TV singing competition takes rivalry between the US and China to a new level

The Chinese participants in the Singer 2024However, they seemed less than thrilled when the camera panned backstage. Lambert embarrassed them with his absolutely perfect live performance, and if Lambert won, one of them would be eliminated.

Some viewers joked on social media that Lambert had come to cause a “bloodbath” and teach the Chinese music industry a lesson.

Singer 2024 is a Eurovision-style singing competition in which artists are judged by a panel of 1,000 Chinese and international judges.

The program positions itself as a “truly international music stage” that showcases different styles and enables cultural exchange, said Zhang Danyang, the program’s executive director. This is in line with President Xi Jinping’s call to promote mutual learning between civilizations and strengthen people-to-people relations between China and the United States.

But this ambition sometimes goes awry and even a music show can become a geopolitical showdown between East and West.

Chinese audiences are used to a high level of playback and auto-tuning in live performances. Singers at the state broadcaster’s must-see Spring Festival Gala have long been accused of playback singing. And at a 2019 hit musical, it was discovered that the lead actress, who fell ill, was played a pre-recorded tape.

In China, playback is punishable by law at ticketed concerts and other commercial performances, but the regulations do not apply to television and internet shows.

That made Singer 2024 a rarity, because all performances are live and unedited, and established artists compete to be the best live performer. That resonated with viewers and critics: the first episode alone garnered 135 million views within 24 hours of its premiere, driving up the parent company’s stock.

The decision to broadcast the show live was “the right decision” and has “raised the bar” for other Chinese shows, said Chinese-Canadian music producer JKAI (Jay-Kai), who joined the first episode remotely as an international judge. “In years past, none of this has really been this live.”

The show features seven contestants – four Chinese, one Taiwanese, one American and one Moroccan-Canadian – as well as one-off guest appearances like Lambert. A producer of the show said many of the Chinese artists they approached did not have the “skill” and “courage” to sing live.

The American nominee is Chanté Moore, a 57-year-old R&B singer from San Francisco. Moore “exudes a kind of lightness, freedom and authenticity that you don’t often see here,” said Celeste Hua, a 30-year-old resident of Shanghai.

Hua became a fan after Moore sang Alicia Keys’ “If I Ain’t Got You” with a special touch: she added some Mariah Carey-style high notes to her powerful rendition.

As if to show that she was aware of her vocal superiority, Moore said in a widely circulated backstage interview that she thought she would join the show as a judge, not a singer.

The other Westerner, Faouzia, a 24-year-old Canadian of Moroccan descent, has gained a loyal following by incorporating operatic skills and Arabic musical elements into pop songs. Moore and Faouzia have regularly been in the top three.

The Chinese performance was not so consistent.

Silence Wang, one of the country’s most successful recording artists, had problems with high notes. The folksy singing of Liang Long, lead singer of the alternative rock band Second Hand Rose, was compared to a disturbing shamanic ritual.

After Chinese singer Na Ying, popular for three decades, delivered a relatively solid performance in the first episode, she was caricatured in viral memes as a one-man army under siege by foreign powers.

The one-sided nature of the competition has sparked a wave of nationalistic sentiments towards a show that was supposed to be pure entertainment.

Music critic Zou Xiaoying wrote online that the Singer show was “not the Olympics” and: “I will not give my vote to any foreigner, no matter how good they are.” “And: Are they really that good?” he asked in a post that received 67,000 likes.

Enthusiastic fans of the show, disappointed with the Chinese artists, turned to other local singers who they felt possessed as much vocal versatility as Moore and Faouzia, hoping to strengthen Team China and uphold “national honor.” More than a dozen singers expressed their interest.

“I am Chinese singer Han Hong. Send me into battle!” wrote a musician close to the People’s Liberation Army with 16 million followers on Weibo, tagging Singer’s official account. Her post received 1.5 million likes and further stoked nationalist sentiments.

The show’s production team thanked fans for their unsolicited brainstorming and the singers who volunteered before asking everyone to focus on the music, friendship and communication rather than winning.

State media also commented.

Raising an entertainment issue to the level of a “geopolitical battle” is both misleading and unfunny, the state-run Chengdu Economic Daily wrote in a commentary. The People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, commented that “there is no reason to exaggerate the rivalry” even though the Chinese and the two foreign singers are not equal in live performances.

Although “nationalism sells,” says Sara Liao, a media scientist at Pennsylvania State University, commercial television stations must be cautious because they are “simultaneously exposed to the risk of reprisals” from the government, which decides what can be broadcast, and to public scrutiny.

In fact, the Singer show was created in a geopolitical conflict.

The show was originally called “I Am a Singer” and was based on a South Korean show of the same name. However, when South Korea decided to deploy the US THAAD missile defense system in 2017, China angrily banned K-pop acts and the show was given a new name. Also in 2017, Hong Kong singer Hins Cheung was kicked off the show for allegedly supporting the independence movement, an accusation he denied.

Moore’s chances of winning dropped after last week’s episode, when she placed last with her rendition of Beyoncé’s “Halo.”

But if she or Faouzia win, as they did when British singer Jessie J became the show’s first international winner in 2018, it would be more about their talent, voice and artistry than their fame, says Rozette, a Canadian singer and singing coach who comments on the show on her YouTube channel.

“The role of these (foreign) artists, in my opinion, is to create a juxtaposition and show the different palettes of different cultures,” Rozette said in an interview. “Ultimately, they are there to represent a different sound: pop music from America might as well be world music to many Chinese ears.”