The American Song Contest

Eurovision Sets Sail for U.S. Shores as ‘American Song Contest’ (EXCLUSIVE) https://t.co/mhsl0aC3AY pic.twitter.com/PSbwJbhQAW

— Variety_TV (@Variety_TV) August 6, 2020

The “Eurovision Song Contest,” Europe’s popular music competition, one of the world’s biggest televised events and the platform that helped launch ABBA, is coming to America. “The American Song Contest” is set to debut during the 2021 holiday season.

Hoping to siphon off some of the magic of the beloved six-decade-old show, which draws over 200 million viewers to its grand finale, the premise for “The American Song Contest” will remain similar to the European version. Professional musical artists — solo singers, duos or groups up to six members — from each of the 50 states and across every musical genre will perform all original songs on the live televised event.

The format, as it is currently conceived, will position the artists head-to-head against other states’ representatives in a series of televised qualifier competitions, leading to semi-finals and the ultimate primetime Grand Finale March Madness-style. Propagate Content will create The American Song Contest Academy, a group consisting of music professionals based in the U.S. that represent all genres and backgrounds, from which juries of artists and music industry notables who, along with the regional audiences, will select top talent from all 50 states to compete.

I won’t hold my breath, given the Eurovision Asia Song Contest has yet to make an appearance and was first mooted in 2016.

Agreed.... but this seems to have some traction about it now. I suspect Netflix will get involved somehow too.

Just can't see this taking off in the US. I'd imagine (and it sounds like) it'll be repackaged as a reality series running multiple weeks with a final between the top 10 or so.

Really? I think it could be huge.

I’d rather they stuck more closely to the Eurovision format mind.

Confirmed, sort of, today by the EBU ...

The #Eurovision Song Contest is heading to the USA 🤩

We're super excited to announce that The American Song Contest 🇺🇸 will debut in 2021!

Read all about it 👉 https://t.co/w6ZFbTyetB pic.twitter.com/YSdeehOQ3t

— Eurovision Song Contest (@Eurovision) August 7, 2020

Is it a copyright thing that the EBU are involved, do they own the copyright for inter-national song contests, or is it their expertise that is being brought to the table?

It’s probably a bit of both. There expertise are going to be useful and it means there can’t be any format disputes if the format is too similar to Eurovision.

But also it sounds like this is being driven by the EBU rather than an American company wanting to create their own version.

I think it’s very difficult to gauge these things. Who’d have thought Bake Off would be a huge hit in America?

I think Eurovision today is a different beast to what most of us see it as too. So it could instantly be more respected by a wider US audience who don’t have the historical perception of it being slightly naff. It might seem like something that’s comparable to American Idol rather than the slightly slightly kitsch way most people here view it.

The other thing is US music culture is going to be broadly the same across the whole country. So I’m not sure you’re going to get the acts that seem totally bizarre to most of the viewing audience.

I don't think US music culture is broadly the same at all, but it's not going to go to the extremes of the UK.

How on earth would they do state by state voting - location data on cells perhaps?

"New Mexico, twelve points. Nuevo México, doce puntos."

Well, like the regular Eurovision, it can't be *just* in English. Can it?

Via an app?