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MARTINA JOINS ABC TO PROVE SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION
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It's said that everyone has their "six degrees of separation" and ABC's Primetime is set to prove Martina McBride is no exception. From small town Sharon, Kansas singing in her family band, moving to Nashville, recording demos and soon after signing a record deal. Who are the people who helped Martina McBride fulfill her dreams? Correspondent Jay Shadler visited with Martina in Nashville this week to trace back the early days of "wanna-be-country-singer" and how knowing one person who knew another person led to McBride's lucky break.

To further prove the theory, Primetime has selected six people who have three things in common - they do not personally know Martina McBride, they live in small towns and remote places around the country and they have the desire to sing and be heard. Primetime and Martina McBride are giving these six hopefuls the chance to use the process of six degrees to meet the country music superstar and have her produce their very own professional demo at one of the top recording studios in the country - Blackbird Studios. Primetime and Sony BMG have teamed up to allow those demos to be heard by music executives - something Martina can attest to is no easy feat.

"To get the chance to be heard in this business, it takes talent first and foremost but it also takes a lot of determination and even more luck," admits McBride. "Looking back, the naiveté it took for me and my husband John to move here with only a few contacts was crazy but one connection led to another and I think you have to believe it will happen and take that chance."

ABC's Primetime will capture the journey from their most immediate connection through each step leading them closer and closer to the superstar. They are not allowed to call anyone at random but must use the six degrees of separation concept (made famous in 1967 by social psychologist Stanley Milgram whose experiments suggested that two random US citizens were connected on average by a chain of six acquaintances). ABC's Primetime aired an earlier episode entitled The Human Chain proving the theory using people in the New York and Philadelphia area who were not directly related and from very different backgrounds. All were able to connect.

Filming will also include Shadler and McBride retracing the beginning steps of her musical career in Sharon and Wichita, Kansas, McBride on her 2007 national tour, the meeting of one or all of the six contestants who make the connection as well as the demo recordings in Nashville. An airdate for the two 1-hour specials has not yet been scheduled.

Thanks, Zep. I think that the program sounds very interesting. I love finding out new "six degrees of separation". Keep us informed, ok?

I think this sounds so cool. It should be fun to watch!

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6 DEGREES OF MARTINA McBRIDE
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The ABC Special "Six Degrees of Martina McBride" will premier on
Monday, July 30th at 9PM Eastern Time. The two-hour show follows six
lucky contestants hoping to make it as country music singers, Not
only have to prove they have the talent, but also that they have the
connections... to Martina McBride.

For more information check out the link:
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/SixDegrees

Can't wait to check this out tonight! Should be interesting.

I'll be watching!

I'll be watching too... for Leslie Satcher. She's one of the best songwriters out there, but she's also a trip!

I thought the program was interesting...especially the way each of the singers tried to connect with Martina. I also liked how the singers were paired with some well-known Nashville songwriters to prepare for the competition.

That show was great. It was soo crazy how they made the connections through to LBT, Martina's assistant and even John! IMHO, none of them were the best singers, but the older lady that won, was NOT my personal choice LOL. It was cool when the contestants walked in with their last link and Martina was stunned to see John, LBT and the others. Very cool. Oh, yeah, Leslie was great! Love her. Victoria Shaw was great as well.

Hehe - while watching, I couldn't help but thinking how I would go about connecting myself in six steps or less to Trisha. I would definitely start with my pd buddies at the radio station. LMAO