Eurovision is often called the Olympics of music. So it’s fitting that its Stateside spinoff would make its next big announcement during the biggest sporting event on the U.S. calendar. As Super Bowl fans waited for the halftime show to kick off, NBC unveiled its hosts for the American Song Contest — Kelly Clarkson and Snoop Dogg.
Watch the announcment in the trailer below.
Kelly Clarkson and Snoop Dogg to host American Song Contest
The rapper behind hits like “Drop It Like It’s Hot”, “Buttons” and “California Gurls” says “I am honored to host American Song Contest alongside my lil sis Kelly Clarkson, aka Miss Texas. 🎤🎬👊🏾👊🏾”.
Meanwhile, Grammy-winner Clarkson adds “I have been a fan and love the concept of Eurovision and am thrilled to bring the musical phenomenon to America. I’m so excited to work with Snoop and can’t wait to see every state and territory represented by artists singing their own songs”.
The American Song Contest: What we know so far
The American take on Eurovision will showcase live and original music performances from the 50 U.S. states, five U.S. territories and the capital. They’ll all be competing to secure “America’s next great hit”. The competition will consist of three rounds: qualifying heats, semi-finals and the grand final.
The NBC series will premiere on 21 March from the NBCUniversal lot — the same location as The Voice. The series will run for eight weeks on Monday nights, with the grand final scheduled for May 9, just ahead of Eurovision 2022.
The 56 acts will be revelaed at a later date.
Kelly Clarkson
The Emmy-winning talk show host and Grammy Award-winning artist won the first series of American Idol twenty years ago. She’s gone on to become a global star, notching up worldwide sales of more than 25 million albums and 40 million singles. Her hits include “Since U Been Gone”, “Because Of You”, “My Life Would Suck Without You” and “Underneath The Tree”. She also worked with Spain’s Eurovision 2020 and 2021 singer Blas Cantó on “I Dare You”. Earlier in February she covered Duncan Laurence’s Eurovision 2019 winning song “Arcade”.
Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg has been multi-platinum rapper for nearly three decades. He has released 19 studio albums, sold over 40 million albums worldwide, reached number one countless times on Billboard charts internationally and has received 20 Grammy nominations. In addition to collaborating with the likes of Katy Perry and the Pussycat Dolls, he’s also previously joined forces with Eurovision icons Twiins (Slovakia 2011).
Are you excited for the American Song Contest? Let us know down below.
Whenever I visit this website, it always tends to be so negative in the comments. Like others, I don’t want America to participate in Eurovision. However, I have no problem with them having their own version. Including all of the Americas may have added some different flavours to the show, but I can still see it being fun. You’ll be surprised how different each State can be. As for Kelly being a co-host – she is actually very popular. She has her own show, is a judge on The Voice and has a huge following. I think she will help… Read more »
I honestly think Flo Rida woulda been a perfect host since he’s been on eurovision.
This might be a great opportunity to showcase songwriting talent in the US, instead of just vocals as tv shows have been focused on.
omg Kelly Clarkson!!! She’s big on US TV, she has her own TV show + she’s a judge on The Voice and she hosted the Billboard Music awards. I think she will be amazing and she has mentioned Eurovision in her interview woohoo!
I want Kelly to be an interval act in Eurovision, she is crazy talented.
Snoop Dogg was a weird choice I must admit.
here’s to hoping it’s a mess and a flop 🙂
When I was in the US people did not seem so ‘regionally proud’ as in many European countries. I might be wrong but I dont see Americans rooting for a singer/song just because they are from their own state.
This American thing should have been continental instead of a 1 country competition. As it is now, it is not so different from Got Talent or a similar talent show.
From the US here. People are EXTREMELY regionally proud in the US. Just like in Europe, some States are more “humble” and others won’t shut up about where they’re from (Texas/Kelly Clarkson are great examples: she’s a proud Texan and will go on for hours about Texas… One of the many reasons she’s America’s sweetheart). New Yorkers, SoCal, Great Lakes area, Tennessee, Hawaii are other examples.
Maryland itself is a cult… not a state lol
you’re hella wrong. People are very proud of their states, it really depends on the state though.
we already have kind of a eurovision thing in latam. it’s called viña del mar and it has the same ammount of years as eurovision. the difference is that is always held stationary in chile instead of changing to the country that wins. it’s actually open worldwide but it tends to only have songs from south america (sometimes italy and spain compete too). I would love seeing hurricane competing for serbia with some of their songs.
Okay, okay, they want to go big. I like that.
Will the UK get to see this it would be great
this is a big NO.
I would love to see the previous winner of ESC perform as a guest in ASC and the winner of ASC to then be able to perform as a guest on ESC. It would be a great way to get more Americans interested in Eurovision (and hopefully push for it to be broadcast on a larger network or streaming platform in the US) without letting them formally compete.
Obviously, before anyone comes after me, keep the US out of competing in Eurovision. But they can still join in on the fun!
The 2021 show is on the Peacock app.
seriously, whats the hate about? no one has seen any details about the show, songs, hosts, nothing. this was also the same reaction when the eurovision movie was announced, everyone hated the idea of it. and then it turned out to be a respectful, wholesome movie that most of the fandom enjoyed
And the movie actually kind of crossed over. Many of my acquaintances actually watched the movie and most of them actually enjoyed it too, and I’m from a country that doesn’t talk much about Eurovision
Don’t see why some here are so against ASC, I think it will be quite interesting to see what type of music we will see, since world war 3 is about to start any day now it is probably good to have some kind of music competition still going since ESC might be in danger in worst case scenario…
Good that you are an optimist like myself 😉
Ewwwwwww yuuuuk boooooo noooo
Eurovision Song Contest is an icon of its own and America is copying it
Like my family member said and I quote “American Song Contest will probably be like Idol – meaning that it will probably have 2 to 3 seasons and will be over after that (I’m not saying that Idol has just 2 to 3 seasons. I like Idol)”
oh my. her accept is pretty dreadful when she sings Arcade.
Oh, so it’s cool to make fun of American accents now I guess??
I used to attend an amateur drama group when I was living in Lithuania. It was mostly for fun, just a group of friends playing improv games and reading classic plays. The group was open to everyone and meeting times were informally decided among members. Then one day two American ladies showed up. They were appalled at our amateurism, insisted on setting fixed days and times, using expensive props (that we all had to pay for), they kicked out some members that they judged to be weak actors, and set up rules for new members (like a reading and proof… Read more »
Probably the point is not to make another ESC but rather take inspiration from it to create a show for Americans?
Snoop D O Double G my man Snoop Dawg is gonna be hosting, it’s gonna be lit – from an American.
I also hope this ain’t the stepping stone for the US to join ESC, we need to stay out of it.
If this show goes off without any major problems, Christer Björkman will not stop trying to promote U.S. participation in Eurovision. If acrimony develops, during or after the show–or if viewership flops–there will be no talk about it. The only way it’ll ever happen is if they also invite one from South America, one from Asia and one from Africa.
I’m all for this. I’m just concerned that this will be americas stepping stone to entering their winner of this show into Eurovision. Please don’t let that happen EBU.
Off Topic
Rosa Linn will represent Armenia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCt9gfNSyg4
actually, Kelly Clarkson hosting this show is a smart move by NBC, because she won the first edition of American Idol, which is the first hit music/singing show brought to America by a European (a Brit called Simon Fuller, to be exact), so it is, in some sense, still related (American Song Contest is another show brought to America by Europeans). American Idol was already a hit, but just like Idol back in the day, the fate of American Song Contest is still uncertain, it could either be a hit or a miss.
+ her daytime talk show is the biggest in the entire us (if im not mistaken) and is a judge on the voice
People need to adjust their expectations that this will be in any way like ESC. It will only follow the rules and procedures but the show itself will be very much like other NBC music programs. A commercial broadcaster that doesn’t rely on public money needs to sell advertising against the show so the focus will be not on the music but on the contestants back stories, challenges they have overcome in their family life, diversity (they will throw in a few songs in Spanish – for sure from Puerto Rico), etc. It can’t be all singer/songwriter because the executives… Read more »
We kinda see those contestant backstories in national selections too though.
In fact, that being a reality show feature came from European formats such as The Voice, Got Talent and Pop Idol.
I’ll watch this, but I can see it being completely different to Eurovision.
But it will be something interesting to watch anyway, hopefully I enjoy some of the entries.
In my head, I’m expecting a lot of rap and country but yeah, it will be fun to see the Eurovision format hit the states.
I mean as long as they follow the Eurovision format then im happy from my POV.
ie: Voting sequence like the Eurovision. (unable to vote for your own state/territory) etc
I can’t help but think this could have been an amazing platform to show the rich diversity of the entire continent because, that is the nicest thing about Eurovision? To listen to people from different backgrunds, with different customs and languages … that’s just my take.
Anyway, good luck to them.
The show looks well-produced, so there has been some thought put into it!
There’s already a continent-wide festival. It’s called the OTI Fest. The US has always refused to take part.
Sad to hear that.
Can’t edit my previous comment, but I wanted to make a correction – apparently OTI Fest ended in the early 2000s.
I agree with you though that reviving OTI and making it a continent wide event would be much more interesting.
The US did take part, in fact, we won in two occasions, the problem was that in order to take part in the contest, the number one rule was to sing either in Spanish, Portuguese, or French. Since English was not allowed, that excluded 96% of the American population and we relied mostly on Latin American singers who lived in the US.
I didn’t know that, I think it’s great! I still think reviving the OTI festival would be the way to go, maybe allowing for English language songs to be performed too.
The U.S. did participate in the OTI Festival. They came in 1974, 2 years after it started. They won twice; in 1986 and 2000, the last one before it folded. Spain and Mexico each won 6 times.
I really don’t get the animosity torwards ASC. We don’t know a single song, a single interval act, a single editing choice etc. I think it’s way too early to scream “cancel it!”. You can have your opinions about the concept but wait before you judge it as a whole.
people think it’s cool to hate on america over the smallest things. as an american, i personally can’t stand my country, but you shouldn’t punch down on america this much unless you actually lived here, most of the people in this comment section are probably from countries with free healthcare and paid parental leave, benefits which people like myself can’t enjoy because of our greedy leaders.
My previous comments were misunderstood, but my personal opinion is that the US cultural industry is at its best when it creates new stuff instead of copying from others. No American remake is better than the original, but most American IPs are better than anything the rest of us could ever come up with. I hope I’m making sense.
American original IP=outstanding, American remakes=usually disappointing
This is American Idol 2.0, it’s offensive to associate it with the Eurovision platform.
Why has the EBU allowed this to go ahead by selling the concept?
You haven’t seen it yet though.
Money?
Actually, it’s much more likely to be the Voice 2.0 since the show runner and casting company are both from the Voice.
As a European I can’t help but feel that the Americans ruin everything. This is why we can’t have nice things!
How does it ruin anything for you when it’s a completely different show and it’s not in any way a part of ESC?
Well I understand the sentiment. It’s like when Hollywood remakes a European film that’s beautiful and deep and philosophical and somehow turns it into a cheesy romcom and then the remake becomes more popular than the original and people refuse to watch the original because they expect it to be just as bad as the American remake. I reckon the same could happen here.
Well, they did made Survivor/Expedition Robinson one of the best exportable TV formats that came out of Sweden so that’s not half-bad.
Bye Eurovision. Hello American Song Contest.
JK. But I’m really excited for it!!
Could this become a real success?
it seems serious and beautifuly produced
now my wish list:
jessica jung – california
ashley tisdale – new jearsey
austin mahone – texas
rei yasuda – north carolina
So thrilled Kelly Clarkson is hosting!! I’ve suggested her as host since last Summer. It is a very smart and wonderful decision given this year marks 20 years since she won the first season of American Idol. I’ve been a huge fan of her ever since first hearing “Miss Independent” in 2003 and Breakaway was one of the albums I brought. She’s always served good music and is a genuine nice down to earth woman which is why she’s recently successful as a chat show. Snoop Dogg leaves me indifferent, I just hope he won’t be embarrassing (didn’t do a… Read more »
*One of the first albums I brought
I’m so excited for this! The more the merrier.
Hopefully, my US family will get into it so they can finally understand why I’m so hyped around this time of year. Michigan, you gotta bring that Eminem/Motown pride!
This is gonna be some comercial mess, but at least we can tell they do care.
Interesting. The presence of Snoop Dog will obviously grab a lot of audience. Kelly Clarkson too, though I think her prime was, at least, a decade ago.
True, but she’s nowhere close to irrelevant though. I mean she’s way more relevant in us than Flo Rida I think and Europe was crazy about him last year.
Yeah, those 13 televoting points that Flo managed last year were the stuff of dreams…
Actually in US she is in her prime. Judging the Voice and being Emmy winning talkshow host made her big again
Pretty sure Hector was talking about her singing career
That doesn’t mean she is irrelevant…
And he didn’t say she is. He said she’s past her prime
Eight weeks ? Eight weeks ? This is some San Marino level show lol
Eight to ten weeks is pretty standard for a music-based competition show in the US, and in this case, someone has to trim down 56 acts one way or another in just a little under 2 hours per Monday.
Anti-American comments in 3, 2, 1…
For those against the show, if you don’t like the show, don’t watch it.
And, no, “American” (as used here in the States) does not mean the entire continent. Here, if we want to include the entire continent, we say “North America” or the “Americas”.
Don’t worry, we know that American indicates the United States, it is an inappropriate but still widespread and common use, in Italy we mostly call you “americani” even tho we have a more appropriate word: “statunitensi”.
In every other part of the world, there is a word to talk about inhabitants of the US, but it speaks loud of how egocentric US people are.
Here in the Philippines, we call the country both “Estados Unidos”, “US”, “USA” and “Amerika” with the people being “Amerikano”.
We do have a counterpart to “Gringo”, which is “Kano”, shortened from “Amerikano”.
They do it their way but I think they’re respecting origin and take it as something bigger than another X-Factor. No reason to hate, really. I wish them fun
America is the whole continent. You are the united states of that continent.
By that logic, then we should have Eurasiafrica because they’re all just one landmass of a continent.
No, James. It’s just a fact. Like the European Union is not Europe, the United States of America is not America. It is a group of “united states” without its own name.
Depends on the context and language. “Ámerica” in Spanish is “the Americas” in referring to the continents in English. “America” is also the short form name of the United States. So there’s really no wrong answer as long as you know what you are talking about, know your geography, and is well aware of linguistic, historical and cultural nuances. For example: If It doesn’t make sense to you that a country has an informal and casual short-form name taken from a region such as America, then it doesn’t make sense for native English-speakers to call its citizens to a literal… Read more »
Actually, “United States of America” is its official formal name. If the country was founded today, then it wouldn’t make sense but that has been their name for over 2 centuries.
Yes, that’s my point. The constitution sees it just as I did in my first comment. The united states of the continent of America.
A Canadian citizen is just as “American” as a citizen from the United States of America.
Not really. It wouldn’t make sense, no less conventional either. Tell an actual Canadian that they’re “American” and they will think you’re mistaking them for someone from south of the Canadian border. “North American” would be clearer as it would easily suggest you are talking about someone who is from North America.
You can’t really find any English-language literature that uses “Ámerica the continent” in reference to the Americas.
So yes, it falls down to nuance, convenience, sensibility and cultural awareness.
Not really. It’s not the Supreme Court of America, it’s not the America Congress, Joe Biden is not called POA. It’s not called the Constitution of America.
People can call it whatever they like, but facts are still facts.
facts are still facts. It varies on the language on how “America” is used in literature and a universal understanding on the terminology used to describe the two continents and how experts on geography agree with what defines a continent, whether it is a huge landmass or if 2 landmasses connected to a thin piece of land could be considered as one, and in that case, should the same be applied to the rest of the continents, which form a much larger land area, interconnected just as well via peninsulas, valleys, plateaus and mountain ranges. Unfortunately, there is no such… Read more »