Just days after Adam Levine announced he wouldn’t be returning as a judge on The Voice, he shocked fans with another big announcement: he’s the executive producer on the new hit reality competition Songland that premiered on Tuesday.
“It’s so authentic,” he told ET. “It’s a fascinating look in to how it goes down, and I can assure you that is how it goes down. At least major aspects of it are represented on the show, and it’s amazing.”
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The new series allows talented songwriters to collaborate with well-known recording artist and producers like Ryan Tedder, Ester Dean and Shane McAnally to make a hit song. As for Levine, he plans to stay behind the scenes because the show “sells itself.” Another difference between Songland and The Voice is that it won’t have viewer voting or live shows.
“It’s very real. It’s very special because there’s really nothing like it, and I think people are going to really enjoy it because they’ve never seen it from this particular angle before,” Levine mentioned.
Each week a famous artist will make an appearance — the first guest was The Voice judge John Legend.
“They had some songwriters come in and pitch me songs,” Legend recalled. “We worked with the songwriters to kind of hone the songs, and then I picked a final song to record and I can’t wait for everyone to hear it. I thought it came out great.”
Levin seems extra excited about the new show simply because of the angle it’s approached with — it’s not something fans see often.
“I think that shedding light on who the songwriter is in all of this is a really fascinating thing. I don’t think people understand what it’s like being a songwriter, what they go through, what their process is, how they do it, the process of them finding an artist to connect it to — which is something that was relatively new for me. I didn’t really go there until halfway through our fourth album or something, then I started collaborating on stuff,” he admitted.
Another reason the Maroon 5 singer may be excited about is the fact that it’s a fresh start on something new. A while before Levine announced he wouldn’t be returning to The Voice, sources say the singer was mentally checked out — most likely a result of the Season 16 rule change that didn’t guarantee at least one performer from each coaches team in the Live Playoffs.
“Adam had been checked out for a while, but this was a new low,” one insider said. “It was essentially the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“[Leaving the show] is something he’s been talking to [host] Carson [Daly] and the other coaches about for some time,” another source mentioned. “It’s just time for him to leave.”
Despite Levine feeling like that, the insider did mention that there’s no bad blood between the singer and The Voice.
Songland airs Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.
