We’ve been hyping up the American Song Contest all week, and tonight the first episode of the contest came and went! Now for those who were not able to view the show live, please beware that there will be spoilers below – you have been warned!
Tonight’s episode featured 11 of the 56 artists from a number of US states and territories, and their songs also represented a very diverse spectrum of genres. From country, to KPop, rap, and pop, there was a little bit of everything for tonight’s audience. The show also contained a fair balance of humor and good timing from hosts Kelly Clarkson and Snoop Dogg, which helped the show flow steadily throughout the night.
The running order was decided prior to the episode and was as follows:
- Minnesota: Yam Haus – “Ready to Go”
- Oklahoma: AleXa – “Wonderland”
- Arkansas: Kelsey Lamb “Never Like This”
- Indiana: UG skywalkin ft. Maxie – “Love In My City”
- Puerto Rico – Christian Pagán – “LOKO”
- Connecticut: Michael Bolton – “Beautiful World”
- Iowa: Alisabeth von Presley – “Wonder”
- Wisconsin – Jake’O – “Feel Your Love”
- Mississippi: Keyone Starr – “Fire”
- Wyoming: Ryan Charles – “New Boot Goofin”
- Rhode Island: Hueston – “Held On Too Long”
Prior to this week’s episode we were able to sit down with nearly every artist for an interview which can be found here. You can also read more about the different states, territories, and artists from William’s pre-episode 101 article here.
Voting and Jury Qualifier
As we’ve expressed in our master article for the American Song Contest, four qualifiers will be selected from each episode. One qualifier will be decided by a 56 part jury of music professionals (one person from every state and territory), and the remaining three qualifiers will be decided by the American public. The televote will be open until early Wednesday morning at 7 AM Eastern time, and will be conducted across the NBC website, NBC official app, and TikTok – so if you haven’t already,
While the voting window for the televote extends into Wednesday, the automatic jury qualifier was voted upon during the dress rehearsal (just like during Eurovision) and was announced during the broadcast. The act that will be automatically advancing is Rhode Island, guaranteeing him a spot in one of the two semi-finals on April 25th or May 2nd.
This means that the following acts are relying on your votes to get them to the semi-finals:
- AleXa
- Alisabeth von Presley
- Christian Pagán
- Jake’O
- Kelsey Lamb
- Keyone Starr
- Michael Bolton
- Ryan Charles
- UG skywalkin
- Yam Haus
Once the lines close on Wednesday morning the final three qualifiers will be decided. It is currently unknown when these qualifiers will be announced, but some sources are saying NBC will announce them at the beginning of next week’s episode. When the announcement is made, we will include those results in this article.
What to expect for next week
Next week on March 28th eleven more acts will take to the stage to compete for a spot in the semi-final rounds. At this time it is still unknown who will take place in the second episode but according to social media posts we do know that New York and Oregon will be part of the line-up. We will know more about the line-up when the rehearsal teasers are released on Saturday afternoon.
What did #YOU think of the first episode of the American Song Contest? Let us know on social media @ESCUnited, on our discord, or on our forum page!
