Rick Astley releases new single Unwanted, official theme song of QCODE's scripted podcast comedy series

Singer, songwriter and producer Rick Astley announced the premiere today of his new single, “Unwanted”, which is also the official theme song of the QCODE scripted comedy podcast series of the same name. The song, performed by Astley, was released in conjunction with the series finale of UNWANTED this week and is available on Spotify, Apple Music and all major music streaming platforms. Astley co-wrote and co-produced “Unwanted” with Deron Johnson, QCODE’s Head of Music. You can listen to it here.

“It has been a fun and exciting thing to write a song for a podcast,” said Astley. “It’s a new world for me and I really love what we came up with!”

"You’ve all been asking and asking and now we’re delivering,” said UNWANTED creators Kyle Shevrin and Lamorne Morris. “Get your earbuds ready for the Official Unwanted Podcast Theme Song!”

Astley, who is enjoying a major career resurgence, has already sold more than 40 million albums fueled by hits like the chart-topping “Never Gonna Give You Up,” “Whenever You Need Somebody,” “Together Forever,” “When I Fall in Love,” “She Wants To Dance With Me” and “Cry For Help.”

In 2016 he returned with new music and released his self-penned platinum album “50” that has sold more than 400,000 copies to date. In 2018 he followed it up with another self-penned, played & produced top ten album, “Beautiful Life,” and in 2019 released a career spanning top 5 album “The Best of Me.” Showing his mass appreciation across genres, he graced the main stage of the legendary Reading Festival, performing “Never Gonna Give You Up" with the Foo Fighters. Just before the pandemic Rick toured Australia and New Zealand with a-ha, playing 8 sold out arena shows, before arriving back home to lockdown. Rick has been anything but quiet during the pandemic adding an extra 1 million to his YouTube following and has become a major force on TikTok with 1.7 million followers. During this past year, Rick has been a regular guest where he received renewed recognition in the US after performing on his agent Richard Weitz’s/daughter Demi Weitz’s incredible charity live zoom events ‘RWQuarantunes’ alongside hundreds of other artists raising more than $22 million so far.

UNWANTED, which is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all major podcast platforms is a first-of-its-kind scripted action/comedy podcast series starring and co-created by writing partners Kyle Shevrin and Lamorne Morris (Game Night & “New Girl”) and includes a cast of their comedic friends Jake Johnson (“New Girl”), Billy Magnussen (Game Night, Aladdin), Anna Camp (Pitch Perfect) and more. The series stars Lamorne Morris & Billy Magnussen as Ben and Grant, two slackers who attempt to catch an escaped convicted murderer, who is allegedly hiding in their town, to cash in on the million-dollar reward bounty. Our heroes are stuck in a cycle of Chinese food, video games, and not living up to their potential. This cycle isn’t broken until they hear about a complex prison escape, which is where our story begins. Once our main characters etch out their plan to catch the escaped prisoner, the adventure begins…

ABOUT QCODE

QCODE, a premium content studio and podcast network, was launched in 2019 by former Creative Artists Agency agent Rob Herting. The company is focused on working with creators to originate and innovate stories in audio format that have the potential to grow and be adapted in other mediums, including television series and feature films. QCODE has quickly become the leading destination for scripted fiction and immersive storytelling in the podcast space. The company has released ten scripted podcasts, all of which have been No.1 in the fiction category and top 10 overall on the Apple Podcast Chart.