American Song Contest heat five saw the final 11 acts take to the stage to represent their state or territory. Following the jury vote, it was Michigan’s Ada LeAnn who came out on top and secured a spot in the semi-final.
Four spots in the semi-finals remain – three via the heat five televote and one as the steaming wildcard. Then we’ll have our 22 semi-finalists.
American Song Contest heat five
Results
Four acts will ultimately qualify directly from the heat.
As always, the professional jury select one qualifier during the live programme to move through to the semi-finals. This was Michigan’s Ada LeAnn and her emotional ballad “Natalie”.
The public now have three days to vote for their favourites and choose three other acts to advance.
During the show, we also found out who the televoters chose to qualify from last week’s heat four. The televoters chose Georgia, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire to advance.
Competing acts
- Illinois: Justin Jesso — “Lifeline”
- California: Sweet Taboo — “Keys to the Kingdom”
- Idaho: Andrew Sheppard — “Steady Machine”
- New Mexico: Khalisol — “Drop”
- Missouri: HALIE — “Better Things”
- American Samoa: Tenelle — “Full Circle”
- North Carolina: John Morgan — “Right in the Middle”
- Vermont: Josh Panda — “Rollercoaster”
- Guam: Jason J. — “Midnight”
- Michigan: Ada LeAnn — “Natalie”
- Maryland: Sisqó — “It’s Up”
Streaming wildcards
In addition to the 20 acts who qualified from their heats via the jury and televote, another two states/territories will make it through as a streaming wildcard. Of the non-qualifiers, the two acts with the highest social media streams will earn a lifeline and progress to the semi-finals.
The first of these wildcards has already been announced, and it goes to Wyoming’s Ryan Charles. His entry “New Boot Goofin” finished second to last in the jury vote during heat one. However, Ryan still managed to leave a mark and has racked up the streams in the week’s since then.
The other streaming wildcard will be announced in due course.
Are you happy that Michigan’s Ada LeAnn qualified to the American Song Contest semi-finals? Which state or territory do you think should receive the second streaming wildcard? Let us know in the comments below.
So…a small good thing is that the viewership numbers are up a LITTLE bit from heat four. 1.53 mil vs last week’s 1.44
The ratings remain the same.
Because California competed in the heat, I reckon.
The producer HAS to pull the girls through to the semifinal now in order to keep the viewership numbers.
Seems liek it’s settling in now. Still not a good sign for renewal but at least it hasn’t had a magnificent drop as it was between the first and second weeks.
American Samoa and Trenelle All The Way!! I hope she make as I thought she was the best of them all.
Im so happy for her qualifying ;D
I hope florida is the other wildcard but i wouldn’t mind seeing virginia
They are looking for the most streamed songs, so they have Wyoming from heat 1, so they probably will get someone from heat 2 or 3 (hopefully New York – Enisa!)
I’d say that people think California is stronger in comparison to Florida
My 3 votes for Heat 5 went to CA, AS and VT. My personal wildcard would be West Virginia. We rarely see a full display gay female act on national TV and coming from such a conservative State, it is special. It takes courage to show your true self. I love that song. I’m not sure if I look forward to next week since we still don’t who is performing in SM 1. Not sure when we’ll know.
I love Natalie. Ada has my favorite song. This is the first week where my favorite song won.
Michigan’s song was ok but not the best. All I could focus on is hearing her breathe into the mic. She need more singing training.
as a michigander, i couldn’t be prouder! however, i feel like there are better songs to represent us. detroit is the birthplace of techno, funk, and motown. wish we would’ve had a song from those genres as opposed to this
are the asc juries able to appreciate anything with a beat ? i hate this ballad = quality mindset
Sisqo’s song with a beat shouldn’t go through just because it’s got a beat. The title was repeated over and over again and the stupid dragon microphone just seemed like he was trying to hard. It was hard to connect to a song like that. California song seemed a bit cliche too but not as bad as Sisqo.
With 56 jurors sitting in the jury, I can imagine they all don’t agree with many of each other’s top picks while favoring a particular song that’s well high up in their rankings that somehow end up being the over-all fave for each heat.
It’s quite interesing that the public vote more or less locked in the qualifications of the most of the other jury picks.
Of course songs from Semi 1 will have higher streaming numbers compared to songs from Semi 4 for example. What a stupid way to choose Second Chance entries anyway.
I’m gonna guess because his song went viral that the gap between 1st and 2nd is so large, that they felt comfortable that even if another song from Heat 5 goes viral it won’t be 2 songs from Heat 5 and so no one else can catch up with Wyoming.
The songs acts and stagings are super, but it all seems a bit artificial comparing directly with our experience of the Eurovision Song Contest. We know how all the Eurovision entries got selected and how they were supported by the public and juries. With the ASC, there’s less of that. The songs are appearing from nowhere. I hope that ASC will get a bit more like Eurovision, but I fear we’re heading in the opposite direction.
Watching the contest, it feels much more like a national selection than eurovision itself, that makes sense looking at the people in charge, with the current format it looks like it’s staying that way, but if the states hold nf’s of their own, we’d be getting much more of the “american eurovision” it was marketed as.
I think the semi-final and final will be an upgrade compared to the heats. It would be very difficult for states to hold State Finals because small states that are less than 1 million people probably would have trouble organising it and having enough viewers vote for it. The maximum would be larger states having finals, and smaller states doing internal selections.
Not sure we’ll see it next year. The ratings are getting worse each week.
You’re right.
Can we stop playing around and just invite USA into Eurovision already like we do Australia? Someone needs to fill the void left by Russia and Belarus, anyway.
Except unlike Australia, the US doesn’t care about Eurovision. Hopefully Turkey or Andorra can fill that void.
Because of the Swedish team involved it was always going to be much closer to Melodifestivalen than to ESC. The only thing they can tinker with if they get a 2nd season is to attract more artists to compete, thereby increasing the quality because it’s a proven platform. I think they did a decent job for the 2st season. At least they got variety even from small places like the island territories.
As exciting as the idea may have sounded, the actual outcome of this show is a mess. I fail to see how this will survive a second season with the messy execution and low ratings. The revamp must be MAJOR.
Not sure what ‘outcome’ you’re referring to. Personally, the show has delivered on what’s important which is the songs. I already added many songs from the contest into my playlist. I enjoy them a lot.
The outcome is the show itself. It is a mess from head to toe.
I disagree, but I’m not gonna argue with you since it seems you already made up your mind.
My thoughts on this heat: • I’m just as surprised about New Hampshire as you are. IDK if it’s deserved or not since Nevada is there. • Happy that Massachusetts and Georgia got in. • I’m really sorry, Justin, but it’s gonna be a no from me. • California ate the crumbs and left none. Served and Slayed, periodt! • I actually ignored American Samoa. Boy, was I wrong when I watched her live performance. Tenelle was great. • Ada LeAnn was great but it as a lot point out, it’s a bit reminiscent of Taylor Swift. Nevertheless, she was… Read more »
I was pretty sure that Maryland – Sisqo would not be a jury fave, but it might pass through like New Hampshire – Mari. I personally loved Mari’s song, it’s so positive and uplifting!
Illinois had some trouble with its performance.
alright, I’m personally surprise Hew Hampshire qualified. I didn’t think it was all that special and would’ve chosen Nevada or West Virginia myself. Maybe Arizona. I agree with Massachusetts and Georgia though. Wyoming getting the wild card is to be expected and I’m glad that it did. I am…definitely fuming that Michigan took California’s jury spot last second. I still think Washington is the only deserved jury win. It would not surprise me if Washington won the entire contest. Also I have to say, of the five heats, ..I personally found this one to be the weakest by far. For… Read more »
I really like New Hampshire – Mari, it is just so positive! I’m astonished at how Wyoming got 1 of the 2 wild cards, that song might be a fan favourite but the juries will tank its chance of going to the final. If the other wildcard isn’t New York – Enisa, I’m going to be so annoyed
The jury results were posted, and Sisqo was 9th! From the looks of things, if he doesn’t pull off a miracle like Mari (NH) did (qualified despite being 8th among the jury), Michael Bolton will be the only one of the 5 major veterans (the most senior of them all) who qualifies for the next round. As I see it, if NBC encouraged the veterans (all of whom became big stars before 2000, one even before 1990) to participate in an effort to drum up interest and viewership for this contest, the plan failed. The unknowns and up-and-comers (deservedly) rule… Read more »
I haven’t been able to watch the contest, but I have kept on following it. Atleast the jury qualifier is a female ballad for a change! I’m so glad that two of my favorites qualified from heat 4! I really believed that Nevada would’ve been chosen too, but I guess that American viewers didn’t love it as much as Eurofans. And I’m actually not quite surprised Wyoming got the redemption. I mean, I’m a very huge fan of the song, I’m just saying that since it became viral, the public had chosen it (I think) Now I hope that Illinois… Read more »
The jury finally breaks the 4 white male solo singing sappy songs qualification streak by qualifying a white female so singing sappy song. God is real!
*solo
You need to stop putting race in all this. Your post would be instantly deleted on my facebook group.
Race is a thing that exists in this country. Twitter has been roasting the jury selections, the memes are brutal.
Your Facebook group sounds like it has its head in the sand. You can’t ignore the blatant institutional racism at work in this competition and in the jury and its selections. An unoriginal sad white girl took down three much more original boss Latinas. The white man running Iheart radio who they selected to represent the jury literally said she reminded him of Taylor Swift. It’s blatant, you’re a fool to dismiss it, and absolutely nobody is surprised. It’s just so disappointing that in the year 2022 we still live in a world where institutional racism prevails.
The ultimate pimp spot didn’t help Loreen in MelFest 2017. What made them think it was a shoo-in for Sisqo?
Unprecedented qualification from round 4. Allen Stone (WA), who won the jury vote, obviously qualified. Jared Lee (MA), 2nd in the jury vote, also qualified. But Stela Cole (GA), who was 6th in the jury vote, and Mari (NH), who was 8th, also made it. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mari won the public vote to squeeze in. Those last two knocked out the Crystal Method (NV, 3rd in the jury vote) and Bri Steves (PA, 4th in the jury vote).
This is the first time I totally agree with the set of qualifiers so far! A lot of people probably upset that Crystal Method didn’t qualify, but personally I just don’t feel it.
Lowkey happy that Wyoming gets the redemption! Hoping the other redemption goes to another bop that got robbed.
An hour and a half gone by, and NO COMMENTS! That pretty much exemplifies where this contest may be headed in the future.
Lol yeah. But let’s just enjoy the show because it might the one and only ASC we’re gonna have.
P/S: I would comment in real-time if I can but most of my comments seem to go to moderation and only approved a few hours later.
Same with mine, today and yesterday.
Many who comments here are in Europe trying to stay awake.
FIRST LOL