Sing! China (Chinese: 中国好声音; pinyin: Zhōngguó Hǎo Shēngyīn; formerly Chinese: 中国新歌声; pinyin: Zhōngguó Xīn Gēshēng) is a Chinese singing competition television series broadcast on Zhejiang Television. It is produced by Star (CM) Holdings Ltd.[1] It premiered during the summer on 15 July 2016. It is a re-branded version of The Voice of China, a show based on the original The Voice of Holland. It has aired seven seasons and aims to find new singing talent (solo or duets, professional and amateur) contested by aspiring singers, aged 18 or older (16 or older in seasons one and two), drawn from public auditions.
The winner is determined by live audience voting by SMS text. They receive a record deal with various labels for winning the competition. Winners of the past seven seasons have been: Jiang Dunhao (蒋敦豪), Tashi Phuntsok (扎西平措), Tenzin Nyima (旦增尼玛), Xing Hanming (邢晗铭), Shan Yichun (单依纯), Wu Keyue (伍珂玥), and Sumi Liang (梁玉莹).
The series employs a panel of four coaches who critique the artists' performances and guide their teams of selected artists through the remainder of the season. They also compete to ensure that their act wins the competition, thus making them the winning coach. The original panel featured Jay Chou, Na Ying, Wang Feng, and Harlem Yu. Other coaches from previous seasons include Eason Chan, Liu Huan, Nicholas Tse, Li Jian, Wang Leehom, Li Ronghao, Chris Li, Hacken Lee and Fish Leong.
The latest season eight began airing on 28 July 2023 with Wakin Chau, Joker Xue, Wilber Pan, and Henry Lau joining as new coaches, but it was put on hold on 25 August 2023 pending an investigation into the alleged mistreatment of late singer Coco Lee, who was one of the coaches on Sing! China in 2022, and other issues raised by the netizens and viewers of the program.[2]
Format
The series consists of three main phases: a blind audition, a battle phase, and live performance shows. The four judges/coaches choose teams of contestants through a blind audition process. Each judge has the length of the auditioner's performance to decide if he or she wants that singer on his or her team. They can do it by pressing their button and their chairs will face the artist, just like in The Voice. If only one coach want the same singer, that singer will be defaulted to his/her team. If two or more coaches want the same singer (as happens frequently), the singer has the final choice of coach.
In Season 8, for the first time in the history of the show, artists have two options to choose from before they go on stage: Blind Audition and Open Selection. If they choose the former, the show will proceed by the normal rules. If they chose the latter, the coaches will turn around and judge the artists as they perform. In addition, if a coach presses the red button during the Open Selection, it will turn the coach's chair back and the singer isn't allowed to pick that coach. At the end of the performance, if the coach didn't press the button, it means that the students are invited to join that team.
Since 2018, artists that are not selected by any of the coaches leave the stage directly after their song and do not talk with the coaches. The chairs do not turn and hence the coaches do not see any artists that are not picked. Exceptions include if a coach wants to see the unchosen artist after their performance by request. However, this has been reversed in Season 8.
Each team of singers is mentored and developed by its respective coach. In the second stage, originally called the battle phase, coaches have two of their team members battle against each other directly by singing the same song together, with the coach choosing which team member to advance from each of the individual "battles". However, from Season 5 onwards, the second stage consists of a cross battle phase, which is similar to the regular battle phase, except for the fact that two artists who are not from the same team battle against each other. Winning artists score a point for their team. The losing artists do not earn any points but are not immediately eliminated. At the end of the cross battle rounds, whichever team that achieved a lower score will have to eliminate one artist from their team as a penalty. Other artists advance to the cross knockout rounds. Cross Knockout rounds are similar to the cross battle rounds except that losing artists are immediately eliminated. Winning artists move on to the first live rounds. Within that first live round, the surviving four acts from each team again compete head-to-head, with public votes determining the best of four acts from each team that will advance to the final eight, while the coach chooses which of the remaining three acts comprises the other performer remaining on the team.
In the final phase, the remaining contestants compete against each other in live broadcasts. The audience and the coaches have equal say in deciding who moves on to the final 4 phase. With one contestant remaining for each coach, the four contestants will compete against each other in the final round with the outcome decided solely by public vote.
Initially, there were no steals/saves in the entire competition. However, since season 5, any artist eliminated during the sing-offs by their coach can be stolen/saved by other coaches.
Controversies
Alleged mistreatment
In September 2022, a video went viral showing Coco Lee, one of the mentors on season 7, arguing with the show's director about which contestants should have advanced. Some netizens alleged that the show was known to be shady, while others said the production team's desire was to speed up filming due to ongoing delays.[3][4]
On August 17, 2023, after Lee's suicide in July, a nine-minute audio clip from Lee described her mistreatment by the production team during the show's final episode in October 2022.[5] According to the clip, she was subjected to a sudden placement change during a performance with Wang Zepeng, a contestant on her team. Wang, who was supposed to accompany Lee on stage to assist her due to her fragile condition from battling illnesses, had his back turned to her, causing Lee to stand alone in seven-inch heels and fall during their duet. She described this experience as "humiliating," especially since her health issues had been largely concealed from the public.[6]
Wang later supported Lee's claims by sharing a screen capture of their private text messages from that time, when Lee accused the director of intentionally undermining her. Other videos showed a staff member attempting to remove Lee from the stage as she repeatedly said, "Don't touch me", and her finally leaving the venue under assistance, struggling to walk.[6]
The clip also mentioned that the production team threatened not to give contestant Feige a chance to return to the competition unless Lee were to write a Weibo post. She complied to ensure Feige had an opportunity to showcase his talent. This controversy led to a significant debate among netizens, with calls to boycott the show's sponsors.[4]
By August 25, 2023, after the audio clip went viral, the stock price of Star China Media, the parent company of "Sing! China," plummeted by more than 50 percent, resulting in a loss of approximately $3 billion in value.[7]
Insiders' claims
Li Jiajie, one of the contestants in season 8 (2023), said that "the price of 500,000 yuan per seat, in his opinion, is certainly not a baseless rumor,” implying that the top ten places in the finals are all available for purchase. His posts were mysteriously removed, and Li later said that his allegations were made without basis.[8][9] People were surprised by the posts’ removal and his “apology”, leaving comments to ask if he was threatened.[8]
Zhang Weiqi, a contestant from season 1 of the Voice of China (2012), denied the rumor of turning a chair for 500,000 yuan, but revealed that the participants needed to sign a contract for 9 years to continue performing on the show in the finals. He also claimed that the participants who introduced themselves as truck drivers, farmers, nail salon owners, etc. were all fake, but for the sake of effects in the show.[10][11]
Wilber Pan’s chair
On the 4th episode of season 8, during a performance of the girl group Yomodo Band, Wilber Pan's chair swivelled away from the stage without him pushing the button, thus disapproving the contestant's performance. However, as his hands were observed to be resting on his lap, and with his mouth appeared to have said the word “what”, many netizens believed that he did not push the button to opt for disqualifying the contestant from proceeding to the next round.[12]
Suspension
On 25 August 2023, Zhejiang Satellite TV announced that the program had been frozen from broadcasting briefly pending an investigation over the alleged mistreatment of Coco Lee and other issues raised by netizens and viewers.[13][14][15] It was reported that the suspension of the show was also partly due to current season 8's coaches, Wakin Chau and Joker Xue, having insisted on pulling out of the show after the incident with half of the season yet to be produced and filmed.[16] Chau's team denied the rumor that Wakin Chau had pulled out from the show.[17]
These are the contestants of each team who survived in the cross-battles (seasons 1–3), cross-knockouts (seasons 4–6), and knockouts (season 7), as well as their placements until the finale. Stolen artists are italicized.
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