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Radio 3 Carol Competition 2022

And the winner is鈥� 馃

Maurice Walters (carol number six)

This year Radio 3 challenged listeners to compose a melody for The Winter’s Brightening, a brand new text written by poet Niall Campbell for the Radio 3 Carol Competition.

All week, you’ve been listening to the six shortlisted carols and voting for your favourites. We asked you to choose the carol that you thought has the most memorable, singable tune – the earworm that you could imagine singing at Christmas for years to come. You voted in your thousands and the results are in!

Congratulations to Maurice! His setting of The Winter’s Brightening (arranged by Alexander L'Estrange and Joanna Forbes L'Estrange) will be broadcast on 大象传媒 Radio 3 throughout the festive season on Radio 3.

Thank you to everyone who entered the competition and particularly the five remaining shortlisted composers. They also worked with our professional arrangers to develop beautiful arrangements of their tunes, which you can listen to below.

A very merry Christmas from all at 大象传媒 Radio 3!

Listen to 2022's winning carol

6. Maurice Walters: The Winter鈥檚 Brightening

Maurice is the winner of the Radio 3 Carol Competition 2022.

Listen to the other shortlisted carols from the 2022 competition

1. Hilary Ashworth: The Winter鈥檚 Brightening

Hilary was one of six finalists in the Radio 3 Carol Competition 2022.

2. David Bentley: The Winter鈥檚 Brightening

David was one of six finalists in the Radio 3 Carol Competition 2022.

3. Donna Deam: The Winter鈥檚 Brightening

Donna was one of six finalists in the Radio 3 Carol Competition 2022.

4. Sarah Hutchinson: The Winter鈥檚 Brightening

Sarah was one of six finalists in the Radio 3 Carol Competition 2022.

5. Fraser Sharp: The Winter鈥檚 Brightening

Fraser was one of six finalists in the Radio 3 Carol Competition 2022.

All six of the shortlisted carols in the 2022 competition were arranged by Joanna Forbes L’Estrange and Alexander L’Estrange, working in collaboration with the finalists. The arrangements were recorded by the 大象传媒 Singers with pianist Richard Pearce and conductor Nicholas Chalmers.

Meet the judges

Left to right: Gareth Malone, YolanDa Brown, Ed Balls. Not pictured: Anna Lapwood and Manvinder Rattan

The Winter鈥檚 Brightening by Niall Campbell

Turn up the lights of a light-filled room,
outside the winter’s closing in,
the night is cold – but here’s the tune:

look here, the winter’s brightening;

Down goes the sun like honeycomb,
up pulls the storming winds and rain,
but here’s the moon, its full white bowl.

Look here, the winter’s brightening.

Love sets the plates and lays the meal
love is the winter’s welcoming,
its snow-white door, its turning key;

look here, the winter’s brightening.

Listen to a reading of the poem

Niall Campbell reads The Winter鈥檚 Brightening

We invited budding songwriters to write a tune for this brand new festive poem.

About the competition

Radio 3's annual Carol Competition is an opportunity to get creative. You don’t need any special training or experience to enter. All amateur composers are welcome, from complete beginners to seasoned songwriters.

Every year, we ask listeners to come up with an original tune for a festive text. We want you to create a memorable, singable carol that can be sung at Christmas for years to come. We don’t ask for harmonisations or accompaniments, so the tune must hold its own. Every note has to work hard – the winning tune will be a real festive earworm!

You can write your tune down or simply submit an audio recording. When all the entries are in, a panel of expert judges reviews a longlist of up to 50 that meet the judging criteria. Judges come from a range of musical backgrounds – including cathedral, gospel, community choirs and jazz – and the judging process is blind. Our producers anonymise, retranscribe and re-record all of the longlisted entries before the judges see them.

The judges come up with a final shortlist of six carols. One of the aims of the Radio 3 Carol Competition is to inspire budding composers to develop their skills, so the shortlisted entrants are given the opportunity to collaborate with professional composers on fully harmonised choral arrangements of their tunes. These are recorded by the 大象传媒 Singers and then it's over to listeners to decide which carol comes out on top!

To find out more, take a look at the full T&Cs.