I am a Singer

As I promised, here it is! A special post about my favourite singing competition : Singer (formerly known as I Am a Singer)!

It’s a Chinese show broadcasted by HunanTV and it is based on the Korean version, called I Am a Singer (that’s why they had to change the name). Unlike any other talent show with singers like The Voice or The X Factor, The Singer is exclusively created for professional singers and artists from all over the world. Typically, the foreign singers are being invited to take part in the show, which is a huge thing, because not only is it a number one show in China, but the average ratings for each episode reach about 200 mln viewers, and who wouldn’t like to have such a platform to gain more recognition and popularity?

I watched Singer 2017 and Singer 2018 and I absolutely loved them. The producers really know how to entertain people, because this show provides : the high quality of sound, the intimate setting (only 500 people in the audience + contestants and musical partners who introduce the artists), the freedom to artists in terms of music (as long as it works on stage, they do different types of covers) and the participation of the audience as the ultimate judges – now that’s really interesting. After all the performances of the night, each person in the audience votes for 3 (out of 7-8) which he finds the best and after counting them all, the host announces the results. The artist whose performance was judged as the worst is being eliminated from the show (though they can come on the show either for a Return Performance or in the next season) and another singer enters the competition on their place. It goes on and on for about 10 episodes and the last stage of the competition takes place : The Finals. That’s the basic rules, there’s of course more twists to it, but depending on the currently aired season there are introduced some small or bigger changes so I don’t see a point in describing them.

Last but not least, you can watch this show for free (after it’s been uploaded) on the official youtube channel, last season had english subtitles, so there’s no problem with understanding anything. What’s more, The Singer 2019 just had its premiere on 11 January, so if you like you may start watching it from there.

I chose some of my favourite performances so that you can have a taste of how it looks/sounds like, here you go :

Dimash : Adagio

He doesn’t need an introduction, does he? All I want to say is that sometimes I forget to breathe when he performs Adagio.

Jessie J – Purple Rain

My favourite cover of Purple Rain. Jessie J is a Queen! She also won Singer 2018.

Tengger – Heaven

A soulful performance deeply inspired by his Mongolian roots. In the beginning you can hear the throat (overtone) singing.

Tan Jing – Desirous Water

She’s a folk singer, but her range lets her do anything with her voice.

Hua Chenyu – Nunchucks

He’s very popular in China and I’m not surprised, he’s a very sensible artist. Him and Dimash are very much alike in the musical aspect, they both like to experiment and showcase different type of singing.

Sandy Lam – Persimmon

She left everyone breathless with this performance, me included.  She’s the winner of Singer 2017.

Kz Tandingan – Royals 

Such charisma! She totally killed this song, too bad she got eliminated.

Lion – I Can’t Hear

I love how attuned they are to the audience, the last part is especially touching.

I’m really glad I discovered this show, otherwise I wouldn’t get to know such gifted and passionate artists, each one of them was made to be on stage.

It was fun writing for you guys, see you soon in February, there’s still a lot to come!