Tampa Bay native R.Lum.R wins International Songwriting Competition grand prize

From Rolling Stone to Jimmy Kimmel Live to Bonnaroo, good things keep happening to former Tampa Bay singer-songwriter R.Lum.R.

Here's the latest: He just won the grand prize in the prestigious International Songwriting Competition.

The Bradenton native took first place out of 19,000 entries worldwide for his song Frustrated, a song that's already racked up nearly 50 million spins on Spotify. It's the first R&B song to win the competition, and it comes with a prize package including $25,000, loads of equipment, studio time and behind-the-scenes services like album mastering and music distribution.

This year's judges included Tom Waits, Adam Lambert, Nicky Jam, Kane Brown, Heart's Nancy Wilson, Portugal. The Man, Sugarland's Kristian Bush and more. The songs are judged on creativity, originality, lyrics, melody, arrangement and "overall likeability."

"Big shout out to my team/collaborators who believe in me everyday, even when I don't," the singer born Reggie Williams wrote on Facebook. "It's wild to think that thoughts I had alone in my room a few years ago REALLY are connecting, and have turned into this... Lives change when you work hard at something you believe in with PEOPLE you believe in!"

R. Lum.R shared the prize with producer Josh Hawkins, a.k.a. Super Duper. Previous grand prize-winning songs include Vance Joy's Riptide, Illenium's Crawl Outta Love and Kimbra's Cameo Lover. Previous winners in other categories include Bastille, Gotye, Lindsey Stirling and Kehlani.

PREVIOUSLY: R.Lum.R talks about hitting it big in indie-alternative R&B, playing Jimmy Kimmel

Also noteworthy: Tampa native Dave Meder, currently an assistant professor of jazz piano at the University of North Texas, won second place in the competition's jazz category.

For all the details on this year's International Songwriting Competition, click here.

Contact Jay Cridlin at cridlin@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8336. Follow @JayCridlin.