Ryan Seacrest teams with YouTube for talent competition series

Ryan Seacrest Productions and Endemol Shine North America have announced Best.Cover.Ever., a cutting-edge talent competition series hosted by Grammy Award-winning artist Ludacris and featuring Demi Lovato, Backstreet Boys and Jason Derulo that will premiere exclusively on YouTube later this year. Additional top artists to be announced in coming weeks.

Best.Cover.Ever. gives emerging musicians from around the world a chance for international fame. Throughout the series, a new superstar artist will challenge competing musicians to perform a cover of one of their favorite songs. The musicians can perform the song in their own unique style as they battle for the ultimate prize: the opportunity to perform a duet with the superstar artist that will premiere on YouTube!

Demi Lovato, The Backstreet Boys and Jason Derulo will kickoff the first submission phase, which runs through May 19th, where fans are encouraged to upload a video to YouTube performing their creative cover of these superstar artists’ biggest hits: “As Long As You Love Me” (Backstreet Boys), “Confident” (Demi Lovato) and “Trumpets” (Jason Derulo). Other superstar artists will encourage fans to record covers of their songs on future dates. Fans can upload their video, follow submissions, and watch the series by subscribing to the Best.Cover.Ever. channel on YouTube, and can learn more by going to TheBestCoverEver.com.

“YouTube is the best place for emerging musicians to be discovered, and Best.Cover.Ever. will encourage these artists to go for their dreams alongside the best in the business,” says Susanne Daniels, Global Head of Original Content, YouTube. “We’re thrilled that Ryan Seacrest will give new talent the opportunity to shine in front of over 1 billion fans around the world.”

“We couldn’t be more excited to premiere this new talent music competition series exclusively on YouTube. Cover songs are a terrific vehicle to help discover fresh talent and YouTube is the perfect platform to do it,” states Ryan Seacrest, series Executive Producer and CEO of Ryan Seacrest Productions. “These new young artists will also have the chance to work alongside some of the most renowned musicians in the world, which we hope will generate some great experiences for the artists and contestants alike, and, in turn produce some memorable performances.”

“YouTube is the ideal home for Best.Cover.Ever., a ground-breaking competition format that will feature many of the top names in the music industry paired with emerging artists, all under the direction of Ryan Seacrest, Ludacris and our two experienced production teams,” says Eden Gaha, President, Unscripted Television, Endemol Shine North America.

In the upcoming weeks, each superstar artist will be sending out a call to action to the YouTube community, asking emerging musicians to record and upload a version of a specific hit song of theirs. Once he or she views the submissions, the list will be whittled down to a select few. Of these few, two will be selected to appear in the series and put to the test by the superstar artist to see how they might be as a collaborator on another hit song.

The superstar artist will then pick the one lucky cover artist for a chance to perform a whole new song together. Viewers will witness every part of the planning, behind-the-scenes process as they mount this uniquely special music performance.

The series is executive produced by Ryan Seacrest and hosted by Grammy Award-winner Ludacris, who will also serve as an executive producer. Best.Cover.Ever. is produced by Ryan Seacrest Productions and Endemol Shine North America. In addition to Seacrest and Ludacris, Teri Kennedy (RSP), Rob Smith (ESNA), Georgie Hurford-Jones (ESNA) and Marilyn Wilson will also serve as executive producers.

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Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites. Email: info@themusicuniverse.com