Music to your ears
Get strumming and drumming – reality show Songland is back to find the next song-writing superstars.
Season 2 Saturdays (from 16 July) SABC3 (*193) 18:30
Adam Levine knows a thing or two about music – he’s the frontman of platinum-selling pop band Maroon Five and he was one of the judges on talent show
The Voice until he quit in 2019… to start Songland. “It wasn’t a gamble. I knew that we’d be a hit and find some incredible talent,” says the 43-year-old Adam. “Season 1 was epic. Some of the content we heard, it influenced us as executive producers as well as the judges who’re established music acts themselves. This show is different from the other music reality shows because we’re looking for the starting point of songs, we’re looking for people who know how to make music but perhaps don’t have the best voices.”
NAME OF THE GAME
Nothing has changed for the second season because the formula worked so well in season 1. “We run auditions and we had over 10 000 entries for this season,” says Adam. “There are aspiring songwriters out there dreaming over their breakthrough where an artist picks their song and wants to sing it and record it. We’re giving the unknown writers the chance to not only get mentoring from professional writers but also to hone their craft and get their work out there for musicians to see and work with.”
JUDGING ACT
When Songland was renewed for its second season (season 3 is still on hold thanks to COVID-19), Adam jumped to secure his judge-mentor line-up. “It was a no-brainer. I’ve toured the world with Ryan Tedder (from pop band One Republic). We’ve gone everywhere from Japan to South Africa and all I had to do was send him a text message and he was in,” says Adam. And the other two judges were just as keen. Country singer Shane McAnally (2000 country song Run Away) put his writing work on hold to return to the show, while Ester Dean (2009 pop hit song Drop It Low) continued writing when she wasn’t filming. And she’s one of Adam’s favourite musicians. “Someone nicknamed her The Song Machine and when I found out why, I was stumped. Ester has written over 50 chart-topping hits. You name the artist and there’s an excellent chance that
Ester has either helped write the lyrics, the melody or both!” says Adam.
THE MAIN MAN
While Adam is the executive producer of the show, it was created by another musician: Dave Stewart from iconic British band Eurythmics. “I’ve been writing songs for over 50 years and the process of creating music is dear to me. That’s why we’ve chosen this platform, so that viewers can see it and feel it with us,” adds Dave.