Tonight, the big debut of the American Song Contest took place. The eight-week-long event was kicked off with the first of five qualifying rounds. Eleven artists competed in tonight’s show, with Hueston of Rhode Island being announced as the jury’s choice for one of the semi-finals.
| Running Order | State | Artist | Song | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Minnesota | Yam Haus | “Ready to Go” | TBD |
| 2 | Oklahoma | AleXa | “Wonderland” | TBD |
| 3 | Arkansas | Kelsey Lamb | “Never Like This” | TBD |
| 4 | Indiana | UG skywalkin ft. Maxie | “Love in My City” | TBD |
| 5 | Puerto Rico | Christian Pagán | “Loko” | TBD |
| 6 | Connecticut | Michael Bolton | “Beautiful World” | TBD |
| 7 | Iowa | Alisabeth Von Presley | “Wonder” | TBD |
| 8 | Wisconsin | Jake’O | “Feel Your Love” | TBD |
| 9 | Mississippi | Keyone Starr | “Fire” | TBD |
| 10 | Wyoming | Ryan Charles | “New Boot Goofin” | TBD |
| 11 | Rhode Island | Hueston | “Held On Too Long” | Jury Qualifier |
With this, Hueston advances to one of the two semi-finals on April 25 & May 2. The fate of the other ten artists will be revealed at the beginning of next week’s show when the next three qualifiers are announced. The televoting is still open and will close at 7AM ET/12PM CET Wednesday 23 March.
What happens next?
The fate of the other ten artists are still your hands. Televoting will continue until 7AM ET/12PM CET Wednesday 23 March. The televote results is then combined the jury result to decide the remaining three qualifiers who will be announced at the beginning of next weeks show.
How the American Song Contest works
The inaugural American Song Contest takes place at NBC Universal lot. Kelly Clarkson and Snoop Dogg are the hosts of all 8 shows. 56 artists from across the country will compete over weeks to win the title of “Best Original Song”. These eight weeks are split up into three rounds. There are 5 “Qualifying Rounds”, 2 “Semi-Finals” and one “Grand Final.”
The first five weeks are the qualifying rounds (March 21, 28, April 4, 11, 18) and see 11 artists compete (with one round of 12) for 4 slots in the Semi-Final. At the end of each night, the jury chooses one artist to advance to the semi finals while the fans vote over the next day. The remaining 3 slots are announced at the beginning of the following week’s show.
The two semi-finals (April 25 & May 2) see 22 artists compete for a slot in the Grand Final. There are 2 semis of 11 artists, with the 11th artist being a “redemption” song chosen by NBC. The jury’s choice is announced at the end of the show, and the remaining 4 slots being are announced later. Just like the qualifiers, the remaining slots are decided through a combined jury-televote.
The Grand Final sees 10 artists perform one final time to win the the votes of the jury and America. The results of the Final are live. At the end, a winner will be crowned.
How can you vote?
There are 3 ways to vote.
- The NBC website
- The NBC app
- TikTok
You can give out 10 votes per platform for a max of 30 votes. You can find more information about voting on NBC’s website.
Where can you watch
The exclusive place to watch it live will be on NBC which requires a US cable subscription. However, the shows will be available the next day on Peacock, NBC’s streaming service. Furthermore, some non-US broadcasters have acquired the rights and will stream it a couple of days after it is live. You can find a list of some of them here.
More about the American Song Contest
The executive producers of the American Song Contest Audrey Morrissey, Anders Lenhoff, Christer Björkman, Peter Settman, Ola Melzig, and Gregory Lipstone alongside Propagate’s Ben Silverman and Howard T. Owens. The competition is produced by Propagate in association with Universal Television Alternative Studio, a division of Universal Studio Group.
What did you think of the first show? Do you agree with the jury’s choice? Let us know! Don’t forget to follow ‘THAT Eurovision Site’ over at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
News Source: NBCUniversal
Photo Source: EBU
Overall, I thought the 1st show was Ok. I have to remember to watch the show as someone from America with limited to no knowledge of ESC instead of watching the show and trying to compare it to ESC. My biggest issue with ASC is the amount of commercials and backstories before the songs. While this would be strange for ESC, doing this is perfectly normal for us in the States.