Three Vineland High students are among 26 New Jersey musicians selected as finalists for their original music and lyrics featuring powerful peer-to-peer messages about substance use, misuse and prevention for the 2023 Your Song! Your Voice! Shout Down Drugs New Jersey music competition organized by the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey (PDFNJ).

William Cao and Moesharlynn Torto presented Chaos in Control – “Back & Forth” and Judah Walters – “Scared of the Dark.” The competition, sponsored by 95.9 WRAT, is a great opportunity for teens to have a platform to promote their music and be peer leaders by inspiring other teens to live a healthy substance-free lifestyle.

“The Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey is excited to have another group of talented New Jersey high school students participating in the 19th annual Your Song! Your Voice! competition,” said Angelo Valente, PDFNJ’s executive director. “Each year I am so impressed by these teens utilizing their talent in sharing these substance use prevention songs, that will hopefully inspire and reach their peers with the messages they convey.”

The 26 finalists, comprising 20 solo and group entries, will be featured during the virtual Prevention Concert on April 25th on ShoutDownDrugs.com and the winners will be announced live on air on 95.9 FM WRAT at 6:40 p.m. immediately following the concert. The first-place winner will receive a $5,000 music contract, and the second and third-place winners will receive $3,000 and $2,000 music contracts respectively.

The public may vote for their favorite Your Song! Your Voice! finalists at ShoutDownDrugs.com until April 24 when the voting closes at midnight. A panel of judges will cast their vote, and the vote totals from this period of online voting will be combined with judges’ to determine the winners.

A version of this content appeared on yahoo.com