What does it mean to sing a song for a prize in a contest? This course explores the musical and cultural significance of the age-old ritual of song contests, tracing its history from the agonistic festival rituals of Greek Antiquity (a tradition of musical performance mythologized in contests between mortals and the gods) to current competitions such as the Eurovision Song Contest (the world’s largest and longest-running international song contest) and the A.I. Song Contest. What are the stakes and the struggles in these competitions, and what are the criteria by which the singers and their songs are judged? Through readings, research projects, and our own student-organized contest, we will explore the historical, philosophical, political, aesthetic, and economic factors that underlie the tradition of song contests as a way to understand this continuing and very popular phenomenon today.