As the performance progressed, the real-time fan report posts on the forum continued to update.
Due to the limited number of tickets for the first performance, only a handful of the 500 audience members were live-blogging their feedback online.
Everyone was immersed in the stage atmosphere; only Jiang Ke went through all this trouble to manage her account.
She did indeed succeed in riding the wave of hype. More and more fans and casual viewers were drawn in, and within just a few minutes, the replies piled up to thousands of floors.
4367L (OP): [The third group is the vocal group, Wen Xinyi vs. Wu Qi.
The production team isn’t even pretending anymore; they’re practically shoving the trending topics in my face.]
4368L: [Laughing, that’s just NS for you. Probably, the number of trending topics is their KPI.]
4369L: [Wen and Wu pk………………what’s even there to compare? What does Wu have over Wen besides seniority?]
4370L: [True, whether you sing well or not has little to do with seniority; it’s about talent. Wen’s musical sense and vocal ability are seriously strong, a pure stats monster.]
4371L: [Are you guys not just setting him up for a fall?……Wu is, after all, a senior who’s held concerts for ten years. His vocal foundation is definitely more stable than Wen Xinyi’s. Wen hasn’t even performed at a music festival yet; isn’t he just an online singer who mainly covers viral short video songs???]
4372L: [The poster above makes a good point. A bunch of fans pretending to be casual viewers are stepping on a senior to climb up, how glorious.]
4373L (OP): [To be honest, I’m not a big fan of Wu Qichang’s vocal color, but he was really stable this round. Aside from him standing out a bit awkwardly among a group of 20-year-olds, everything else was fine. Average, neither great nor terrible.]
4374L (OP): [Now, let me focus on Wen Xinyi. Before coming to the performance, I had quite high expectations for him, but I never expected their group’s performance to turn out like this……
I feel like something’s going to happen with Wen Xinyi’s group. Even post-production auto-tune might not save the broadcast effect. Believe me, sisters, when the first performance officially airs in two weeks, they’re definitely going to get criticized.]
4375L (OP): [I won’t go into detail about the singing issues because I can’t spoil much. I’ll just briefly mention two problems that could have been avoided but they insisted on doing it this way.
First, their lyric parts were distributed way too unfairly…Wen Xinyi actually only got two lines! And the most difficult high note wasn’t even given to him to sing…
It’s hard to judge…The guy responsible for the high note didn’t crack (that would’ve been something else if he cracked while standing still), but his voice sounded muffled, making my ears feel stuffy [sigh]
Kid, go back to the ranch, the grasslands are your home…]
4376L (OP): [Second, the final dance section, which had a difficulty level on par with radio calisthenics, was the height of humor. The biggest joke I’ve seen so far in the first performance.
Wen Xinyi, tell me the truth! Did you even attend the dance classes? You didn’t take the center when you should have, but during the dance part, you stood in the middle. Does the program planner have a grudge against you, or do you have a grudge against the audience?
The NS dance studio must have mirrors, right? There were rehearsals before the performance started, right? Just what qualified this group to get on stage……Was it courage? [confused]]
4377L: [I’m speechless…to drive my sis to this point, just how much of a car crash was the live performance?]
4378L: [Doesn’t the internet say Wen Xinyi’s ‘Wen’ stands for ‘steady’? He’s already flipping over in the first performance?]
4379L: [Ahhh Wen, you guy…You didn’t go to a singing competition, but came to an idol training show to form a boy group. See, something was bound to happen.
Our future King Of Song’s golden performance hasn’t even materialized yet, and he’s already contributed a famous car crash scene…Well, isn’t this just the kind of idol who spoils his black fans?]
4380L: [Pfft, every time I see fans hyping the ‘future King Of Songs’ I want to laugh. You haven’t had enough of the pre-made meals, now you’re messing with a pre-made King Of Songs?]
4381L: [I agree with OP, I’m also at the first performance live. Wen Xinyi’s group’s performance really shocked me [facepalm]
I consider myself a casual fan of Wen Xinyi, so I’ve watched many of his singing videos before and have a rough idea of his vocal ability.
To be honest, the high note in “Palace Bell Jade” isn’t that difficult, at least for Wen Xinyi it should be easy. I’m not saying that if he sang that high note it would definitely be the killing part, but it would absolutely be much better than it is now. I really don’t understand why their group distributed the parts like this…]
4382L: [So Wen, as the leader, really only got two lines? And he had his high note part taken? Is there a royal in their group or is there internal bullying? Doesn’t the production team care?]
4383L: [I’m not sure about the situation within Wen Xinyi’s team, but the damn jmz definitely won’t care:)
It’s already good if they don’t add fuel to the fire. Last year’s girl group survival show, my girl got isolated, maliciously edited, and blacklisted all over the internet. jmz didn’t make a sound from start to finish, only knew to hide behind the scenes and buy negative trending searches for my girl, throwing all integrity out for the sake of hype [vomit][vomit]]
4384L: [But I heard NS changed directors this season. This director probably isn’t as disgusting as last year’s.]
4385L: [What’s the use of just changing the director? The production team hasn’t changed. This studio is notoriously good at malicious editing and riding hype, they’ve ruined who knows how many major online variety IPs.]
4386L: [There’s nothing to do, capital just loves teams that know how to stir things up.]
……….
After watching the next rapper group performance of Xue Mingzhu vs. Bi Xiao, Jiang Ke lowered her head and organized the draft notes she had been taking in her phone’s memo app while watching. Then she copied and pasted them into the post and sent it.
She scrolled through the screen, browsing the comments left by netizens, and muttered to herself: “They’ve already argued past eight thousand floors…so energetic.”
Up to this point, eight groups had already taken the stage for their first performance on “NS,” but to be honest, these eight stages didn’t live up to Jiang Ke’s initial expectations.
Although she came for Quentin, the money was spent and she was already sitting here. Who wouldn’t want to spend these three hours enjoying the show?
She didn’t expect these young trainees in their teens and twenties to deliver the quality of a professional concert as that would be wishful thinking.
But they at least had the backing of Youth TV’s S-level investment. For a public performance with only 500 audience members, they had a rotating stage and giant curved LED screens. The sound effects surpassed any music show from rival stations she’d been to before, and the stage design was flawless.
With such good conditions, was it too much to hope for a live house-level performance?
But the result was truly disappointing.
Apart from Yan Qiao and Xue Mingzhu’s groups, which had minor flaws but didn’t obscure their merits, and Zhou Zilin and Wu Qichang who were average but bland, the other groups each had their own car crash moments.
Was she being too strict? Should she not judge these rookies from various small companies by the standards she used for the BKL boy band she once followed?
But in the future, after they debut, they will inevitably compete against BKL’s seventh generation. Apart from their fans, no one will go easy on them just because they came from a survival show.
Jiang Ke didn’t even need to carefully watch individual trainee fancams to easily pick out a bunch of flaws.
Microphone popping, misaligned formations, forgotten rap lyrics, uncoordinated moves, no tacit understanding…The level of skill was clear as day under the spotlight.
Although she could tell most of the boys had worked hard and were giving their all on stage, these scattered mistakes couldn’t be covered by the vibrant, infectious energy of youth they exuded.
It was an undeniable fact that their hard skills weren’t enough.
Sigh, when she watched the first episode, she actually thought there were quite a few promising seedlings nowadays. But comparing it now…the auto tuning in the initial stage was just too heavy!
Obviously, chasing survival shows requires watching the live stage. A career fan like her, who cares about looks and admires strength, would never spend money on trash.
Thinking of this, Jiang Ke couldn’t help but feel worried again. Even the increasingly lively comments in the forum post became uninteresting.
Quentin’s initial stage was so stunning…could it also be because of auto tuning?
If that were really the case, what should she do?
Jiang Ke propped her chin on her hand and let out a deep sigh. What to do? She felt like she would still spoil him anyway.
After all, not everyone can auto tune their voice to Quentin’s level. No matter how you edit someone who sings badly, it’s just polishing a turd.
Eh, thinking about it this way, even if Quentin’s live performance wasn’t as good as the broadcast version, it probably shouldn’t be too bad, right?
The following four group performances, “Lu Kui vs. Qiao Xue” and “Huo Donghua vs. Wei Bowen,” still didn’t have any noteworthy highlights. The live atmosphere, which had become much more excited due to Xue Mingzhu’s fast-paced rap, gradually calmed down again.
However, after scanning the area, Jiang Ke noticed that most of the audience was still watching with great interest. The fans’ cheers were passionate and enthusiastic, and the trainees on stage received sufficiently enthusiastic responses when they appealed for votes.
It seemed that critical viewers like her were the exception.
“It’s already past four o’clock, Quentin should be next, right?”
During the intermission while the staff were preparing the stage setup, Jiang Ke overheard the short-haired girl sitting next to her whispering quietly to her companion.
“Let me see…based on the number of people, only two teams are left. Quentin must be in one of them.” The companion looked down at her phone. “I’m just not sure who the leaders of these two teams are. Quentin should be a leader, right?”
The girl’s tone was decisive: “He has to be! With Quentin’s popularity, he has to be the leader!”
Then she added: “And he has to be the Center position!”
The companion, however, murmured distractedly: “Being both leader and Center at the same time is really hard, right? Look at the previous performances, apart from Wu Qichang and Yan Qiao, the leaders in other groups weren’t very prominent as Centers. Especially Wen Xinyi, a main vocalist actually turned into a barely noticeable background decoration…”
“What does other people’s poor performance have to do with Quentin?” the girl argued confidently, “Even if Quentin doesn’t get the Center position, it doesn’t change the fact that he’ll be the most dazzling center on stage!”
Of course.
Jiang Ke agreed inwardly, Quentin would naturally be the most dazzling core.
*
“In the mid-19th century, circuses once sparked an extraordinarily lively wave of popularity across Europe.”
A bright yellow spotlight shone down from above onto the host, Tan Miao. The surrounding light was dim as she stood in the corner of the stage, delivering the introductory lines for the next performance in her sweet voice.
“Whenever a circus arrived in a new city, citizens who received the news would put aside their busy work for the coming period and joyfully rush to this rare feast with their parents, lovers, and children.”
“However, not every circus could enjoy this welcome and love.”
“The musical ‘Circus Phantom Night’ tells the story of a circus from the slums, which endured countless sneers and ridicule, once teetered on the brink of bankruptcy and dissolution, and finally rose from obscurity to household fame after a genius clown joined.”
“Unfortunately, along with the Anna Circus’s rise to fame came not only money and honor, but also a series of mysterious unsolved cases and murderous intent…”
Tan Miao raised her voice: “Next, please enjoy the finale of Act Two from the musical ‘Circus Phantom Night’
… ‘Black Umbrella’, brought to you by Qi Yang’s team and Quentin’s team respectively!”
A beautiful, soft violin melody gradually faded in. Streetlights flickered to life on the stage, vaguely illuminating a bluish-black alleyway spanning the center.
“Tap, tap, tap…”
Hurried footsteps approached from afar.
The background sound faintly mixed with the ticking of a telegraph, the sharp, grating noise of printer pins scratching against paper, and the soft hiss of a match being struck…
A young man wearing a deep brown British detective-style coat, holding a pipe in his left hand and pressing down the brim of his beret with his right, walked hurriedly from the end of the alley. Several agents in formal, fitted black suits followed closely behind.
Dry ice mist spread across the stage, and the violin and piano duet in the accompaniment music gradually quickened.
The moment the seven young men took their respective positions at the center of the stage, the first line of the song was sung by the young man in the detective outfit at the Center position.
“Huh?!!”
Jiang Ke’s eyes widened in astonishment.
Wait, was she hearing things….full English bel canto?
Singing bel canto on a boy group stage? Was she crazy, or was the production team crazy!
She quickly took out her phone, searched for “Circus Phantom Night” and “Black Umbrella,” and skimmed the summaries on the search app.
A few seconds later, Jiang Ke closed her eyes in despair.
Damn it……damn production team, you guys really know how to play. Fine, you win.
She had only considered that Quentin might not perform as well as his initial stage, but never expected the production team wouldn’t even give him a chance to perform….singing bel canto in the first performance of a boy group survival show, help, are you selecting a boy group or a choir? What’s the difference between this and forcing a pop music major in an art exam to sing bel canto……
It was insane.
Jiang Ke took a deep breath, turned off her phone, and looked back at the stage, her heart heavy: “Oh my God, singing bel canto is one thing, but lip-syncing so blatantly? The backing track must be at least 50%.”
The dancer groups didn’t lip-sync, so why is your group pulling this stunt? Do the 500 live audience members not exist?
The sense of dissonance from singing bel canto and the details of whether they were singing live or not were only keenly noticed by a very small number of people. Most of the audience was still immersed in the strange and grand atmosphere created by the original arrangement of “Black Umbrella,” and there were certainly viewers who couldn’t tell if the trainees were singing live and were stunned by Yan Wenbing’s high-pitched bel canto.
That’s right, the Qi Yang team currently performing on stage had not made any adaptations to the “Black Umbrella” provided by the production team.
Thankfully, the production team still had a shred of conscience. When they included “Black Umbrella” as an option for the first performance, they had already made several rounds of rough revisions.
They also had the vocal coach give their team special tutoring, barely lowering the difficulty of singing this aria, so as not to force a bunch of F-class trainees to hastily become musical theater actors in five days.
But, it was still very incongruous, an incongruity that made Jiang Ke, a seasoned fan accustomed to idol boy group stages, see black.
At this moment, she had already lost hope for the upcoming performance of “Black Umbrella” by Quentin’s team.
Whether Quentin could sing bel canto or not, she found it hard to appreciate such a stage.
There was no helping it; her tastes were just conventional. She just liked watching good-looking guys who sing well and dance nicely perform catchy pop music.
Otherwise, why would she have chased idol boy groups for seven years, been enthusiastic about boy band concerts and music festivals, but never gone to high end theaters to listen to opera or musicals?
So, the director who came up with the idea of putting a musical on a boy group survival show stage was…a “genius”!
Forcing the integration of two fields with completely different audiences, did he think he was being innovative?!
………Wait, wasn’t “Circus Phantom Night” a musical that was only introduced domestically this year? Could this be a collaboration between the theater and Youth TV, using the survival show’s hype for advertising?!
Jiang Ke felt she had uncovered the truth.
Just as she was staring blankly with dead-fish eyes, waiting for this “awe-inspiring” bel canto performance to be over, a small commotion suddenly erupted from a section of seats behind her.
“What the hell…this is ridiculous…”
“………who arranged this……who are they trying to fool…..”
“I waited over three hours for this?!”
“Stupid production team…”
The comments full of doubt and dissatisfaction lasted less than ten seconds before quieting down under the persuasion of the big fans.
Jiang Ke’s seat happened to be very close to the audience member who spoke up to stop it. She quietly pricked up her ears and clearly heard the whole story behind the controversy.
……Really?
She looked back at the stage with a subtle expression, squinting her eyes to examine the faces of the seven trainees, finally finding Qi Yang, who was dressed in a black suit, on the far left.
Wow.
Jiang Ke touched her chin, growing increasingly impressed by the production team’s ability to stir up drama.
Wen Xinyi, the leader & main vocalist, didn’t sing the high notes and only got two lines. Qi Yang, also a leader, not only wasn’t the Center but was also positioned on the edge.
Two popular contestants actually received this kind of treatment…She could already imagine how lively the forum would be after today’s performance ended.
Thinking more carefully, if even Wen and Qi, who came from big companies, ended up in such a sorry state, wouldn’t Quentin, who isn’t signed to a company, be even more easily targeted?
