'Songland': Zach Sorgen reveals he was shocked when Charlie Puth chose him because he expected the singer to pick his collegemate's song
'Songland' season 1 might have come to an end, but we can't help but look back at the brilliant contestants that appeared on the series. Among the many contestants that appeared on the series this season, the one lucky person that got to have his cake and eat it too is Zach Sorgen from episode 9.
Sorgen appeared on episode 9 of 'Songland' season 1, where Charlie Puth was the guest artist. He performed his original song, titled Bad Habit for Charlie and the rest of the judges/mentors - Ester Dean, Ryan Tedder, and Shane McAnally.
Just like every other contestant Sorgen performed his song and was sent to the finale. He was mentored by Tedder. After his final performance, Charlie chose Sorgen as the winner of the series. But what made him stand out amongst other winners this season is that Charlie, instead of recording the song in his name, let Sorgen record it as his own. Charlie said that as a singer-songwriter himself, he knows the importance of a song and how sometimes it deserves to be sung by the writer himself. He also added that 'Bad Habit' is one such song and stated that it should be put out in the world by Sorgen himself.
Talking about his experience in an exclusive interview with MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) Sorgen shared his excitement on being given the opportunity and talked about the support from Charlie. "It feels really good to have Charlie's support. I've been toying with the idea of doing a solo project for a while, but I feel like this is the universe finally pushing me into that and I have about 500 songs on my computer that I've been writing and sending to other artists."
He mentioned it became all the more exciting now because he finally has 'Bad Habit' out, and now that it's out he will be putting out a lot more. "I'm going to start putting out a lot more music under my own name. And in my songwriting sessions, I'm going to start right in from a more personal place and I'm thinking about really what statement I want to make in the world musically and lyrically, and I'm really excited that it all started from Songland."
Sorgen also revealed he had the jitters and was quite nervous as he stood in front of the other mentors and Charlie, " I was so nervous. I have a lot of Performing experience but even still sometimes it's easier to perform to a bigger crowd because it's less personal and like when you have these really talented songwriters in front of you and you know that they're judging you and it's a competition I really wanted to do well. I was definitely nervous about what they would say and hitting all the right notes and everything."
In fact, he did not have the slightest idea that Charlie would have picked his song, Sorgen said, "No, I thought he was going to choose 'Pill for This' because Sam DeRosa is so talented and I know they had a connection from going to college together. I just think it's a really good song. 'Hate Love' is also a good song by Joel and I was totally surprised when he picked 'Bad Habit'. That's kind of why I fell to the floor shocked, but it was really nice. I think all the other writers on the show are incredibly talented and it's really nice that we've actually we made such good friends while filming the show and have kept that friendship going and continue to write songs together now."