NUR EIN XXI

[Niveous]

Nur Ein is back and old enough to drink!!

The Nur Ein is an eight-round song competition. In each round, the participants are given a song title and a mandatory challenge. The participants then have one week in which to create a song from those prompts. Then this year's judging panel will listen to the songs and rate them from best to worst. Each round whittles down the field until we are left with only 1 competitor. Creativity x Skill x Time Management = Nur Ein!

The Nur Ein begins with Round Zero on May 18th*. Round Zero is the way you enter the competition. The participants will have until May 24th at 11:59PM (Eastern Daylight Time) to create a song from the given prompts. When a competitor completes a song, it is to be e-mailed to nurein.sidefight @ gmail. The songs will then be posted at the Nur Ein website (http://nure.in) and the next title and challenge will be announced at the same time.

(*Look for the Nur Ein to start around the third weekend of May for the foreseeable future)

The Judges will have the next few days to listen to the songs. They will rank the songs from best to worst. If there are more than 25 entries into Round zero, the judges will eliminate the lowest ranked competitors until we reach 25.

This year, for Nur Ein XX, we will be doing Shadow Resurrection. If you are eliminated, you can enter a shadow song in the next round. The Judges will have the ability to bring one competitor back from that round's shadows. The Judges must unanimously agree. This will only occur in rounds 1-4.

The schedule can be found on our website- http://nure.in. It has been updated for 2026 and deserves a look.

The final round is a battle between the two remaining competitors with the votes of the eliminated competitors and the Nur Ein Judges choosing the winner (one vote per "act," whether you're a band or a solo competitor; if you're a duo, trio, quartet, quintet, or more, you'll need to discuss internally how to allocate that one vote).

This year's judging team will consist of long time Nur Ein veteran judge Mysteria; the Nur Ein's founder Niveous and Nur Ein XX champion Grumpy Mike. Two more judges are TBD.

The game is on… for the 21st time!!!!!

[Aciniform Artifice]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Caravan Ray]

The Nur Ein begins with Round Zero on May 18th*.

I'll be back again.

However...just an observation - after being non-active on Songfight for quite a while - I did a couple of Songfight entries recently while I was living in Hanoi, and noticed the Songfight activity was a little sluggish. Since a lot of us old regulars will no doubt be back for Nur Ein again - could the Nur Ein activity be somehow integrated into the main Songfight thing to give the main competition a bit of a boost?

Not sure how that would actually work, and Sam's call obviously - but...just a suggestion





(wtf.. I just tried to type 'Nur Ein' 3 times and it kept being autocorrected to "Our Sin")

[crumpart]

I’m in. Have started a few songfight entries recently but not finished because life got in the way, but I’m as ready as anyone possibly can be for Nur Ein…. Tempted to do a max and make some videos about the songwriting process, even though I think my songwriting process is very boring.

[ken]

This year, for Nur Ein XX, we will be doing Shadow Resurrection. If you are eliminated, you can enter a shadow song in the next round. The Judges will have the ability to bring one competitor back from that round's shadows. The Judges must unanimously agree. This will only occur in rounds 1-4.

Curious if this means you are only eligible for Shadow Resurrection in the round immediately following your elimination, or if you have multiple rounds/chances to be resurrected.

Ken

[Niveous]

This year, for Nur Ein XX, we will be doing Shadow Resurrection. If you are eliminated, you can enter a shadow song in the next round. The Judges will have the ability to bring one competitor back from that round's shadows. The Judges must unanimously agree. This will only occur in rounds 1-4.

Curious if this means you are only eligible for Shadow Resurrection in the round immediately following your elimination, or if you have multiple rounds/chances to be resurrected.

Ken

Only the round after your elimination. It prevents someone from getting eliminated early, taking some time off and then making a comeback while their fellow competitors continue to grind.

[BoffoYux]

I'm up for another round of Listening Parties - a few might be a bit delayed if I have to work a meeting beforehand but looking forward to another year of great tunes!

[HeuristicsInc]

shadow resurrection sounds pretty cool. does that mean that we eliminate more live people to bring a dead one back?
-bill

[Lunkhead]

Very excited for this! Yay! Thanks Niv!

This year's judging team will consist of long time Nur Ein veteran judge Mysteria; the Nur Ein's founder Niveous and Nur Ein XX champion Grumpy Mike. Two more judges are TBD.

Any updates on who the remaining judges will be?

[the panna cotta army]

Thinking about giving this a shot.
Are there any requirements about song file format etc.
Or any other rules I need to know about?

[ken]

File format is pretty much the same as Song Fight, with slightly different naming conventions. Instructions will be in the announcement of the title and challenge. There are also a bunch of unspoken and judge specific rules and expectations. Learning about those during the competition is part of the fun!

[BoffoYux]

could the Nur Ein activity be somehow integrated into the main Songfight thing to give the main competition a bit of a boost?
Not sure how that would actually work, and Sam's call obviously - but...just a suggestion

I've always been good with double dipping on the song submissions, but I'm not sure how those running the contests feel about it.
I know SpinTunes didn't care as long as the challenge was fulfilled, and if it got more people to write songs they encouraged it.

I have a hazy recollection that SongFight wasn't as keen on the idea - I think one of the SongFight challenges had an optional request to not double up the same song. Thoughts, people?

NurEin Starts in less than a week!

[Aciniform Artifice]

I don't believe Song Fight! officially has a stance on the subject (the only real requirement is that the song is newly written for that week's contest, and inspired by the supplied title -- it doesn't say anywhere that the same song can't also be entered in a different contest or shared elsewhere).

It's possible an individual user or two may have grumbled about it in the past.

But given the relative low turnout of most fights recently, I think the majority opinion would be that more entries = a good thing.

[Lunkhead]

Some Song Fight titles may be compatible with Nur Ein titles. Some may be antithetical just to make things extra fun for those who want to write songs that work for both contests.

[the panna cotta army]

File format is pretty much the same as Song Fight, with slightly different naming conventions. Instructions will be in the announcement of the title and challenge.

Got it. Thanks

There are also a bunch of unspoken and judge specific rules and expectations.

Ambiguous rules? Oh joy

[glennny]

Nur Ein is a lot like Spin Tunes.

It's 8 rounds instead of 4.

There's no down time: As one song is due you have the title and challenge for the next round. There's a risk you'll start working on a song only to find out a couple days later that you've been eliminated.

If you get immunity in the early rounds, you're also immune from winning. That said, having immunity gives you license to be really experimental.

[Pigfarmer Jr]

There are also a bunch of unspoken and judge specific rules and expectations.

Ambiguous rules? Oh joy

I think that's *mostly* just the normal angst at judges who decide to rate the challenge aspect differently than expected (or even logical, in some cases.) To be fair to the judges, (and yes, I have a vested interest in giving them some slack this year) often they are trying to differentiate between songs and sometimes little things end up being the reason to rank one above or below another. Or an off hand remark ends up feeling very weighty. I *honestly, have no idea why anyone would want to judge given the difficulty in ranking art which is innately subjective.

*I'm being dishonest here. I feel judging is like jury duty. It kinda sucks even when it doesn't but if everyone comes up with excuses not to do it then the whole system falls apart.

[the panna cotta army]

.
If you get immunity in the early rounds, you're also immune from winning.

?
I guess I’ll find out what this means soon

[MicahSommer]

.
If you get immunity in the early rounds, you're also immune from winning.

?
I guess I’ll find out what this means soon

It means if you win round n you are immune from judgment in round n+1, so you can't win that round but you can't be eliminated either. You can submit something weird and experimental, you can half-ass it, or you can just not submit a song; you still automatically move on to round n+2. This stops being the case at some point later in the tournament.

[Lunkhead]

Very excited for this! Yay! Thanks Niv!

This year's judging team will consist of long time Nur Ein veteran judge Mysteria; the Nur Ein's founder Niveous and Nur Ein XX champion Grumpy Mike. Two more judges are TBD.

Any updates on who the remaining judges will be?

I guess we'll find out eventually...

[the panna cotta army]

.
If you get immunity in the early rounds, you're also immune from winning.

?
I guess I’ll find out what this means soon

It means if you win round n you are immune from judgment in round n+1, so you can't win that round but you can't be eliminated either. You can submit something weird and experimental, you can half-ass it, or you can just not submit a song; you still automatically move on to round n+2. This stops being the case at some point later in the tournament.

Ah right, I see now - ta

[grumpymike]

I just want to point out that you can all comment on the new site now, and that may be preferable because this forum takes forever to load. I'll be actively working on improving the site this year - as you can already see. As you sign up, I'll work hard to get you linked up to manage your band profile et al.