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The New Zealand Olympic Committee is calling for songs to be written to inspire athletes at the London Olympic Games next year. Stage two of the 2012 Olympic Songwriting Competition opens today and Olympic team organisers are looking songs that reflect pride in New Zealand. All New Zealand musicians are invited to take part in the second phase of competition and top entries will be professionally produced and recorded before featuring on the Olympic Soundtrack album. The overall winner will become the official song of the New Zealand Olympic Team at London 2012. Stage one of the Olympic Songwriting Competition concluded on August 31st with the New Zealand public voting for their favourite songs. Available for free at NZ2012.com, the songs were downloaded more than 10,000 times by Kiwi fans and close to 5,000 votes were cast. Representatives from the New Zealand sporting and musical communities also had their say. Olympic hopefuls, track cyclists Sam Webster and Ethan Mitchell, say music plays an important role in athlete performance and songs written for the New Zealand Olympic team will be special. Hearing a New Zealand song makes you feel a real sense of pride, Mitchell said. It provides a connection with home. Knowing the songs have been written especially for us makes us realise theres everyone at home backing us, Webster added. It makes us understand the achievement of actually making it to the Olympic Games. The songs written for stage two the Olympic songwriting competition will be judged by well-known New Zealand Musicians Mike Chunn (Split Enz, current CEO of the Play it Strange Trust) and Jordan Luck (Dance Exponents). The top ten entries will be professionally produced and recorded before the New Zealand public, athletes and public vote for their favourite. The winning songs from stage one of the competition were: 1. The Emotion by Amy Bowie (Christchurch) 2. People of Black and White by Ash Graham (Wellington) 3. Anthem: Our Home by Eleanor Lang and Stephanie Townend (Kristin School, Albany, Auckland) 4. Ironman by Masseurs/Powell/Murphy/Richardson (Upper Hutt) 5. Im Not Afraid by Oliver Green (Auckland) In 2012 the top five songs from both stages one and two will go head to head as Kiwis vote for the official song of the games. The Olympic Songwriting Competition is developed by the New Zealand Olympic Committee in conjunction with the Play it Strange Music Trust. The competition forms part of the New Zealand London Olympic campaign called Making us Proud. The campaign provides opportunities for New Zealanders to share their pride in New Zealand and, in doing so, inspire the nations Olympic athletes. The London Olympic Games take place 27 July 12 August 2012. A team of around 200 athletes is expected to represent New Zealand in 17 sports. New Zealanders wishing to enter a song in the Olympic Songwriting Competition should go to www.NZ2012.com or www.PlayitStrange.org.nz
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