Snoop Dogg
Getty Images for Roc NationSnoop Dogg and Kelly Clarkson will serve as hosts of American Song Contest, the Eurovision-styled singing competition premiering on NBC this March.
First announced in August 2020 and modeled after the annual Eurovision Song Contest, the American Song Contest will 56 artists — one from all 50 states, plus one from Washington, D.C. and five U.S. territories — to compete for the country’s best new hit song.
“I am honored to host American Song Contest alongside my lil sis Kelly Clarkson, aka Miss Texas,” Snoop Dogg — who will appear during the Super Bowl LVI halftime show Sunday — said in a statement.
The Voice veteran Clarkson, herself an American Idol winner, added, “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 all-live American Song Contest will premiere Monday, March 21, and run for eight weeks before concluding with a Grand Final scheduled for May 9. The list of 56 solo singers, duos or bands will be announced at a later date.
The American Song Contest was announced back in August 2020 and scheduled for 2021, but the Covid-19 pandemic likely pushed its U.S. arrival until this year.
“Imagine if music was an Olympic sport and artists from all over the world came together to compete for the gold. That’s the Eurovision Song Contest,” Eurovision rights owners Anders Lenhoff said in a statement at the time.
“The American version will be different than anything seen before on U.S. television, marrying the fanfare and excitement of March Madness and the NFL playoffs with the artistry and beauty of world-class performances. The American Song Contest is a competition that happens to be televised, rather than a contest created to make a television show. And it’s open to all singers with a song, whether they are amateur artists or already signed to a major record label. No one is excluded from the competition.”
NEWS
There’s a high probability that Jorja Smith has new music coming this summer. The British singer revealed plans for her What Are the Odds LP on Thursday (July 2), with the album set to arrive on Aug. 21 via FAMM.
Smith reunites with producer P2J — who served as a primary collaborator on her 2023 album Falling or Flying — for the entirety of the project. J Money and P2J will continue to build on the inventive U.K. garage sound Smith has been exploring, alongside a mix of grime and house.
“This album came together really naturally. There was never a big plan; it was just me making music that felt right in the moment,” Smith tells Billboard. “Working with P2J, we started experimenting with different sounds, pulling from U.K. garage, grime and house (funky house, Afro house) and it all grew from there.”
She continues: “The music feels uplifting, but the lyrics can be a bit sad at times. They’re about growing up, love, loss, friendships and figuring things out as I go. I trusted my instincts with this one, and I think you can hear that throughout the record.”
Smith kicked off the album’s rollout in May with the self-assuring “What’s Done Is Done,” and it continues on Thursday (July 2) with a second single, “Alive,” which finds the R&B singer joining forces with Afrobeats pioneer WizKid. The duo basks in the love-drunk euphoria of the honeymoon phase of a bubbling relationship and heads to Paris for the visual.
“Making this with P2J and WizKid felt really easy,” Smith adds of the collab. “We wrote and recorded it together in London. I think we captured that feeling when you’re at the beginning of something with someone and everything feels exciting. I’ve always loved WizKid’s music and the way he’s opened so many doors for Afrobeats around the world, so it feels really special and a big honor to have a song with him.”
What Are the Odds serves as Jorja Smith’s third studio album and contains 12 tracks. Outside of WizKid, the only other feature comes from grime artist Devlin.
When the project lands on Aug. 21, Smith will hit the stage later that night at London’s All Points East, as she’ll be co-headlining the Victoria Park show with Tems. 2026 has already been a busy year for J Money, who served as a musical guest on the debut season of Saturday Night Live UK in April.
The 29-year-old also collaborated with Mobb Deep’s Havoc for a remix of her “Blue Lights” classic and lent “Price of It All” to Amazon MGM Studios’ Bait soundtrack.
Find the What Are the Odds cover art and tracklist below.
What Are the Odds tracklist:
