AleXa from Oklahoma wins American Song Contest 2022

The first edition of the American Song Contest held its Grand Final with 10 finalists competing for the trophy.

The whole competition started eight weeks ago. Since then, five heats, two semi-finals and a final have been aired on NBC, with 56 acts from all 50 states, five overseas territories and Washington, DC.

Tonight's winner was decided by 15% jury and 85% public voting, and after an exciting voting sequence, we found the winner of the first American Song Contest: AleXa, representing Oklahoma with the song "Wonderland."

AleXa

Proud to represent the state where she was born and raised until the age of 21, Alex Christine, known professionally as AleXa (알렉사), is a K-pop singer, dancer and songwriter who grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

A lifelong dancer, AleXa was first drawn to K-pop because of its strong performance identity. After nearly a million fan votes determined her the winner of online talent competition Rising Legends, she was one of the 96 chosen to participate in "Produce 48," the most competitive audition show in Korea.

In 2019, AleXa made her multilingual K-pop debut with "Bomb," which has received nearly 22 million views to date and hit No. 7 on Billboard's World Digital Song Sales chart.

A year later, AleXa released extended plays "Do Or Die" and "Decoherence," garnering wins for two of Korea's most prestigious awards.

In 2021, AleXa released Y2K-inspired "ReviveR" with dance track "Xtra," performed the national anthem for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and became the first K-pop artist to host a fan meeting in the metaverse within the action-shooter game "Scavengers."

Source: NBC

The American Song Contest

The concept of the American Song Contest is pretty similar to the Eurovision Song Contest, but instead of countries competing, the USA's 50 states, five territories and Washington, DC competed.

A total of 56 artists were singing their own music, and the results were decided by viewers at home and by a jury of music-industry experts.

The contest took place every Monday from 21 March to 9 May 2022 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern / 7:00 p.m. Central.

A total of eight shows were scheduled:

5 Heats: 11 or 12 artists competed in each Heat. 4 artists qualified for the Semi-finals from each Heat. At the end of each Heat, a jury selected one qualifier. 3 more qualifiers were chosen by a combination of a jury and online public votes, and then revealed during the next week's show.

2 Semi-finals: 10 artists competed in each Semi-final along with a wildcard act from the heats. At the end of each Semi-final, a jury selected one finalist. 4 more finalists were chosen by a combination of jury and online public votes.

1 Final: The 10 finalists competed, and the winner was decided by a jury in combination with public voting.

The jury consisted of 56 musical experts, each representing a US state, territory, or Washington, DC. The jury members evaluated the artists based on their performances, artistic expression, originality, and the hit potential of their songs.

The public in the US could vote for their favorites either on the NBC website, the NBC App, or via TikTok.

The American Song Contest followed a point system in which every state and territory voted with equal power, regardless of population.

The hosts for all the shows were Kelly Clarkson and Snoop Dogg, and took place at Universal Studios in Los Angeles.