St. Petersburg city song contest winner announced

St. Petersburg voters have spoken.

With the virtual polls closed and 12,972 votes counted, the winner of the St. Petersburg city song contest is no longer a mystery.

Carry Me Back to St. Petersburg, by Charlie Souza and the New Tropics, took first place, with 5,553 votes, officials said Tuesday.

Souza will perform the song at this weekend's Ribfest in downtown St. Petersburg. He actually wrote the song 15 years ago after returning to St. Petersburg from Hollywood.

The contest, which ran from Nov. 2 through midnight Monday, had three songs people could choose from:

• Carry Me Back to St. Petersburg, by Charlie Souza and the New Tropics.

• I'm Off to St. Pete, by Bob and Bruce Jacobs.

• Life's Sunny and Sweet in St. Pete, by Jeff Arthur.

The Jacobs' song got 4,538 votes and Arthur's got 2,881, city officials said. The St. Petersburg City Council will have to formally adopt the song at a future meeting for it to become the official city song.