Scott, Eg White, Freddy Wexler, Plested, Dan Gillespie Sells, Hannah V, Emily Phillips, Naughty Boy & Connie Talbot.

Brook

Brook’s music career has gone from strength to strength with previous single, When You Fall, added to the BBC Radio Wales A-List.

Currently a Level 6 Creative Music Technology student at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD), the singer-songwriter from Burry Port, first discovered his passion for songwriting during Covid.

Drawing inspiration from artists such as the aforementioned Sam Fender and Scottish troubadour Gerry Cinnamon, he developed a distinctive sound that blends indie pop/rock with raw, down-to-earth lyricism.

His debut single Time garnered critical acclaim, amassing more than 30,000 streams across 139 countries – leading to features on BBC Introducing and other major media platforms.

Beyond his achievements as an artist, Brook has used his academic studies to explore the evolving landscape of music marketing as part of his Level 6 Creative Music Technology research.

Success

Brook’s career continues to gain momentum, having recently supported renowned Welsh songwriters Maldwyn Pope and Steve Balsamo. With growing recognition outside Wales as well as within, 2025 is shaping up to be his biggest year yet, with new music and live gigs on the horizon.

 

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Sharing his elation at being nominated, and representing Wales in the process, Brook told Nation.Cymru: “I was so overwhelmed to be nominated among so many outstanding other artists – it really means the world to be cherry picked amongst amazing songwriters across the UK, especially by the star studded judging panel.

Speaking about the track, he said: “Wonderful was a step out of my comfort zone, writing not from personal experience but from the perspective of an addict, inspired by Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting.”

And fans of the up and coming singer songwrite won’t have long to wait until his headline show back on home turf. He shared: After the London showcase I have my headline show at the bunkhouse in Swansea on the 8th of October, tickets are on sale now and are just £5!”

Listen to more from Brook at Spotify and other streaming platforms.

Book tickets for Brook’s headline show at the Bunkhouse, Swansea on 8 October.