FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 29, 2021
Contacts: Natalie Golub, 973-382-4560, natalie@drugfreenj.org

MILLBURN — The Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey is inviting New Jersey high school students to share their musical substance use prevention messages as part of the 2022 Your Song! Your Voice! Shout Down Drugs New Jersey music competition.

All music genres or any musical style is accepted for entry. It does not matter what kind of music you might be into; jazz, rock, reggae, R & B and more, The Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey (PDFNJ)  wants to hear Your Song! Your Voice!

Entries will be accepted through Friday, February 28, 2021. Students interested in sharing their musical talent can submit original music with lyrics about substance use prevention.

“Music has an ability to sway and move people.” said Angelo Valente, PDFNJ Executive Director. “The Your Song! Your Voice! Shout Down Drugs New Jersey music competition is a great opportunity for today’s youth to create positive peer-to-peer messages about substance use prevention that can have a great impact on their lives.”

The music competition is sponsored by the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey (PDFNJ), 95.9 WRAT and the New Jersey Broadcasters Association.  A panel of judges will select one finalist from every county, along with a few wild card contestants, to perform their original songs in 18^th annual Prevention Concert, to be held virtually.

“We are thrilled for WRAT to be involved in with this musical competition and work with these talented teens again this year,” said Jimmy Steal, Creative Services Director of WRAT. “We are proud to work with the NJ Broadcasters Association and the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey.”

The winner of the New Jersey Shout Down Drugs competition, as decided by judges and announced at the end of the Prevention Concert, will receive a $5,000 music contract. The second- and third-place performers will receive $3,000 and $2,000 music contracts, respectively, with the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey.

For rules and information on how to enter the New Jersey Shout Down Drugs music competition, contact Diane Higgins at 973-275-7965 or diane@drugfreenj.org or visit www.shoutdowndrugs.com.

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Best known for its statewide substance use prevention advertising campaign, the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey is a private not-for-profit coalition of professionals from the communications, corporate and government communities whose collective mission is to reduce demand for illicit drugs in New Jersey through media communication. To date, more than $100 million in broadcast time and print space has been donated to the Partnership’s New Jersey campaign, making it the largest public service advertising campaign in New Jersey’s history. Since its inception, the Partnership has garnered 201 advertising and public relations awards from national, regional and statewide media organizations