A Q&A With the It’s A Wonderful Write Lyric Contest Promotion Winner, Canary Vale

Canary Vale is the winner of American Songwriter‘s It’s a Wonderful Write lyric contest promotion for her song, “Secrets for Santa.”

The track, Vale said, “speaks to another side of the season, the part where the year has been heavy, the magic doesn’t come easily, and you’re trying to feel it anyway.”

“Even when hope feels thin, it never completely disappears,” she said. “That’s a feeling almost everyone has experienced at some point.”

With that in mind, Vale sat down to write “an entire Christmas album’s worth of lyrics.” She wound up penning 13 songs in five days.

“I decided it would be interesting to write a song where I told the things I usually keep to myself to ‘Santa,’ asking for a little extra ‘Christmas magic,’” she said. “I was struggling and losing hope, while still holding onto the belief that everyone is carrying something and that we all have to believe in wonder somehow. It ended up becoming my favorite lyric from that project.”

Read on for a Q&A with Vale.

Canary Vale Q&A

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN SONGWRITING?

I’ve been writing poems for close to 20 years. Over the past year, I started revisiting some of those older poems and rewriting them as songs. At a certain point, the process shifted, it stopped feeling like adaptation and simply became songwriting.

WHAT GOT YOU INTO MUSIC IN THE FIRST PLACE?

My family always loved music. I grew up with dance nights in the living room with my mom. I remember my older brother playing on a toy keyboard and the two of us writing silly songs together as kids. My dad would spin me around to Def Leppard. My little brother played the drums.

I was never musically talented—I can’t sing and I can’t play instruments—but I love music and I love writing. This is my way of carrying that love forward.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU TO HAVE YOUR SONG RECOGNIZED IN THIS WAY?

Is it cliché to say more than words can say? I’m a wife, a mom, and a property manager. My days are filled with work, cooking, and cleaning, so much so that I sometimes feel like I’ve lost my identity. I find myself wondering, ‘What do I do that’s just for me? Who am I outside of a role or job title?’

I write, but I’ve always done it quietly, privately. So this recognition feels like permission to claim that part of myself more openly; not just as a wife, mom, or property manager, but just as a writer.

WHAT SONGWRITERS DO YOU COUNT AS YOUR BIGGEST INSPIRATIONS? WHY?

Leonard Cohen. A friend once sent me an article about him, and even though we write very differently stylistically, I felt deeply understood reading about his work and his process. I think we share a similar way of naming things in our writing. I see not only the lyrics he wrote, but the emotional cost and courage it took to write them.

WHAT SONGWRITERS WOULD YOU LOVE TO COWRITE WITH?

Julia Michaels, Rob Thomas, Stevie Nicks… and so many others. I love lyrics that are deeply specific to someone’s personal experience, but still resonate with others in completely different ways. I’m also drawn to writing that isn’t trying to impress, it’s simply acknowledging something honest.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR PLANS IN 2026.

I currently publish poems and lyrics on Substack. I’m also working toward a hybrid book that combines poetry, lyrics, and other creative elements. I’m always open to cowrites… I suppose we’ll see what opportunities present themselves.

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST CAREER DREAM?

To publish a book. To hear someone sing something I wrote on the radio. Ultimately, I want my writing to find people where they are, without asking anything from them, just to sit with them.

WHAT WOULD YOU TELL OTHER ARTISTS WHO ARE CONSIDERING ENTERING A CONTEST?

Do it. You may not win the first or second time (I didn’t either). There’s a lot of great writing out there, and sometimes timing doesn’t align, and sometimes it does. But by entering, you give your work a chance to be seen. A chance to reach someone who might need it. And that feels like a chance worth taking.

Read Canary Vale’s Contest-Winning Lyrics for “Secrets for Santa”

Verse 1
I’ve been keeping little secrets
in the pockets of December—
things I didn’t say out loud,
things I wish I could forget or remember.
Like how I pretend I’m fine
when the year felt like too much,
how I learned to smile for people
who don’t know I break at touch.
How I ghosted all my friendships
just to keep myself afloat,
how I carried quiet heartbreak
like a letter I never wrote.

Pre-Chorus
And every time the lights turn on,
they glow against the things I hide—
all the truths I didn’t handle,
all the storms I held inside.

Chorus
So here are my secrets for Santa—
every truth I couldn’t speak.
It’s been a heavy kind of season
and the world’s been feeling bleak.
I’ve seen love turn into silence,
I’ve seen kindness lose the fight.
People breaking in the daytime,
people praying through the night.
These secrets for Santa
got me needing something drastic—
a little more hope,
a little more glow,
a little extra Christmas magic.

Verse 2
I saw strangers on the sidewalk
share the last of what they had,
saw a mother kiss her daughter
while she whispered “don’t be sad.”
I watched someone lose their person
and hold ashes like a hand,
watched a man give all his blankets
to a veteran in the sand.
Watched friends fake perfect living
on a screen that isn’t real,
watched a lonely kid find courage
in the comments he could feel.

Pre-Chorus
And it hit me in the quiet,
in the soft glow of the tree—
how we’re all just trying to make it,
how we’re all just trying to be.

Chorus
So here are my secrets for Santa—
every truth I couldn’t speak.
It’s been a heavy kind of season
and the world’s been feeling bleak.
I’ve seen joy fall into shadows,
I’ve seen fear turn hearts to static.
People lying just to function,
people laughing just to mask it.
These secrets for Santa
got me needing something drastic—
a little more hope,
a little warm light,
a little extra Christmas magic.

Bridge
If miracles still wander,
I could use one in the night.
Let it fall like gentle snowfall,
let it break me toward the light.
If wonder still remembers
every name it used to know,
tell it I’ve been waiting,
tell it I’m still trying to grow.

Final Chorus
Here are my secrets for Santa—
yeah, I finally said them all.
And maybe truth can feel like mercy,
maybe healing starts to call.
I’ve seen people rise from nothing,
I’ve seen broken turn to static—
but I’m holding out for something
bright enough to bend the tragic.
These secrets for Santa
got me reaching out, half-frantic—
for a little more hope,
a little more faith,
a little extra Christmas magic.

Photo courtesy of Canary Vale