They’re all reborn, what’s wrong with being a little more almighty?

Chapter 311 There are pitfalls everywhere

The program team announced the rules for the next game. In the first round, the contestants who failed the quiz will enter the mid-game PK. The other four contestants will fight in the ring. The winner will advance to the next round, and the loser will enter the mid-game PK. The loser of the mid-game PK will enter the rescue seat to be determined.

In the second round, the contestants and guests will form teams to sing together, and two contestants will directly advance to the national top four.

The other three contestants with the lowest votes will directly enter the final PK. The one who was waiting to be saved will compete with another contestant. The winner will advance, and the loser will also enter the final PK. Finally, one person will be eliminated to determine the final four.

Under this rule, the round of singing with the guests is very crucial. If you perform well, you can directly advance to the semi-finals and avoid one or two rounds of PK.

Two days before the competition, the guests were confirmed, which was exactly the same as the inside information revealed by Brother Jie before. The five guests were the SHE group, Landy Wen and Joey Yung, all of whom were singers from Hong Kong and Taiwan.

At that time, there was a lack of young female singers in the mainland music scene. The former powerful singers had all become big names, and young female singers had not yet become popular. Apart from those who debuted through the Super Girl talent show, it was really hard to find anyone else.

The most popular girl groups in the Chinese music scene after 2000 are Twins and SHE. Twins is more famous because they have starred in many movies, including the movie "The King's Woman" which won box office, reputation and awards. Movie stars are definitely more famous than singers.

As their status increases, their appearance fees also get higher. As they are both popular groups, they can spend less money and hire more people, so the cost-effectiveness of hiring SHE is definitely much higher than that of hiring Twins.

As for Landy Wen, she is a typical example of a person who is famous for her songs but not for herself. Everyone has heard her songs, but when her name is mentioned, everyone just feels familiar but cannot remember who she is for a moment.

There was an entertainment program called "Super Newcomer King" on Taipei Star TV in those days, hosted by variety show king Xian Ge. In the 1997 "Super Newcomer King" program, Xian Ge discovered two newcomers, one was Jay Chou and the other was Landy Wen.

At that time, Landy Wen had not had plastic surgery. She was young, beautiful and had a good figure. She was supported by Kenneth Ma and made her debut as a singer directly.

Jay Chou, who has a rather ordinary image and cannot sing the lyrics clearly, became the music assistant of Xian Ge's company.

Who would have thought that Landy Wen, who was young, beautiful, had a good figure and could sing, could not become popular no matter how much she was promoted, but the music assistant who sat at the desk writing songs became the number one king in the Chinese music scene!

In order to promote Landy Wen, Brother Xian gave her almost unlimited resources. For the famous song "The Rooftop", he chose Landy Wen, who was still a newcomer, to sing a duet with her. He also provided her with film and television resources, allowing her to play the leading role in Chen Xiaochun's movie.

In addition, of course, the songs written by Jay Chou are indispensable.

Jay Chou has written songs for many people. Among female singers, you might think that Jolin Tsai is the one for whom Jay Chou has written the most songs, but it is actually Landy Wen. Including the most famous song "Summer Wind", which was written by Jay Chou.

Jay Chou originally intended to put the song "Summer Wind" in the album "Ye Huimei", but because Landy Wen chose this song, Jay Chou had to reluctantly give it up and replaced it with "Love Cliff" and "Can You Hear It", so there are 11 songs in the album "Ye Huimei".

Are you awesome if you can snatch a song from the popular Jay Chou?

Even with so many resources, Landy Wen is still not popular. It can only be said that she is not destined to be popular.

In 2007, although Landy Wen’s songs were very popular, she was still not very well-known, so it was not a waste of talent to invite her to be a guest singer.

The last guest, Joey Yung, should be considered the most famous one among the guests. She is considered the "last queen of Hong Kong" who is famous in film, television and music. She has also appeared on the Spring Festival Gala, so her reputation is fully displayed.

……

Looking at the guest, Zhang Wei was a little surprised.

Guests are supposed to perform on stage, so their status should be similar. It is impossible to invite Andy Lau and put him on the same level as the Errenzhuan performers, and you really want Andy Lau to sing "My hometown is in this village" in Cantonese.

Joey Yung is also a queen, and her status is obviously a level higher than the other four guests. This is not Sisters Riding the Wind and Waves, so it is obviously unreasonable to let them be guest singers together.

"It's hard to find female singers in mainland China, but there should be many singers of similar status in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Is it really necessary to hire a superstar? Does the program team have such ample funds? Are they planning some shady tricks to deal with me again?"

Zhang Wei suddenly remembered Liu Boler in the previous game, who forgot the lyrics and messed up, causing him to enter the final PK directly.

"Could it be that the program team wants to use the same trick?" Zhang Wei thought for a moment, then shook his head.

For a little Karaoke singer like Liu Boler, forgetting the lyrics would be fine, but these five guests are all big stars. If they forget the lyrics during their stage performance, it will affect their image, which would be counterproductive.

Therefore, for the sake of their own reputation, the guests will not collude with the program crew and deliberately create obstacles.

Several contestants next to them began to discuss who would be more advantageous to form a team with.

"If I can team up with Hebe, it would be the best. She and Fahrenheit sang the duet "Only Have Feelings for You" and they had a great rapport."

"I think that SHE is a group and they are used to singing together. If we team up with any of them, we should have a tacit understanding."

"It's not bad to team up with Miss Landy Wen. We can sing the song "The Rooftop" directly. It was a must-order song for couples to go to KTV back then."

"Isn't the song 'Rooftop' a bit too old? The song 'You're Going to Marry Me Today' that has been popular in the past two years is a must-order song for couples in KTV."

"Teaming up with Yung Cho-sensei is the best option, right? She's a music queen. It's so cool to be able to sing a duet with her! It's something you don't seek for easily!"

"I think teaming up with Mr. Yung Cho may not be a good thing. The Queen is a big name, but she's also arrogant! There's a saying that goes 'big stores bully customers', I'm afraid it won't be easy to cooperate with her."

This sentence instantly reminded Zhang Wei.

"That makes sense. Big-name stars are bound to be more picky. There are many Hong Kong and Taiwan singers who are arrogant. Could it be that this is a trap set by the program team for me?"

……

Comments about Zhang Wei’s poor singing skills are still fermenting online, and there are even some articles comparing Zhang Wei’s characteristics with those of several other contestants. The result is naturally that Zhang Wei has no singing skills and no voice, and is a complete failure!

Fans of other contestants also seized on this and went to various major forums to post messages, supporting their idols while also belittling Zhang Wei's singing skills.

After the previous few competitions, Zhang Wei has accumulated some fans, but Zhang Wei's singing skills are indeed inferior to others, and Zhang Wei's fans can only talk about his talent.

Being a good songwriter is a talent; being a top student at Tsinghua University is a talent; being a strong researcher is a talent; being able to win the Fields Medal is also a talent. Listing these out one by one, Zhang Wei is simply full of talent!

This is just a singing competition. Good academic performance, strong scientific research level, and the ability to win international awards are just added points for personality, and are of no help to singing skills.

There is also an image factor. Zhang Wei has an ordinary appearance. He is not ugly, but he is not handsome either. In talent shows like this, being handsome can make a living, and many ladies prefer to look at the face.

Although Zhang Wei has been using the campus network to create an image of a top student, off-site factors are gradually working against him.

The program crew on the scene were also trying to make things difficult for Zhang Wei, and the guest who sang duet with him was indeed the queen Yung Cho.

Yung Cho herself hadn't arrived yet, so her assistant came to contact Zhang Wei first. The female assistant was not tall, only about 1.6 meters tall with high heels, but she looked arrogant. When facing Zhang Wei, who was 20 centimeters taller than her, she still looked down on him.

"Our sister Joey's schedule is quite tight, and she can only spare one hour to rehearse with you." said the female assistant.

Zhang Wei nodded. Hong Kong people are used to calling people by English names, so he was not surprised by it.

As for speaking with English mixed in, it has only gradually become popular after the 21st century.

It is said that the situation is like this. After the return in 97, many people from the mainland went to Hong Kong to develop, but they did not speak Cantonese well. At that time, Hong Kong people did not speak Mandarin either, so communication was hindered.

So when you come across a word that you can’t express in Cantonese, you can directly replace it with an English word. Hong Kong people will understand it and will think that you are a half-foreigner who came back from the United States, Britain, Canada, and Australia, and will not discriminate against you.

If you come across words you don’t understand, you can also ask in English what they mean, and people will patiently explain them to you in English. If you ask in Mandarin, people will just give you a cold shoulder and won’t bother to talk to you.

Over time, mixing one or two English words into one's speech has become a symbol of being cultured.

The female assistant continued, "Regarding the rehearsal time, let's set it between 3:30 and 4:30 on Friday afternoon!"

"The official competition starts at 8 o'clock on Friday night, and the rehearsal starts at 3:30. Isn't it too late?" Zhang Wei asked.

"Who is our Sister Joey? How could she be late? One hour of rehearsal is more than enough. If you think you don't have enough time, just practice more on your own, and don't hold our Sister Joey back when the time comes!" said the female assistant condescendingly.

"A dog relying on the power of his master!" Zhang Wei cursed in his heart, and then asked, "Regarding the songs that I will sing with Mr. Yung Cho, I have prepared two songs..."

Before Zhang Wei could finish his words, his assistant interrupted him and said, "If you want to sing a song, it has to be Sister Joey's song!"

"No." Zhang Wei refused directly: "I only sing my own songs. I can't sing other people's songs well."

"In that case, Sister Joey won't partner with you," the assistant said in a threatening tone.

"I don't care." Zhang Wei shrugged with a smile.

"Then there's nothing to talk about. I'll inform the production team that Joey won't be coming. You'll be responsible for it then." The assistant said as he prepared to pack up and leave.

"That's perfect, it saves the program crew the announcement fee. I'm a contestant, no matter what, the program crew has to let me go on stage. But you, causing Mr. Yung Cho to make less money, can you take the responsibility?" Zhang Wei said coldly.

The female assistant was stunned, obviously she was hit in a weak spot.

She is just an assistant, not an agent, and has no authority to refuse activities on behalf of artists.

Moreover, her mission this time was to contact the program crew. If she failed to negotiate the business, she might be fired.

In fact, she had put on that threatening look before just to force Zhang Wei to submit. She felt that Zhang Wei was a young man who would be scared after a few threats, and when the time came, she would have to do whatever she said!
But she didn't expect that Zhang Wei was not so easy to control. He was not afraid at all and instead gave her a trick.

In desperation, the female assistant had to speak up and said, "In principle, our sister Joey only sings her own songs. If you must sing someone else's songs, we have two conditions."

"Please speak." Zhang Wei said calmly.

"The first condition is that it has to be a Cantonese song," said the female assistant.

"Why? Are Mandarin songs not okay?" Zhang Wei asked immediately.

"Our sister Joey doesn't speak Mandarin well, so if she sings Mandarin songs, it will affect the performance. Of course, Mandarin songs are not impossible, but they must be our sister Joey's own Mandarin songs." said the female assistant.

"How could I have forgotten this!" Zhang Wei showed a look of sudden realization.

In the early days, Joey Yung’s Mandarin was really terrible, much worse than that of Joey Yung. Later, after some hard practice, she barely reached the level of Ada Choi.

Although Joey Yung had already released more than one Mandarin album at this time, and even sang "Girl with Wings" in Mandarin on the Spring Festival Gala, it did not sound out of place.

But singing is different from speaking. Many Hong Kong singers cannot speak Mandarin well, but they can sing Mandarin songs with standard pronunciation.

This is because Mandarin has tones, with one, two, three, and four tones, while the tones of songs follow the melody, so there is no need to distinguish between the first, second, third, and fourth tones.

What is more important is practice. Hong Kong singers must practice several times before singing Mandarin songs. If they release a Mandarin album, they will need a special Mandarin teacher to guide their pronunciation so that they can sing accurately.

But if you give them an unfamiliar Mandarin song, nine times out of ten they won't be able to sing it well.

Given Joey Yung's current Mandarin level, if she is given a strange Mandarin song, it is likely to fail. After all, she is a queen, and she will definitely not allow such a performance failure to happen. It is reasonable and understandable that she is asked to sing a Cantonese song.

It was also at this moment that Zhang Wei finally realized what kind of pit the program crew had dug for him.

Other groups can sing Mandarin songs, but our group can only sing Cantonese songs. This is an innate disadvantage!

Among the tens of millions of TV viewers of "Go Boys", how many are from the Greater Bay Area? And it's not like people in the Greater Bay Area can't understand Mandarin, so they don't necessarily vote for Cantonese songs!
"This program crew is so calculating. They are setting traps for me everywhere!" Zhang Wei sighed lightly, and then an idea suddenly occurred to him and he thought of a way to deal with it.

Zhang Wei said, "I have thought of another solution. There is a song called "Good Intentions to Break Up". I don't know if you have heard of it. It is a duet between Candy Lo and Leehom Wang.

For this song, Candy Lo sang in Cantonese, while Leehom Wang sang in Mandarin. Although the languages ​​were different, the final effect of the combination was very good. This song has also won many Golden Melody Awards.

I also want to collaborate in this way. In a song, Mr. Yung Cho sings the lyrics in Cantonese and I sing the lyrics in Mandarin. Can you accept this method?"

The female assistant thought for a moment and said, "I have to go back and ask Sister Joey."

"What is the second condition?" Zhang Wei asked.

"The second condition is that the song must be shown to our sister Joey first, and only after our approval can it be performed on stage." said the female assistant.

"That's no problem. I can guarantee that if you show this song to Ms. Yung Cho, she will agree 100%!"

A song has already popped up in Zhang Wei’s mind, and it is particularly appropriate to sing it at this time!

(End of this chapter)