'The Goldbergs' actress Hayley Orrantia helps out her friend on 'Songland' premiere

When Songland, a.k.a. “Shark Tank for Songwriters,” returned for its second season this Monday, it could have been mistaken for some sort of cross-network “Where Are they Now?” reality show reunion special. In one corner, we had Ryan Innes from The Voice Season 4. And then there was Tim Halperin, an early fan favorite from American Idol Season 10. And helping Halperin was none other than Hayley Orrantia, whom most viewers probably know as Erica from the hit sitcom The Goldbergs, but whose first-ever television appearance was on Season 1 of The X Factor USA, when she was part of the Paula Abdul-mentored country girl group Lakoda Rayne.

Skeptics who might have thought that Orrantia’s cameo was a stunt casting should know that she and Halperin go way back: In 2012, one year after they both were booted off their respective TV talent shows, they dueted on the holiday single "I'll Be Home for Christmas.” They’ve collaborated a couple other times since then, so when this week’s celebrity Songland guests, Lady Antebellum, requested that Halperin transform his song submission into a duet, his friendship with Orrantia was the Christmas gift that kept on giving.

But first, here’s a little primer how Songland works, for those who didn’t catch the first season of the unique and refreshingly drama-free musical competition created by the Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart: On each self-contained episode, aspiring songsmiths perform their unreleased compositions for a panel of pros and one guest superstar artist. Contestants then advance to a one-on-one round, during which they are each paired up with a panelist (series regulars Ryan Tedder, Ester Dean, and Shane McAnally) to have their songs reworked. And at the end of the evening, the guest superstar selects one tune to record — and release immediately on Apple Music through BMG.

This week, Lady Antebellum came to Songland in search of a summer single and “something a little different musically, to push us.” Halperin, whose American Idol past was of course not mentioned, arrived with a midtempo track called “Losing You,” which Tedder thought sounded like more of a rock record — but as Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley noted, the trio is “unapologetically a pop-county band,” so they were intrigued. Though McAnally, whose unstoppable record includes writing smash after country smash for everyone from Kacey Musgraves to Lady Antebellum themselves, thought Halperin’s song “sounded like a hit,” the Lady A folks thought the lyrics were a bit trite and light. I agreed — there needed to be more desperation and yearning in a song about an uncontrollably unraveling relationship. Check out the original below:

The band’s Dave Haywood felt a song with a “chord progression that’s cyclical around this minor chord” should feel heavier, and after testing out some of their famous three-part harmonies right on the spot — which was already an improvement on “Losing You” — frontwoman Hillary Scott proclaimed, “We’ve gotta make this a duet!” That’s when Halperin was assigned to workshop with Tedder, and that’s where Orrantia came in. When Tim and Hayley returned to the set to sing the reworked version, Scott said she broke out in “full-body goosebumps” and raved, “You countrified it so much!”

But the Idol and X Factor album had competition from The Voice’s Innes. His soulful ballad “Long Way Home” definitely had some weight to it — maybe too much weight, considering that Lady A had said they wanted something summery. The band also noted that this song didn’t really have much of a chorus — which, of course, was a big problem. But Dean, who eventually became Innes’s mentor, positively swooned for that “sometimes the heart takes the long way home” line, so she pumped up the tempo, “took it out of the singer-songwriter realm,” and then took the track back to Scott, Kelley, and Haywood. The new and much improved version felt comfortable and classic, but it still felt more like Innes’s song than Lady Antebellum’s. “His entire heart is in every note,” said Scott. Compare and contrast both versions below:

In the end, though, the trio went with Madeline Merlo’s “I’ll Drink to That,” which became “Champagne Night” once McAnally was done with it. I don’t think they made the right choice. Sure, it had that anthemic summer-singalong vibe. (Haywood said the “groove was killer.”) And yes, McAnally did a bang-up job of boosting the reggae beat, adding some pedal steel, and ridding the original version of Merlo’s most cringe-y lyrical clichés. (“In the country world, we’ve heard this,” he told her. “And if you use the sounds that are on current country radio, then you’re already behind.”) Compare and contrast both versions below:

But Lady Antebellum really soar when they harmonize on passionate ballads, and the bachelorette-party-ready “Champagne Night” seemed way too clubby and Coyote Ugly for them. However, Scott said the song felt “so in the fiber of who I am as an artist,” and Haywood was already envisioning selling Lady A sweatshirts with the lyrical catchphrase “Doubles or Bubbles,” so it was a sealed deal.

The episode ended with a feel-good, mid-pandemic, social-distancing fan video of for Lady Antebellum’s official recorded version of “Champagne Night,” which is now available for downloading and streaming. But I do hope that Halperin and Orrantia release their own version of “Losing You,” which in my opinion was the episode’s strongest entry. In the meantime, keep tuning in this Songland season, as diverse artists like Boyz II Men, Florida Georgia Line, Luis Fonsi, H.E.R., Martina McBride, Julia Michaels, Ben Platt, Bebe Rexha, and Innes’s former Voice coach, Usher, appear on the show looking for their next big hit.

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