Songwriting Contest – NEW

Announcing the Songwriter Winner!

We are pleased to announce that Andrea Rosal, a local Asheville resident, has won the songwriting contest with her song “Eve”. The song speaks to a child born feeling as though they were in the “wrong body”. At Monday’s rehearsal (1/13/25), Andrea debuted “Eve” to the village where she received a certificate of gratitude from the chorus. We will be singing the song at our upcoming Spring concerts.

Here is the presentation of the certificate and a history of how the song “came to be”.

Andrea lives in North Asheville and has sung with choral groups throughout her life. She has been songwriting for about nine years and recently took a social justice class with singer-songwriter Crys Matthew at the Swannanoa Gathering entitled “making the Personal Universal”. It is during this class that she began writing the first verse of the song, in honor of a family friend and the extraordinary expansiveness that comes with a family who loves their transgender child.

EVE (Lyrics) by Andrea Rosal

Eve… used to toddle through the kitchen
Wearing Cinderella’s nightgown, ‘stead of PJs from her shelf
Eve… used to gather with her girlfriends
In the blue jeans from her brother, on the carpet for show and tell
Eve… told her folks she was frustrated
Said “I’m s’posed to love my body” – and she turned a little twirl
Eve… said “It’s not so complicated…
I was mixed up in your tummy, and I shoulda been born a girl”
Have you ever wondered if something needs to change
To live a life that feels more like your own?
To sing into the silence, await the world’s embrace
That’s what Eve… already knows
Eve… is a coach’s early Christmas
She’s a very graceful gymnast… spikes a ball right past the net
Eve… has a heart for competition
But her home state passed a law that says her place is on the bench
Eve… has no patience for the drama
She’s trying to be… the most joyful version of herself
Eve… has a family who loves her
And a mom and dad who listen to the deepest truths she tells
Have you ever wondered if something needs to change
To live a life that feels more like your own?
To sing into the silence, await the world’s embrace
That’s what Eve… already knows
If you could see her smiling on the day she claimed her name
If you could see her shining with a peace she can’t contain
If you could see Eve… just as she is
You would see a girl, finding her way
Have you ever wondered if something needs to change
To live a life that feels more like your own?
To sing into the silence, await the world’s embrace
That’s what Eve…
Eve…
Eve… already knows

Andrea debuts the song for the village.

A Short Bio of Andrea Rosal

“Andrea Rosal grew up in Oak Ridge, TN, in a family that surrounded her with music. A child of the 80s, she spent Sundays in her youth cataloguing the American Top 40 and transcribing R.E.M. lyrics in her notebook. At Dartmouth College, she fell hard for the Indigo Girls, Dar Williams, Tracy Chapman, The Story, and other songwriters whose melodies she loved to sing and whose words carved beauty in her heart. She has always been a singer, but it wasn’t until she turned 40, started taking guitar lessons, and was invited by her teacher to try writing a song, that she realized this kind of creative joy was something she could access — and she was hooked. Writing songs has seen her through a global pandemic, breast cancer, parenting two kids, Hurricane Helene in Western NC, and all the ups and downs of everyday life. Andrea’s songs combine a singer’s ear with heart, humor, family, love, and whatever she’s curious about at the moment. She shares life in Asheville, NC with her husband, two musical kids, and one or more goldendoodle at any given time.”