American Song Contest: a 2:1 Eurovision with Melodifestivalen? – Summary 2/3.

Format of the American Song Contest

The version of the American Song Contest for 2022 – called the initial format – is available on the Swedish SVT website, on the website of the national selection show Melodifestivalen.

“The American Song Contest 2022 will feature 50 states, Washington DC and the five territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands. The programme will feature 56 artists, each with a newly written song. The programme is divided into five competitions, two semi-finals and a final. In each competition, 11 states compete – except one, where there are 12 artists.

Four of the contestants in each competition go through to one of the two semi-finals. Viewers vote for three entries from each programme and a jury selects a fourth entry. At the end of each competition, the entry chosen by the jury to go forward to the semi-finals is presented. The jury consists of 56 people – one representative from each competing state/territory. Voting continues after the end of the programme and the results are presented at the beginning of the next programme. The same procedure applies to the semi-finals.

In addition to the 20 entries that make it to the semi-finals, the jury also selects two so-called “redemption songs” which, despite not being voted for by viewers or the jury, are picked back into the competition and will participate in one semi-final each. The premise is that these are the two songs that have performed best outside the programme. In total, 22 artists will go through to the two semi-finals, 11 in each. Viewers will vote five entries from each semi-final into the final. Ten entries will compete in the final. The results will be announced in the Eurovision style, with juries awarding 12 points and an aggregated score.”

The fathers of the format: here is the team of professionals!

As Eurovision fans will already know, Christer Björkman of Sweden’s Melodifestivalen will produce the American show alongside Anders Lenhoff. However, the roster of names heading up the US production includes several established names, with Peter Settman and Ola Melzig both with over 20 years of Eurovision experience, and former Propagate president Gregory Lipstone, who most recently joined the team, which also includes Ben Silverman, in March 2022.

Given the above and the roster of the creative team, it is perhaps no coincidence that the synergy of the two closely related mega-productions mentioned in the title of this article was used to create Eurovision overseas, but there may be surprises and new additions in the voting for our favourites…

Illustration by NBC
Source: Eurovision.tv, EBU, SVT, NBC