Thank you for registering for the 2026 Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Vocal Competition.  

You are to record 3 audio only tunes in your preferred key. 

Contestants will then select three (3) songs from the following Ella Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook.  

 

• Someone to Watch Over Me

• My One and Only

• But Not For Me

• How Long Has This Been Going On

• Soon

• I've Got a Crush on You
   

When you are finished recording, please email programdirector@bluesalley.org to receive a dropbox link to upload the tracks to.  For this round only audio tracks will be accepted.  Please separate the submissions into 3 separate tracks.  The deadline for submitting the tracks is January 31, 2026 at Noon Eastern Standard Time. 

After that the judges will begin evaluating the submissions and the finalists will be announced in mid March 2026.  If you become a finalist you will record videos of the 3 tunes for the final round of evaluations. The deadline for the video submissions of the finalists will be March 26, 2026. 

The winner will be announced on April 25, 2026 at the Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Vocal Competition event in Washington, DC.