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Netflix turns up the volume on unscripted music shows with two Aussies set for the global stage
Netflix has dropped two new trailers for its latest slate of unscripted music shows, and one of them will shine a global spotlight on two Australian artists.
Building The Band has been dubbed 'The Voice meets Love Is Blind', with contestants choosing their bandmates based solely on vocal performance, without ever seeing them.
The trailer, released this week, marks the final project completed by singer Liam Payne before his unexpected death.
The show features Payne alongside star mentor Nicole Scherzinger, judge Kelly Rowland and host AJ McLean of the Backstreet Boys as they guide 50 hopeful musicians. The field will be narrowed to six bands competing for the top prize.
Among the contestants are two Australian musicians: Toowoomba's Mason Watts and Conor Smith from the NSW Central Coast.
Watts, a national finalist in TikTok's 2023 Gimme The Mic competition, has already tasted chart success.
His remix of To The Moon And Back hit number one on the ARIA Club Chart, clocked more than one million TikTok views and landed him at number 25 on TikTok Australia's Rising Star Chart.
The singer released his debut EP The Afterlove via City Pop Records, which also represents Eurovision 2023 Cyprus contestant Andrew Lambrou, pop/R&B artist JXN and electro-pop artist Mia Rodriguez.
More recently, Watts has been working with Swedish songwriters and producers Anton Engdahl and Kristin Carpenter, whose credits include Khalid, Jisoo of Blackpink, Alan Walker and Afrojack.
Watts' latest release, the Space EP, dropped in May and features the song Growing Pains, written in Stockholm after what he described as 'a quarter-life crisis'.
In the trailer, Watts is heard saying: 'We've got a lot of work to do vocally.'
Smith is no stranger to music competitions, having first appeared on Australian Idol in 2019 at just 16, joining Guy Sebastian's team. He returned to the competition last year, auditioning with Classic by MKTO.
In the Building The Band trailer, Smith appears briefly, featured resting his head on his microphone and showing off his hand tattoos.
Production on the series paused in October following Payne's death. It will now air with the blessing of his family.
The show is produced by Remarkable Entertainment, part of Banijay UK, the company behind Deal Or No Deal, Survivor UK and MasterChef.
understands a third Australian musician will also feature on Building The Band, with their identity to be revealed when the series premieres on Netflix on July 9.
Netflix also unveiled the trailer for its new docu-reality series Hitmakers this week.
Set to premiere on July 24, the six-episode series offers a rare look inside the songwriting process, featuring some of the world's top music creators.
The line-up includes Jenna Andrews (BTS, Benee, Little Mix), Tommy Brown (Ariana Grande, The Weeknd, Meghan Trainor), Trey Campbell (John Legend, BANKS, Guy Sebastian), Ferras (Katy Perry), Harv (Justin Bieber, Normani, Skrillex), Ben Johnson (Morgan Wallen, Weezer, Justin Timberlake), Stephen Kirk (BTS, Jessie Murph), JHart (Justin Bieber, Troye Sivan, Little Mix), Whitney Phillips (Demi Lovato, Jason Derulo), Sevyn Streeter (Alicia Keys, Kelly Rowland) and Nova Wav (Beyoncé, Rihanna).
