Kelsey Lamb Takes Fans Through Her Life as a Contestant on NBC’s ‘American Song Contest’

Read this personal diary entry Kelsey wrote while on the show!

Written by Jeremy Chua
Kelsey Lamb Takes Fans Through Her Life as a Contestant on NBC’s ‘American Song Contest’
Kelsey Lamb; Photo courtesy of Elicity PR

Fresh off her run on NBC’s ‘American Song Contest,’ rising country singer Kelsey Lamb has teamed up with Sounds Like Nashville to share her “Day in the Life” as a contestant on the show. 

‘American Song Contest’ is a new singing competition television series where U.S. artists representing each state and territory compete to have the country’s Best Original Song. Lamb, an Arkansas native, represented her home state on the week one of the Snoop Dog and Kelly Clarkson co-hosted, performing “Never Like This,” a song written by Casey Brown, Parker Welling, and the incomparable Carly Pearce. She walked away winning one of the top 3 jury votes, which comprises industry tastemakers. 

Check out Lamb’s personal diary entry as she gives fans an inside look into her time on ‘American Song Contest’!

Once the wardrobe team was finished (literally) sewing me into my dress, I was escorted down to the M&M lounge where all of the artists met up and just hung out and ate some M&M’s (the best part, obviously). This lounge was seriously cool – I mean, how often do you get to say that you were sponsored by M&M on national TV? They had this really amazing lounge created for the show, complete with an M&M car, a stage with instruments and, of course, a full M&M snack bar! We hung out there for a little while and took photos and saw each other in our full wardrobes for the first time. 

Kelsey Lamb; Photo Courtesy of Elicity PR

Monday morning – show day had finally arrived! I woke up pretty early that morning around 5:45 am to get my day started as easily as I could. I took my time doing my hair and makeup before heading down to get a Diet Coke at the Mcdonald’s across the street (because, everyone knows McDonald’s Diet Coke is the best Diet Coke) and a breakfast bar. Before heading to set, I went down for my ‘health check’ to make sure I wasn’t experiencing any COVID symptoms. Once that was all done, things started to get real! I met the van that was taking us to set, and I think the van ride over was when it started sinking in that I was going to be on national TV later that day. But once we arrived, there was no time to be nervous. We immediately went into hair and makeup, and from there went straight into wardrobe. Both the hair and makeup team and the wardrobe team were FANTASTIC. Everyone was there to make sure we felt as good as we possibly could before hitting that stage. 

Shortly after, we were headed to dress rehearsal. This was the first time we all got to see each other’s performances. We ran the show from top to bottom – super fun, super easy, and mostly just exciting to see it all coming together and getting to show each other our stages. The stages blew my mind… to see AleXa fall from the top of a staircase at the end of her set before I went on was so surreal. Rehearsal ended with Hueston’s power ballad – we were all completely blown away. 

We were then escorted back up to our dressing rooms, where I was then cut out of my dress so I could eat lunch. This was when I really started to feel nervous for the first time during the entire process. I realized that I could barely eat. I was so uneasy. This wasn’t because we weren’t fully prepared… or because the crew wasn’t the best crew in the world… But all the feels crept in at once and I honestly couldn’t control it. I called my husband Taylor, and I think even he was surprised by how nervous I was, haha. But he gave me some words of encouragement and I moved on with my meal. 

We then went on to get touched up by hair and makeup one last time, got sewn back into my dress, and we were off – it was show time! We were escorted down to the live show where I finally got to see my mom and dad waiting for me in my booth. It was all happening at this point… Everything was surreal. My two biggest cheerleaders got to be in the audience to watch me perform on the biggest stage of my life! 

Since I was 3rd in the episode, I was escorted back right after Yam Haus finished their song. I stood backstage with AleXa as she was getting ready to head on stage and do her amazing performance. Once she got on stage, I stood there with hair and makeup and wardrobe, and got my dress steamed out and my makeup touched up very quickly as my mic pack was also getting adjusted onto my dress. Seems like, within no time, I was standing out on the stage waiting for my song to start. 

I don’t remember much from my performance because I basically blacked out after the first verse… but I do remember when the first lyric popped out of my mouth. I said to myself, “Kelsey, this is the biggest moment of your career, you’re finally here,” and all my nerves started to calm after the first verse was over. From that moment on, I just let myself perform and be in the moment! Of course, when I was finishing the last chorus, I peaked over at my parents and they were standing up so proud and cheering for me – I almost lost it, but I pulled myself together and finished out the song. Having my parents there was full circle and so special to me. 

When the performance was over, I went back to my booth and enjoyed the rest of the show with my parents. It was so much fun to watch all of my new friends go out there and show America how talented they are. I keep getting asked who my biggest competition is – and honestly, every single person on my episode is my biggest competition. I look up to each of them in different ways and learned so much from them. 

After the show we headed to the red carpet and that was so much fun. Just getting to relax and talk about the night with some of my dream press outlets was insane! Once we finished up there, I headed to my dressing room, got cut out of my dress for the last time, and hung it up on the rack. I was so proud of myself. Whether I make it to the semi-finals or not, this was the most exciting night of my career. 

I, of course, ended my night with my parents back in the hotel lobby, where they met me with In-N-Out (when in L.A.) – we sat and talked about the show like it was a totally normal night, haha – which, it completely was not!! 

I am so grateful that I was able to represent my home state of Arkansas on American Song Contest, and I’m still pinching myself!

Listen to Kelsey Lamb’s music, including the Carly Pearce-penned “Never Like This” below.