PREVIEW: ‘Songland’s will.i.am Hears His First Song
Trae Patton/NBC Reading Time: 2 minutes
This week on Songland, will.i.am will select The Black Eyed Peas’ next hit! We already know the songwriters who will be competing but now we have the first song. And this Songland preview is a good one!
Here is “Boxes” by Josh Logan. Josh is a pop/country singer-songwriter who has a credit on Jana Kramer’s “Beautiful Lies.” It is worth noting that this is the original performance before working with a mentor.
Artist/Mentor Reactions
The song is instantly praised by the mentors, including Shane McAnally. Shane also suggests some new lyrics to keep the theme of “we don’t fit inside boxes,” which will.i.am responds well to. It’s definitely a good message and aligns with The Black Eyed Peas’ usual messages. Could we see Shane win two weeks in a row?! But then Ryan Tedder and Ester Dean chime in, wanting to change little melodies to make the song less “cute.” Ester especially jumps in there to put herself in the mix.
will.i.am finally has a say, giving the song a new beat. The Songland band’s drummer comes in with it and it sounds EPIC! He then builds on that to create the entire backing of a track. Again, this is the magic of this show! You really get to see what goes on behind the scenes of these moments creating music. will.i.am even gets up and starts dancing!
Fan Reactions
A lot of the comments are mentioning how this sounds like a OneRepublic or Imagine Dragons song. I don’t disagree! But I also think that with some work, it’s right in the wheelhouse of The Black Eyed Peas. It could be in a similar vibe as “I Gotta Feeling.” The song has a lot of potential for sure! And this is just the preview, so there’s a lot more to come. Working on the lyrics and beat with Shane or Ester or Ryan could totally change the song. “Boxes” seems like a serious contender to me!
If you want to hear more from Josh Logan, check out his Instagram! He has a lot of original songs there, including his newest single “Talk Southern to Me.” And of course, there will be plenty more with Josh tomorrow night! Songland airs at 10pm ET on NBC.
