Eric Benet To Executive Produce A Reality TV Singing Show

Eric Benét has announced his involvement in an upcoming reality music competition show. The Grammy-nominated singer has teamed with entertainment company Viardo Artists and Emmy Award-winning production company Natural 9 Entertainment to co-produce a new series called Sub Stars,which will include talented entertainers who were discovered in the subway systems of major U.S. cities.

The singer tells ABC News Radio that the concept of giving underground musicians the chance at fame is similar to how he got his big break.

"It really reminds me of myself, when I first started out in the industry, it's like I pretty much cut the net," he says. "I didn't have a job, I joined a band and I was doing like top 40 songs and either I sank or I swam and fortunately I got my first record deal and boom, boom, boom happened."

Unlike on other reality singing competitions, he says his contestants "have the most incredibly fascinating and real stories and their whole lives are their passion and music."

He explains, "It's not like some music competition and they thought, 'Oh, I'm going to go audition with all the other 50,000 people in the stadium and hopefully they'll pick me on the karaoke show,' you know. It's like...this is their life."

The singer tells ABC News Radio what kind of talent will compete for the chance to win a record label deal and an undisclosed cash prize.

"I think it's wide open, I think the best of the best are going to rise to the top. You may be a cellist, you may sit there and play the accordion with your hands while you have a puppet on your foot. I don't know, you see some strange things in the studio."

So how will the lucky winner be chosen? Eric explains, "Whatever resonates with people the most and whatever collectively we all decide is, for that particular season, is the most talented they've seen, it's like wide open." He adds that while it's a competition, the true purpose of the show is "celebrating actual talent and these people who've committed their lives to just putting themselves out there like that."