Issue Date: July 24, 2005

Winning lyrics for 2005 Prizes and possibilities Last year's winner meets Usher

To win this is a very cool thing. -- Simon Cowell

Backstage at "American Idol," the famously nasty Simon Cowell leaps to his feet to greet his guest. The stunned visitor is Mark Diffenderfer, 18, the high school student whose lyrics Cowell chose to win the 2005 USA WEEKEND Songwriting Contest for Teens.

"I was surprised you were so young!" Cowell gushes. "Really, you wrote a nice song. I was impressed! The lyrics really flowed." He advises Diffenderfer to find a great composing partner to match his talent for lyrics, then sends him back into the Kodak Theatre to watch the season finale of the monster hit TV show.

Hollywood moment

Is this the dream sequence of a distraught "Idol" reject? No, the rare compliment from music's meanest critic was sincere praise for the student. Cowell and past "Idol" winner Fantasia, our guest judges, selected one teen's lyrics, "Make Your Difference, Make Your Meaning" (see below), to beat out 12,000 entries from across the country. As part of his prize, Diffenderfer -- a graduating senior from the International Academy in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., whose mother had read about the contest in the USA WEEKEND delivered in her Sunday Detroit News & Free Press -- got to meet Cowell backstage at "American Idol" in May.

Diffenderfer, a certified scuba diver, is a fan of science fiction, Harry Potter -- and writing. Since the fourth grade, he has penned hundreds of poems, and now one song. Two influences for his winning lyrics: Shakespeare (the familiar line "All the world's a stage" is from the play "As You Like It") and the contest theme, "Make A Difference." (And with a name like Mark Diffenderfer, winning this contest seemed destined!)

Encouraging words

"We all have our gifts and abilities," Diffenderfer says. "We should try to use them to make an impression on our world." He and his family often volunteer. Just recently, he helped plant trees at a nature center, while his twin sister, Katie, traveled to West Virginia to restore houses for the poor.

His song made a strong impression on our judges, who lauded its sincerity. "We get so many lyrics sent to us [at my management company], but it's always somebody trying to say something they don't mean or trying too hard," Cowell says. "I read Mark's song, and it sounds like somebody who is speaking honestly. And I like its simplicity."

Fantasia says she was struck by the song's deeper meaning, at a time when pop music seems especially heavy on "lite." "A lot of the songs on the radio are just about shaking your butt or going out," she says. "But there are so many trials and tribulations in people's lives. What's hot is saying something different, something encouraging. That's what's cool."

Prizes and possibilities

Along with the trip to Hollywood and having his lyrics printed here, Diffenderfer wins a $1,000 U.S. Savings Bond; a Sony DVD/CD burner and Sony Acid Music Studio software, valued at more than $1,800; and a $250 gift card from Sam Goody. (A runner-up, Deanna Marie Tomlinson, 16, a home-schooled junior from Harrodsburg, Ky., who gets the magazine in the Louisville "Courier-Journal," also wins a $500 Savings Bond and a Sam Goody gift card.)

Diffenderfer's biggest prize, though, may be the boost in his confidence.

"Simon definitely made me think about going out to Hollywood and giving writing a shot -- after I finish college," says Diffenderfer, who heads to the University of Michigan this fall.

Cowell says bring it on.

"Writing lyrics is one of the hardest things in the world to do, so I understood how difficult this was," he says. "Mark's given himself a head start, if he's serious. To win this is a very cool thing."

In "Idol"speak, that means "welcome to Hollywood."

Kevin Maynard in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

Go to top

Winning Lyrics

Make Your Difference,
Make Your Meaning

I look out through my window
At the world I've always known.
I think about my blessings,
The things I call my own
I've been given many gifts,
I've been given sorrows, too.
But we're not weighed by what we have,
But rather by what we do
If all the world's a stage,
Then they judge us by our role.
But we don't read from a final script,

The part's ours to control
So here's your chance for an impression,
A chance to show you care.
If you never leave any footprints
Will they know that you walked there?
For satisfaction, meaning, community,
Repayment, virtue or fame,
Give credit to your existence,
And meaning to your name.

-- By Mark Diffenderfer

Also:
Winning lyrics for 2005
Prizes and possibilities
Last year's winner meets Usher