How Choosing Songs Works on ‘Dancing With the Stars’

Dancing With the Stars just announced the songs that the cast will be dancing to during the two-night premiere, featuring everything from “Since U Been Gone” by Kelly Clarkson to “Wannabe” by Spice Girls. But…ever wondered how the songs are chosen? Because it’s definitely not as simple as the celeb having a fave and requesting it.

Music is pretty much up to the discretion of producers, largely because a live band has to be able to play it (led by music director Ray Chew) and rights need to be cleared by music supervisor Nancy Severinsen. And the rights process is an absolute ordeal.

“To clear one song, it could have two writers, [or] it could even have seven publishers,” Chew tells Billboard. “You got to contact everybody, and everybody’s not waiting around on their phone to be contacted. Some of the music clearance happen right up until the last minute.” Apparently, Wicked night was pretty intense and involved the band having to rework the music to—as Billboard put it—“satisfy the vision of the original rights holders.”

Meanwhile, some musicians absolutely love what the show does with their songs. Per Chew, “We did Janet Jackson week, and Janet Jackson also made a video appearance, but the producers of that project are Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. They’re very special. I know these guys, and I was like, I am not going to not make—by the way, I give the same attention to everything, but I was like, ‘you know what? I know these guys are watching, so let me make sure every little thing that I can think of is as good as possible.’ The good news is that they contacted me afterward. Jimmy Jam said, ‘Hey man, you did us right on that stuff.’”

Check out a full list of the songs to expect in the DWTS premiere below.