My Canary Islands song Mañana in YouBloom music contest judged by Bob Geldof

The Internet website YouBloom is running a song contest in which acts can enter their music and compete for big prizes. I did very well with Harvest Home in the last heat coming in fifth place but still didn't get enough votes to qualify because only first, second and third place winners are counted.

The competition has a number of heats, quarter finals, semi finals and then the actual finals. I have decided to enter my song entitled Mañana in the current heat and to have another go at winning. It is a song I wrote in Tenerife in the Canary islands.

Although I had over 150 'Likes' for my song the same number of people didn't vote for it and it is the actual votes that are needed. Nevertheless the winners only need a figure in hundreds and I have well over 4,000 friends on Facebook so if I can get a quarter to vote then I will win!

Rock singer-songwriter Bob Geldof, who is most famous for the hit singles he had with the Boomtown Rats and for his work with the Band Aid charity single Do They Know It's Christmas?, is heading up the panel of judges for the YouBloom song contest.

I discovered that the act that came in second place in the last heat basically got most of his votes by getting a story in the press announcing the fact that Bob Geldof was a judge, so I am having a go this time at doing likewise. It appears that it is more about the amount of media coverage and publicity you can get than the quality of the songs.

Name-dropping Bob Geldof is sure to help when trying to get newspapers, magazines and radio stations interested in promoting the story.

I am also hoping that friends and fans will share the news of my new song entry. This can be done on their Facebook walls or by tweeting the information at Twitter or posting it on other sites.

I have made a great start so far because I am currently leading the scores for votes at YouBloom but I am expecting some tough competition so getting to work early on promoting my song.

The YouBloom site gives the following information about what the prizes are and it is all very tempting as I am sure you will agree? The winner of the YouBloom Song Contest Grand Final gets:

• €10,000 in cash
• They will headline the YouBloom LIVE 2011 Song Contest Winners Concert & Awards Night
• Their win will be featured on the YouBloom site
• They will be featured in online and offline publicity
• They will be inducted into the YouBloom Hall of Fame
• And they will be working with top music professionals who will help them develop professionally and reap the benefits of their Contest win

The prize I really want and need is the cash! The other prizes are very helpful too though!

My song Mañana is already scheduled to be fronting an EP to be released later this year by Alan Craw's DMMG Records on which I already have the albums' Welsh Wizardand Dive In Deep.

Mañana represents a big change of style for me. It is a jazzy but laid-back Pop song and I played a different style of guitar work and jazz chords for this song. I wrote it here on Tenerife and I would so love Mañana to become a hit. That would be a dream come true!

The version of Mañana entered in the YouBloom contest features additional instruments played and dubbed on to my original by multi-instrumentalist Ed Drury. Big THANKS to Ed for adding his magical touch to my song.

Having had a lot of success with Harvest Home, although not enough to win, it has encouraged me to have another go with Mañana, and this time to really work on getting the publicity!