Update Jan. 29
Seattle songwriter and theater manager, Dinah Brein along with her collaborator Jon Michaels has won NBC’s “Quest for the Best Today Show Jingle”. Michaels performed the song this morning on the Today show and beat out the two other finalists. Renowned record producer David Foster who judged the segment, commented after listening to the songs that if he were chosen to produce a killer 30-second spot - it would be the Brein/Michaels's entry and awarded the song the top honor.

"Jon called me this morning and told me the good news", said Brein. "He also said, don't be mad, I didn't mention you until the end of the segment because my daughter would have killed me if I hadn’t led off with her.”

You can see the segment on the Today Show website here:

http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/50626328

Original post Jan. 16
Dinah Brein, well known in West Seattle through her association with the Admiral Theater, along with her collaborator Jon Michaels has been named one of 3 finalists for NBC’s “Quest for the Best Today Show Jingle”.

She shared the story of the jingle composition and details in a release today:

“I got a call from Jon the week between Christmas and New Years and he asked if I would be interested in taking a stab at the jingle.

He lives in South Carolina and I’m up here in Seattle so we got together on Face time on our ipad’s and churned it out.” Brein says that was the first time she ever wrote a song that way. “Jon and I were collaborators in Nashville and sometimes we would sit all day long, for several days getting something right. Being able to use an ipad was great plus he got to meet my husband and 3 dogs, one of which was always trying to get me to use the word dog in the song.”

Brein says the rules for the contest stated the jingle couldn’t be professionally produced, had to be original, organic and under 2 minutes.

They also said it would be nice if some of the anchor names were mentioned.

“We decided to go from a historic prospective in presenting their longevity of 60 years and hitting on their family-like approach to the news”.

Brein said Michaels got a call, January 15 and was told that we would be one of the 3 finalists.

Michaels who performed the song on tape will be flown to New York on January 28th and will sing the song live along with the 2 other finalists’ January 29th.

“Should we win, we don’t know if they are going to use the song as their new jingle but as they say at the Oscars, it’s an honor to be nominated. Maybe we’ll get a nice toaster oven,” she laughs.

Brein has been a signed staff songwriter/producer with several publishing houses including, Motown, EMI, Warner Chappel in both Los Angeles and Nashville. She has had her music in film/TV and has had her songs recorded by Stephanie Mills, Thelma Houston, Tori Amos, Patti LaBelle, Fee Waybill (The Tubes), Nashville’s, Gretchen Wilson, Nashville Star winner Brad Cotter and many others. She is the Manager/Director of Entertainment at the Admiral Theater in West Seattle and the publicity chair for Women in Film.