HuaYu97: Starting as a Singer

Chapter 455 [455] The Spring Festival Gala ratings soared in the Year of the Horse, and "Gong Xi Fa Cai" (Wishing You Prosperity) was playing everywhere.

In the days following Lunar New Year's Eve, people could hear Qi Yuan singing "Wishing you prosperity" whenever they went out.

It has a very wide reach, playing in supermarkets, shopping malls, and streets all over the country.

It's safe to say that everyone from eighty-year-old seniors to toddlers has heard this song at some point during this Spring Festival; no one can escape it.

This is the power of a New Year's greeting song that embodies the Chinese people's yearning and pursuit of a better life!
The song's rapid spread is largely due to piracy.

After the advent of MP3, a large number of pirated music websites began to emerge.

These websites used technical means to scrape songs from the Spring Festival Gala video and spread download links everywhere; a simple search will yield a ton of results.

Piracy is extremely abhorrent to record companies and singers in the industry.

However, the song "Gong Xi Fa Cai" is a bit special. Qi Yuan never intended to make money from this song from the beginning.

This song is meant to boost its national recognition; the more Chinese people who hear it, the better, and the more it goes viral, the better.

Once this song is etched into the DNA of the Chinese people, it will be thawed every year, bringing Qi Yuan a huge surge in popularity each year. This is what's most important to Qi Yuan.

As it turns out, Qi Yuan's goal has been achieved.

During the Spring Festival, many Chinese people complained about Qi Yuan online.

"Isn't the song 'Gong Xi Fa Cai' terrifying? I heard it when I went to the market to buy groceries to entertain relatives, when I went to the convenience store to buy drinks for my child, and when I went to the temple fair with my wife and child at night. I feel like this song is everywhere."

"Even my grandma can hum a few lines now, Qi Yuan's new song is so catchy."

"The words are too powerful. What can a Chinese person resist making money?"

……

On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, the viewership ratings for this year's Spring Festival Gala were finally released.

The average viewership rating exceeded 45.6%, setting a new high in recent years.

You know, the Spring Festival Gala these days is not what it used to be.

With the adoption of more advanced statistical methods, viewership data is now more accurate.

Furthermore, with the increasing variety of entertainment options available to people during the Spring Festival, it is no longer possible for the Spring Festival Gala to replicate the 70% or 80% viewership ratings of many years ago.

Take the 01 Spring Festival Gala as an example; the average viewership was only 33.2%, and even at its peak, it was just over 50%.

Qi Yuan's appearance on the Spring Festival Gala boosted the average viewership of this year's gala by 12.4%, and his 7-minute solo performance was even more impressive, achieving a viewership rating of 67.1%.

This data means that when Qi Yuan appeared on the Spring Festival Gala stage, 67.1 out of every 100 television stations across the country were watching Qi Yuan, giving her a significant lead over all other singers and artists in that year's Spring Festival Gala.

Qi Yuan's achievement is largely due to the support of his hometown people and audiences in the south.

It is well known that the further south you go, the lower the viewership of the Spring Festival Gala becomes.

Especially those from South China, represented by Guangdong Province, really have no interest in the Spring Festival Gala. They'd rather play cards, chat, or set off fireworks outdoors than watch it.

As the most popular superstar in the country, Qi Yuan has a great influence in every province across the country.

The fact that a large number of viewers from the south who didn't normally watch the Spring Festival Gala watched it led to a significant increase in its viewership.

Of course, it would be inaccurate to say that such a large increase was entirely due to Qi Yuan alone.

However, no one would doubt that Qi Yuan contributed the most credit.

This influence is the envy of celebrities across the country!

With Qi Yuan as an example, no one dares to call themselves a national-level superstar or national-level diva. Compared to Qi Yuan, their national-level status seems like a fake!
Like Qi Yuan, Wang Lihong, who participated in this year's Spring Festival Gala, had mixed feelings.

When he first signed with Sony, the company, in order to make his transition smoother, had him leverage Qi Yuan's fame and use the nickname "Little Qi Yuan" for his transition.

At the time, he was somewhat arrogant and felt that he was himself and did not need to live in anyone's shadow.

He did just that, using songs like "Descendants of the Dragon," "The Only One," and "Loving You Is Loving Myself" to shed the nickname "Little Qi Yuan" and be himself again, successfully rising to become a Taiwanese pop star.

His rate of progress is considered very fast in the Chinese music scene.

But after years of hard work, he found that he could no longer even become Xiao Qiyuan.

Looking at the entire Chinese music scene now, no young singer is qualified to be called Xiao Qiyuan, including him and Jay Chou.

No matter how popular they become, they only stay in China; Qi Yuan's overseas achievements are enough to crush any of them.

If anyone dares to market themselves as Xiao Qiyuan now, they will definitely be laughed at by the audience and the media.

Wang Lihong couldn't understand why the gap was widening even though he had tried his best to catch up.
He hadn't even started his career abroad, but in China he was only performing on the Spring Festival Gala, lip-syncing and singing along with others, while Qi Yuan sang two songs solo. Needless to say, his viewership ratings were far superior to Qi Yuan's. He was completely crushed by Qi Yuan.

Wang Lihong could only console himself that things would definitely change once his first Japanese album was released this year.

He had figured it out: to quickly close the gap with Qi Yuan, he had to go overseas and achieve success abroad.

If his Japanese album sells well in Japan, his status will immediately rise significantly, and it's not impossible for him to surpass Jay Chou.

……

Mainland media outlets began reporting extensively on Qi Yuan's performance at the Spring Festival Gala.

[The Spring Festival Gala's ratings skyrocketed this year; 67 out of 100 people were watching Qi Yuan, truly deserving of the title of global superstar!]

[Qi Yuan and Fan Binbin's heartfelt dance to "Blue and White Porcelain" at the Spring Festival Gala filled the screen with affection. According to sources at CCTV, the station's hotline was overwhelmed with calls on New Year's Eve, with countless viewers asking if they were really married.]

Qi Yuan and Fan Binbin were spotted together in Guilin City, sparking rumors of a honeymoon?

[Fan's mother: We're not married, please don't spread rumors! Little Fan just went to Guilin to film a commercial, but Qi Yuan has indeed been very good to our Little Fan... What? You're asking why he's been so good to Little Fan? I don't know either!]

Li Bingbing and her sister, Gao Yuanyuan, Cai Zhuoyan, and Lin Zhiling: "..."

Fan Xiaopang, could you be any more shameless? Even your own mother has come out, with hints in her words, leaving people to fill in the blanks themselves.

Fan Xiaopang's biological mother is quite active.

Years ago, when Fan Xiaopang was filming "The Wild Princess Looking for Her Father", she was suddenly notified that she had to be replaced. Her biological mother came out to be interviewed by reporters and cried to express her grievances on her behalf!

Fan's mother can speak for Fan Xiaopang on his behalf when he is uncomfortable saying certain things.

……

Gui City.

The filming team, led by Qi Yuan, Fan Xiaopang, and Ning Hao, has arrived at the scenic area to film a new commercial for Wuliangye.

Now that we're in Guilin, we definitely have to recreate "Kangmei's Love" from our previous life, which is hailed as the pinnacle of domestic advertising.

The original version was a pharmaceutical advertisement, but its style is very similar to "Love Comes in Spring" because it was produced by the same media company.

Qi Yuan slightly adapted "Kangmei's Love" into a liquor advertisement, while maintaining the style of "Love Comes with the Spring Tide," which was very reasonable.

(End of this chapter)