Likhawitan (On-the-Spot Songwriting and Performance) Competition: What It Is, Where It’s Run and How It’s Judged

A Grades 7-12 team contest in which entrants write and perform an original song, marked out of 100 across lyrics, music, originality, vocals, accompaniment and showmanship.

Likhawitan joins two Filipino words for writing and singing: a team composes a song and then performs it. The on-the-spot label suggests the writing happens at the event, from a theme given there, instead of arriving with a finished piece. The template prints only eligibility, a time limit and a scoring table, so this page does not claim more about how the round is run.

In the template it is a team item for Grades 7-12, open to boys and girls together, with no language restriction. The performance is capped at 5 minutes, with no warning bell and no team size printed. Whether the theme is revealed at the start of a preparation window, and how long that window lasts, is not stated and has to be fixed in the organiser brief.

The 100 marks are split into two halves. Song writing carries 65: lyrics and their relevance to the theme 25, music (arrangement and melody) 25, and originality 15. Performance carries 35: vocal quality 15, accompaniment 15 and showmanship (stage presence and interpretation) 5. So the writing is marked almost twice as heavily as the singing.

Organisers run it because it rewards a skill a prepared singing contest never tests: turning a theme into a coherent song under pressure. It suits schools with musical groups that are stronger at creating than at polishing a single set piece.

Where Likhawitan (On-the-Spot Songwriting and Performance) is run

In the data this item belongs to one template, a Philippine government-run learner festival held at division, regional and national levels. Songwriting rounds and composition challenges also appear in school music days, youth arts festivals and songwriting camps in many countries, though whether the song is written on the day or beforehand differs widely between events.

• Philippines

Key facts

• Team entry, open to boys and girls together.
• Grades 7-12; the template maps this to roughly ages 12 to 18, but entry is by grade level.
• Performance limit of 5 minutes, with no warning bell in the template.
• Marked out of 100: lyrics 25, music 25, originality 15, vocal quality 15, accompaniment 15, showmanship 5.
• The template prints no team size, theme-reveal rule or preparation time; confirm these in the organiser brief.
• Ideas (not rules) for practice themes: a river after rain, the last day of school, a neighbour who always waves, a market at dawn, or a long bus ride home.

On eTalenter, Likhawitan (On-the-Spot Songwriting and Performance) is filed under Music and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 1 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.

Across the templates that use it, Likhawitan (On-the-Spot Songwriting and Performance) is most often entered as an Team competition, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to around 5 minutes where a limit is set.

What judges look at in Likhawitan (On-the-Spot Songwriting and Performance)

What a Likhawitan (On-the-Spot Songwriting and Performance) panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:

• Lyrics, 25 marks: how clearly the words answer the theme; lines that drift away from it, or fill space with rhymes that say nothing, lose marks here.
• Music, 25 marks: a melody the audience can follow and an arrangement that suits the words; a tune borrowed from a known song, or one that wanders without a shape, costs marks.
• Originality, 15 marks: whether the piece feels like the team’s own; copying a familiar chorus or reusing a pre-written song is what this block punishes.
• Vocal quality, 15 marks: pitch, steadiness and blend; a good song sung out of tune still loses these marks.
• Accompaniment, 15 marks: whether the instruments or backing support the singing instead of covering it, and are played cleanly.
• Showmanship, 5 marks (the smallest block): stage presence and interpretation. It is worth little, so do not trade writing time for choreography.

Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Likhawitan (On-the-Spot Songwriting and Performance) under Scoring Setup, or start from the song competition judging criteria guide.

How to prepare for Likhawitan (On-the-Spot Songwriting and Performance)

How entrants and their teachers usually get Likhawitan (On-the-Spot Songwriting and Performance) right on the day:

• Practise the writing routine as a team: agree the theme’s one idea in a sentence, then write the chorus first, then the verses around it.
• Decide roles early: one or two writers for words, one for melody, and the rest for harmony and accompaniment, and swap them in practice.
• Train melody-making with a simple pattern: a four-line verse and a repeating chorus is easier to finish and to remember than a long through-composed piece.
• Keep the song short enough for the 5-minute limit, and rehearse the performance once from start to finish with a clock.
• Choose an accompaniment the group can play without strain; a simple steady guitar or keyboard part beats an ambitious one that slips.
• Practise blending and pitch on the finished song, since vocals carry 15 marks regardless of how good the writing is.
• After a lost round, ask which block held you back, lyrics, music or originality, and spend practice time on that one skill.

Frequently asked questions

Is Likhawitan (On-the-Spot Songwriting and Performance) judged individually or as a team?

Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Team entry, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.

What is Likhawitan (On-the-Spot Songwriting and Performance)?

It is a Grades 7-12 team item in this festival template where entrants write and perform an original song, marked out of 100.

How is it scored?

Song writing is worth 65 marks (lyrics 25, music 25, originality 15) and performance 35 (vocal quality 15, accompaniment 15, showmanship 5).

How long can the performance be?

The template sets a maximum of 5 minutes with no warning bell.

Is it judged individually or as a team?

As a team. The whole group is marked together out of 100.

Is the song written on the day, and how long is the preparation time?

The item name implies on-the-spot writing, but the template does not print the theme-reveal rule or the preparation time, so the organiser brief must state both.

Want the full judging picture? Read the song competition judging criteria guide, or browse every music competition item.