SOCAN proudly presented the ECHO Songwriting Prize at its annual SOCAN Awards Gala on Monday, Nov. 17, 2008. This year’s winner is The Weakerthans - Stephen Carroll, John Samson, Greg Smith and Jason Tait - for their song “Night Windows.” The winning song was selected online by public voting, with thousands of people casting their vote for one of the five songs that had been nominated by an independent panel of 10 music community taste-makers.

Presenting the $5,000 cash award to the members of The Weakerthans prior to the 19th Annual SOCAN Awards Gala was Rodney Murphy, SOCAN education & outreach manager. The other nominated songs for the third annual ECHO Songwriting Prize were:

• “Double Suicide” written and performed by Sandro Perri
• “Lucklucky” written and performed by Veda Hille
• “Weighty Ghost” written by Loel Campbell, Tim D’eon, Paul Murphy and Jud Haynes, performed by Wintersleep
• “You Are Never Alone” written by Josh Dolgin, Doris Glaspie, Katie Moore and Waleed Shabazz, performed by the Socalled

The Francophone counterpart of the award, the Prix de la chanson ÉCHO, has already been presented to Louis-Jean Cormier and François Lafontaine of Karkwa for their song "Oublie pas."

For further information on the ECHO Songwriting Prize, or to listen to the nominated songs, please visit the ECHO website.