With NBC’s new release of the show, American Song Contest, that aired on Mon. March 21, I got to explore the different styles of music from all across the U.S. Hosted by Snoop Dogg and Kelly Clarkson, singer-songwriters from each state participate in a fierce battle for the title of “Best Original Song.” The audience votes online for the winners as well as the top three semi-finalists with the added jury points.

The competition includes states from all across the United States and the U.S. territories (American Samoa, Puerto Rico, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, U.S Virgin Islands) competing to see which state will triumph and receive the title. The competition consists of rounds of performances from each state competing head-to-head to see who will make it to the semi-finals. The viewers will be able to vote for their favorite performances of the night, which will tally up to 22 artists who will advance to the semi-finals and 10 states that will advance to the grand final. 

America’s Got Qualifiers

Week 1: The first 12 states competed with genuine songs of all different styles. However, the top four states that advanced to the finals were Alexa, who sang “Wonderland” for Oklahoma, Michael Bolton 80’s legend singing ”Beautiful World” for Connecticut, Christian Pagan bringing the island paradise with his song “Loko” from Puerto Rico, and Hueston the top contender to the jury for the state Rhode Island. 

When I watched the first episode, I was very impressed by its ability to show off artists and their talents. Once I hopped onto the first episode, I couldn’t wait to get to the second episode to see who would prevail in the next round.  

Monday Night Live

Before the performances began, the results for the first episode were shown. Episode two aired on March 28 with 12 new performances from 12 new states. The winner of the second episode was Jordan Smith of Kentucky with his song “Sparrow,” who gained recognition for winning season 9 of The Voice. The three top semi-finalists that joined Smith were Chloe Fredericks with “Can’t Make You Love Me” from North Dakota, Broderick Jones with “Tell me” from Kansas, and Jonah Prill with “Fire it up” from Montana.