Football started this week and it reminded me that people in the US have a lot more civic pride than state pride. You see people walking around with city names on their shirts and hats, not states.

Media markets are also based around cities instead of states, and NBC could partner with local NBC stations to select songs representing their city instead of having a single group pick songs and loosely assign them to states. That lets the contest more closely align with Eurovision in terms of having a decentralized song selection process, which I think would give people more of a reason to cheer for their song and try to represent their city.

This would naturally favor the 20-30 largest urban areas, so I would add a wildcard system where 10 songs representing smaller media markets and remote US regions get to participate.

This wouldn't solve all the ASC's problems, but I think it would go a long way!

NOT to get into the politics of it, but watching the roll call at the Democratic National Convention it kind of felt like everything the American Song Contest should have been but wasn't? So much state pride! State flags! Callouts of what makes each state unique! And (mostly) representative songs!

This year, Malta will be represented with the song Loop by Sarah Bonnici. When I was browsing around the website Six On Stage, which is a database that reveals the people who’ve taken part in Eurovision, I saw Ale’s name pop up on the page for the upcoming 2024 edition. When you watch Eurovision 2024 on Peacock, keep an eye on Ale’s name.

https://sixonstage.com/song/2024/malta

So, I wasn't a big fan of the American Song Contest. It just didn't jive with me like I wanted it to. And it made me think that what made it different from Eurovision. The main thing that sets it apart from Eurovision is that NBC selected all the songs and all the members of the Academy, so they basically held all the cards, where as in Eurovision, each country has it's own broadcaster that selects the artist and the jury members only for their country. Also, some states just aren't great with music...

So my fix is instead of having states compete against each other, have cities/metro areas compete. The NBC affiliate for each area would organize the selection of that area's entry and. Some states would obviously be over represented: California, Texas, Florida. Some states might be represented by 1 city: Utah, Massachusetts. And some states/territories might not want to take part: US Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands. Point is, the metro area chooses if they want to participate or not.

Martin Österdahl: “Eurovision Canada” dropped, we focus on the “American Song Contest”! https://ogaegreece.com/no-eurovision-canada-eng/ So Where Is ASC? https://www.nbc.com/nbc-insider/nbc-2024-midseason-see-the-full-lineup-of-shows?amp

Feels longer.

Sad that seemingly everyone has moved on. The producers, the artists, any fans. But it was fun while it lasted!

Do you have that feeling too?