Last week Michigan’s Ada LeAnn became the final jury pick, earning a place in the Semi-Finals with ‘Natalie’. Now NBC have announced the line-up for the Live Semi-Finals Premiere episode of the inaugural American Song Contest this coming Monday. The first Semi-Final will see 11 acts compete for 5 finalist spots, as well as the final set of results from the qualifying shows!
American Song Contest – Live Semi-Finals Premiere
On Monday, the first of two Semi-Finals, from the Universal Studio Lot in California takes place, with the help of hosts, Kelly Clarkson and Snoop Dogg. In total 11 states/territories will compete. Below are the states and territories participating and their songs. Once again the jury will save their favourite to advance to the Grand Finale. Meanwhile the remaining acts have to wait to find out which four will advance in the combined jury and public televote. The latter consisting of TikTok, online voting and the NBC App.
Among the first set of acts next week are no less than four jury winners of the five qualifying shows (Kentucky, Michigan, Rhode Island and Washington), as well as streaming wildcard Wyoming.
- Alabama – Ni/Co – ‘The Difference‘
- Colorado – Riker Lynch – ‘Feel The Love‘
- Kentucky – Jordan Smith – ‘Sparrow‘
- Massachusetts – Jared Lee – ‘Shameless‘
- Michigan – Ada LeAnn – ‘Natalie‘
- Montana – Jonah Prill – ‘Fire It Up‘
- New Hampshire – Mari – ‘Fly‘
- Oklahoma – AleXa – ‘Wonderland‘
- Rhode Island – Hueston – ‘Held On Too Long‘
- Washington – Allen Stone – ‘A Bit of Both‘
- Wyoming – Ryan Charles – ‘New Boot Goofin‘
Live Qualifiers Part 5 – Recap
Last week the show kicked off with the remaining results from the Live Qualifiers Part 4 episode. Also advancing to the Semi-Finals are, Stela Cole – ‘DIY‘ (Georgia), MARI – ‘Fly‘ (New Hampshire) and Jared Lee – ‘Shameless‘ (Massachusetts).
At the end of the show Michigan’s Ada LeAnn and her song, ‘Natalie‘ was put forward to the Semi-FInals by the jury. On Monday we will find out the fate of the remaining acts! In a change to the format, the jury results were revealed in a live scoreboard after each performance. Below are the full jury results ahead of being combined with the televote. Get to know all the participants further in our deep dive here.
| State | Artist | Song | Jury Result |
| Michigan | Ada LeAnn | ‘Natalie’ | 1 |
| California | Sweet Taboo | ‘Keys To The Kingdom’ | 2 |
| North Carolina | John Morgan | ‘Right In The Middle’ | 3 |
| American Samoa | Tenelle | ‘Full Circle’ | 4 |
| Illinois | Justin Jesso | ‘Lifeline’ | 5 |
| Idaho | Andrew Sheppard | ‘Steady Machine’ | 6 |
| New Mexico | Khalisol | ‘Drop’ | 7 |
| Vermont | Josh Panda | ‘Rollercoaster’ | 8 |
| Maryland | Sisqó | ‘It’s You’ | 9 |
| Missouri | HALIE | ‘Better Things’ | 10 |
| Guam | Jason J. | ‘Midnight’ | 11 |
The American Song Contest will air on NBC, and begins at 8pm Eastern US time or 1am BST, 2am CET and 11am AEST.
Format
The American Song Contest premiered on March 21 and runs for eight weeks on (local) Monday nights. Atlantic Records will publish the songs at midnight in batches during each week. With 56 competitors – spanning the 50 states, 5 territories and Washington D.C, the acts will take part across five qualifying rounds. Each round will contain 11 acts with one round having 12. Following the qualifying rounds, 20 acts plus two wildcards will see a total of 22 acts in the two-part Semi-Finals and the 10 song Grande Finale. There, one state or territory will receive the crown of Best Hit Song on May 9th. Yes, during Eurovision week!
American Song Contest
With the American Song Contest confirmed, the Eurovision brand has crossed the Atlantic in a massive way. Of course, Netflix released a surprise hit film about the contest, titled Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga in 2020. You can read our team’s thoughts on the movie here. As well as this, Logo TV aired Eurovision across the pond from 2016-2018.Plans for the contest were in the making for a while, with Christer Björkman announcing in March that talks were ongoing.
The first reports about the ideas came out in May 2019, with both Björkman and Ola Melzig hosting a press conference. Ola Melzig is also involved in the first edition for 2022. Soon after the first announcement, organiser Peter Settman confirmed that multiple broadcasters had an interest in the rights, before NBC eventually secured the rights. Meanwhile 14 international broadcasters are showing the contest, including SVT, RTVE, NRK, among others.
Who are your favourites in the American Song Contest? Let us know! Be sure to stay updated by following @ESCXTRA on Twitter, @escxtra on Instagram and liking our Facebook page for the latest updates! Also, be sure to follow us on Spotify for the latest music from your favourite Eurovision acts. As well as YouTube to see our reactions to the news in the run up to the 2022 contest in Turin!
