The stage lights shifted, and a familiar, highly recognizable intro began to play.
"Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" Lil Jon's voice exploded through the live sound system, instantly igniting the studio.
Landon walked out from the side of the stage, looking completely at ease, and delivered the first line of the lyrics.
Ludacris stood slightly behind and to his side, ready to join in at any moment.
Meanwhile, Eliza Dushku, along with several other dancers, appeared at the center of the stage, perfectly recreating the MV's precise choreography with full passion, every movement brimming with power.
She then moved to Landon's side, dancing with him in an extremely seductive manner.
The enthusiasm of the 180 audience members in the studio was completely ignited.
Many were swaying to the beat, clapping their hands, and even loudly singing along to the chorus.
For viewers at home, the melody of "Yeah!" was already deeply ingrained, but this live performance amplified that pure, carefree party energy to the extreme.
On stage, Landon was completely uninhibited. He interacted with Lil Jon, played off Ludacris, and when his gaze swept over the dancing Eliza, he could clearly see the burning, almost self-forgetting dedication and admiration in her eyes.
The performance, just over three minutes long, ended quickly. As the final note faded, the studio erupted into deafening, sustained applause, screams, and whistles.
The lights returned to normal. Slightly breathless, Landon bowed to the audience along with his team members.
Even after the performance ended, the enthusiastic applause in the studio showed no signs of dying down.
Landon and his team members acknowledged the audience once more before heading towards the dark interview sofa area where David Letterman was seated.
Sweat slightly dampened the hair on his forehead, glistening under the stage lights, but his breathing had already steadied, carrying the relaxed excitement that follows a successful performance.
David Letterman sat behind his large desk, adjusted his black-rimmed glasses, and wore an expression tinged with a hint of teasing. "Have a seat, have a seat, Landon, and this... energetic lady."
He gestured for Landon to sit in the nearby armchair. Lil Jon and Ludacris took seats slightly to the side, while Eliza Dushku gracefully sat diagonally opposite Landon.
"Wow," Letterman leaned forward, elbows on the desk, his sharp gaze sweeping over Landon,
"I have to say, that performance just now had enough sparkle to light up half of Manhattan. Landon Williams, welcome to the show."
"So," Letterman, as always direct and a bit provocative in his approach, got straight to the point, "This song 'Yeah!' is currently... let me check the cue card..." He pretended to search, though he already knew perfectly well,
"Oh, right. I just checked the data backstage. 'Yeah!' has been topping the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks now. Is it true that even kids playing street basketball across America are dribbling and humming 'Yeah! Yeah!'?"
The studio audience responded with laughter, screams, and applause.
Landon smiled, leaning forward slightly, casually placing the newly opened EP on the corner of the desk. His tone carried a youthful pride:
"Pretty much! Last week, I was playing ball at the court. When a teammate passed me the ball, he suddenly shouted 'Yeah!' and the ball smacked me right in the face—he said he was so obsessed with the song, it just came out instinctively."
He touched his chin, mimicking his own dazed expression after getting hit by the ball, causing the audience below to burst into laughter.
David raised an eyebrow, picked up the EP from the desk, and flipped through the tracklist:
"Speaking of this song, I have to give you credit. As a male singer just over eighteen, handling the lyrics, composition, and vocals entirely by yourself, and still having the song top the charts for three weeks, that's incredibly rare in today's music scene. And all five songs on this EP are your original work?"
"Absolutely 100% original!" Landon straightened his back, tapping the EP cover with his fingertip. "From writing the melody to filling in the lyrics, even the drum beats and guitar riffs during arrangement, I slowly worked through it all.
Take 'Yeah!' for example. The initial inspiration came from seeing a group of people hyping each other up at a party. Later, I played a few chords on the keyboard and suddenly thought, 'This rhythm makes people want to nod their heads.' I finished writing it in two days, completely not expecting it to blow up like this." He paused, then suddenly laughed,
"Actually, when I was writing the chorus, I shouted 'Yeah!' at least a hundred times in front of the mirror, until my voice went hoarse." Landon deliberately lowered his voice and shouted a husky "Yeah!"
The audience roared with laughter, and David joined in. "Haha! So, among these new songs, is there any with a creation story as interesting as 'Yeah!'?"
"'In da Club' was the most 'alcohol-consuming' one!" Landon suddenly stopped himself, then patted his thigh. "Oh, I actually meant the most Coke-consuming."
The entire studio erupted in laughter again.
"I was writing this song on my birthday. Friends were throwing a party at my place, and the music was so loud I couldn't write. So I just moved my guitar to the middle of the party, drinking Coke and playing. The chorus line 'in da club, we don't stop' came to me in a flash when a friend yelled, 'Another bottle!'"
He cleared his throat and improvised a couple of lines of the catchy chorus. His low, explosive voice immediately drew whistles from the audience. "But I drank too much Coke that day. Woke up the next morning to find my lyric book filled with basketball play diagrams. Luckily, I had the chorus saved in my phone notes, or this song would've been a goner."
David's eyes lit up, pressing further. "What about 'Burn'? It sounds completely different from the upbeat style of 'Yeah!'—more heartfelt, more powerful. Is there a special story behind it?"
Landon's expression softened a bit, but his tone remained cheerful. "'Burn' is for my first love. We had just broken up. I was sitting by the window watching a rainstorm, and the melody just came. The lyric 'love is like a flame, only ashes remain after it burns' was my real feeling at the time—but now when I sing it, it's not so sad anymore. I see it as a mark of growth."
He suddenly shifted gears, with a touch of self-deprecation. "Also, for the high notes in this song, I recorded it twenty times before I was satisfied. Sang until my voice was so hoarse I couldn't speak, had to rely on iced Americano to keep going. Now, every time I see iced Americano, I think of 'Burn.'"
"What about 'My Boo' and 'Like I Love You'? Both are love songs, but with different styles." David followed up, and the audience nodded along, full of anticipation.
"'My Boo' is a gentle, sweet song!" Landon's lips curved up. "I wrote it after seeing an elderly couple taking a stroll in the park, holding hands in the sun—so heartwarming. I thought, love doesn't always have to be earth-shattering; the quiet, enduring kind is the most touching." He mimicked the elderly couple's slow walk, making the audience laugh.
"And 'Like I Love You' is a lighthearted love song. The rhythm inspiration came from my Labrador at home—every time it sees me come home, it wags its tail and jumps on me. That kind of unreserved enthusiasm made me think, 'If you like someone, you should be that direct.'"
David feigned surprise, widening his eyes. "So this EP has inspiration from an elderly couple and a 'behind-the-scenes contributor' dog?"