America is getting is own version of the Eurovision Song Contest

The format for the American Song Contest will be similar to Europe's, with 50 states competing for the crown.
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America is getting is own version of the Eurovision Song Contest, appropriately titled the American Song Contest.

As revealed by Variety, the American Song Contest will debut close to Christmas 2021. 

The format will be similar to the European version, with professional singers or groups with up to six members from each of the 50 states will perform original songs spanning all genres on the live televised event.

The qualifier competitions and semi-finals will also run as they do in Europe, with around 26 states competing in the live televised Grand Final.

MORE: Where every UK Eurovision entry has reached on the Official Chart

The American Song Contest Academy will be formed by Propagate Content, a group made up of music professionals based in America that represent all genres and backgrounds. They will form a jury of artists and music industry figures who, along with the regional audiences, will select top talent from all 50 states to compete. Watch a trailer for the contest below: 

Ben Silverman will be executive producer of the American Song Contest. He's previously imported shows The Office, Big Brother and The Weakest Link from Europe to America, but admits Eurovision has been the hardest to bring to a US audience. “I’ve spent 20 years trying to pursue this,” he said. "When I was chairman of NBC, when I was an agent at William Morris and when I started at Reveille. I just love the format.

“When America is more fractionalized than ever and we are dealing with so many issues that divide us, the one [thing] that truly unites us is our culture. … It can unite it by celebrating its diversity, its distinctions and in pulling everyone around its love of music and its love of song.”

The Eurovision Song Contest has run for 64 years and has made huge stars out of acts including ABBA, Olivia Newton-John, Celine Dion and Englebert Humperdinck. 

MORE: Eurovision's highest-charting songs in the UK

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Article image: Shutterstuck

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Jason Lindley

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Why are your articles always full of errors. Engelbert Humperdink was well known before doing Eurovision.

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Phil James McNulty

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I think “Eurovision made a huge star out of Engelbert Humperdink” might be a slight stretch!
Considering he showed up in 2012 after decades in the business.

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🧡 oliviasnoodles 🍜

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Huh, one would have thought it would unite all the countries from North and South America. Still, I’m all for the idea.

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⁉️

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Yeah, so did I, but both work for me.

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Damián

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Absolutely agree. So many years ago, in the early 80"s there was a music competition for South American countries similar to ESC

CP

Courtney Puzzo

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this is a lame idea considering there's 50 states the district of Columbia and several territories such as Panama Guam and Puerto Rico and also the varied music tastes by region IE south west and West having a large contingent of Latin Music fans as large percentages of those states are of Mexican American decent

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Tim Barnsley-Parfitt

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A big part of Eurovision is having lots of different types of music, Courtney. Your point about Latin music makes the contest more interesting and uniting.

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⁉️

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Cool, I'll probably give it a watch.

Maybe this means we'll see them in actual Eurovision, we saw Australia in it, so it could happen