Songland with ESTER DEAN
Songland: You know the award-winning voices. You know the chart-topping hits. Now discover where the magic behind the music really happens. Welcome to “Songland.” Every artist is looking for one thing – their next great song. NBC’s new groundbreaking series “Songland” serves as a destination for music’s biggest stars to find their next hit and represents a new chapter for music in television. Undiscovered songwriters are put center stage as they pitch their original creations to top recording artists and a panel of chart-topping music producers in the hopes of creating the artists’ next big hits. The 11-episode series is an authentic peek into the creative process of songwriting and provides one talented winner per episode with the opportunity to have their song recorded and released worldwide by chart-topping artists. Featured guest recording artists include Jonas Brothers, John Legend, Charlie Puth, Meghan Trainor, will.i.am, OneRepublic, Kelsea Ballerini, Macklemore, Aloe Blacc, Old Dominion and Leona Lewis. Each week one guest recording artist comes to “Songland” to hear unknown songwriters pitch their original material. Four songwriters will perform their original tracks in front of the guest artist and three of the most successful and sought-after producers in music – Ryan Tedder (lead singer of OneRepublic and four-time Grammy Award-winning songwriter and producer of Adele, Taylor Swift and Beyonce), Ester Dean (Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer of Rihanna, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, as well as an actress, having starred in the “Pitch Perfect” film franchise) and Shane McAnally (Grammy-winning songwriter and producer of Kacey Musgraves, Kelly Clarkson and Sam Hunt with 38 #1 country records and 2019 ACM Songwriter of the Year). Each song’s lyrics, arrangements, beats, melody and story will be considered by the panel as the producers and guest artist engage in a lively discussion about ways to creatively adapt them to better fit the style and sensibility of the recording artist of the week. After the performances, the mega-recording artist will choose three songwriters to move forward to the studio and pair them each with the producer best suited to perfect their song. In the studio, the songs will take shape in unexpected ways as the songwriter and producer duos work together to win over the recording artist. In the end, a winner will be chosen and their song will be recorded and released for a global audience. “Songland” is executive produced by Emmy Award-winning producer Audrey Morrissey (“The Voice”), director Ivan Dudynsky, Eurythmics co-founder Dave Stewart, Chad Hines, and multi-Grammy-winning recording artist and Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine. Josh Gummersall will serve as producer along with Ryan Tedder. The concept was devised by Stewart, Morrissey and Dudynsky. “Songland” is produced by Live Animals in association with Universal Television Alternative Studio, Dave Stewart Entertainment and 222 Productions.