NBC's Songland Podcast

On Songland’s podcast we wanted to give the guest artists and winning songwriters from Songland the opportunity to go even deeper into the intimate and mysterious art of songwriting as they see it. Listen as they tell the fascinating stories of their songs’ creation in never-before-heard detail, and further peel back the curtain on this magical process. Songland's podcast debuted with the release of four introductory episodes, one with each of the three producers on the show, Ryan Tedder (Beyoncé, Adele, Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney, U2); Ester Dean (Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry); and Shane McAnally (40 #1 Country Hits), and also one featuring Dave Stewart, co-creator and executive producer of Songland, who also happens to have a string of number one hits of his own as a songwriter, including of course his many hits with Eurythmics, but also with No Doubt and many others since. These four are some of the top songwriters in the business, and they tell us about how they got there, and walk us through a song of their own as well: Dave Stewart talks about writing and recording ‘Sweet Dreams’ with Annie Lennox in their practice space above a framing factory in less than an hour; Ryan Tedder about finishing the track for Beyoncé’s ‘XO’ on an airplane, and coming up with the final hook on a jog through an Australian park; Ester Dean describes getting a middle-of-the-night phone call from Nicki Minaj to work on ‘Superbass,’ and Shane McAnally talks about writing from a very personal story for Kacey Musgraves’ ‘Mama’s Broken Heart’, which went on to become a #1 hit for Miranda Lambert. Subsequent episodes feature will.i.am telling how the Black Eyed Peas “Where’s the Love” got a last-minute addition from Justin Timberlake; John Legend and winning writer Tebby Burrows going deep into Tebby’s winning song “We Need Love”; Kelsea Ballerini and Darius Coleman taking us through the evolution of her new hit “Better Luck Next Time”; the Jonas Brothers and Able Heart on “Greenlight”; Meghan Trainor on “All About That Bass”; Aloe Blacc on “The Man”, and much more.. Join us for NBC’s Songland Podcast, a production of the iHeart Radio Podcast Network. You will never hear your favorite songs the same way again.