We blind screen stuff so the judges don't really know who they are listening to about 75% of the time and thus wouldn't know if you or your friends wrote the songs. If it's a cover/public domain, we have some categories for that type of music if your performance is really original or amazing vocally it could be considered there. For the originals, if they're first time releases they'd still be eligible as we give the awards out to both the artist and songwriters (the actual trophy goes to whichever person entered it).

Brian