The Craziest Two Hours By Allie Spice

What can you do in two hours? Twelve talented songwriters wrote a song in that small time allotted to them. At GRAMMY Camp® this year, the songwriters were used as guinea pigs, so to say, and had to try something that was never done before at Camp. Each writer was paired up with either one or two other writers and were given the challenging task of writing the lyrics and music of an original composition, based off of another song.

GRAMMY Camp has never tried this unique technique of songwriting and each student took it in stride and did a fantastic job. They had only known their partners for a day and wrote with such emotion. Each song flowed in a way that seemed like the partners had known each other for much longer than they actually did. The new songs were responses to commonly known songs that had won a GRAMMY in the past. Chris Sampson, the instructor for the songwriting track, called this exercise, "Filling an old bottle with new wine." That meaning: take something from another song and then make it your own. Each of these students did that, but spun it on it's head. If you listened to the original songs and then the responses, you could really understand that they were meant to be a pairing.

"I think the hardest thing was having to fit the stylistic element of the song. My group had the Motown song and so we had to get the groove and everything, and that was difficult because we all have different styles and when we were writing, our styles would sort of bleed into what we were writing and it was a really cool experience," Camper John Nichols said. In every new song that was played by the songwriters, their own styles would definitely show in the song.

When asking the Campers what they thought of the short and mind-blowing process, the responses were as such, like from Elise Go. "Yeah, of course. It was different, but totally worth it," and,"No doubt. Yes I would do it again." This just shows that even in a difficult and different situations, these teenagers still loved it and would repeat the process. Do we know what GRAMMY Camp will do next with their Campers?