Sydney Gray, a senior at Fairhope High School, has once again claimed national recognition for her musical talent. On May 15, the National Alliance for Musical Theatre and the National Endowment for the Arts announced Gray as the 2025 National Winner of the Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge for High School Students.
This marks her second consecutive win, making Gray the first-ever two-time national winner of the competition.
Over the coming weeks, Gray will begin working virtually with her mentor and a professional production team to finalize the score of her 2025 winning song, “Fall.” She will then return to New York in June to collaborate in person with Broadway musicians and her mentor. The song will be performed in full orchestration during a June 16 concert on Broadway and will be published by Concord Music. Following the performance, Gray will also receive a cash scholarship.
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“Fall” is a romantic ballad from Gray’s original musical Anavaly. In the song, a character named Carlos—an ADHD teen who thrives on factoids and video games—tries to express his feelings for Nava Lee. “He’s definitely in love but finds himself caught up in all the words and thoughts about his feelings, and yet he can’t simply say, ‘I love you,’” the release explains. Anavaly portrays the life of high school students while touching on themes of mental health, visibility, and acceptance.
This latest recognition adds to an already impressive list of accomplishments for Gray. Just last month, she was named a semi-finalist in the U.S. Presidential Scholars program. She is one of four girls and four boys from Alabama awaiting the announcement of the state’s final representatives.
Gray, who has attended public school in Fairhope since kindergarten, is graduating with a 4.37 GPA and numerous academic honors. She has received more than $300,000 in scholarship offers and has chosen to continue her studies in the United Kingdom at the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts, focusing on writing for musical theater.
Throughout her high school years, Gray has also held multiple leadership roles in the arts. She served as Drum Major for the Fairhope Buccaneer Marching Band, First Chair trombone in the wind ensemble, and section leader in “Encore,” the school’s performing ensemble. Outside of school, she has performed with Baldwin County’s Eastern Shore Repertory Theater, taking on principal roles and serving as music director for more than a dozen shows. Her work has been showcased at the Junior Theater Festival in New York’s Central Park and, most recently, in Grease at the Bluff in Fairhope.
The public is invited to attend a national Zoom event on May 19 at 7 p.m. ET, where Gray and fellow winners will be interviewed. Access the event at namt.org/knowledge_exchange/online-town-hall-meet-the-winners-2025.
Sherri Blevins is a writer for Mountain Valley News and a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You may contact her at [email protected].
