Chapter 27: All promoted (1)
At 7 pm, the real-time broadcast of <Pick Eleven> went live on the Internet. Unlike the previous live broadcast of the initial rating, the show had officially started for a week. The 101 contestants who were participating had already appeared on stage and had gained their own fanbase. Especially the newcomer Qiao Dai, whether it was for sleeping on the water, her stunning first stage, or her underwater portrait, was no longer an unknown player but had accumulated enough popularity to be one of the biggest dark horses of the show.
Fans had already joined the live broadcast room during the commercials and teasers, cheering for their favorite players.
[Yayyy, go Daidai!]
[Yiqi, go Yiqi!]
[Little Lu Ying, you’re the best!]
While fans were already commenting, players backstage were getting ready or training one last time, all while inquiring about the performances of the other groups.
Although the program had not made the repertoire public, during the latest rehearsal, some players had been walking around and had seen tidbits of practice from other groups; they could more or less guess the content of today’s show.
“Ruowei, do you know what song Qiao Dai’s team is performing?”
In the dressing room, Lin Lang and Jiang Ruowei were chatting. The two of them were teammates for this stage.
Jiang Ruowei shook her head. She had originally wanted to sneak in during their rehearsal to take a look but too many staff members had been watching the excitement and had prevented her from coming in. They had told her not to run around and cause trouble to them; she could only obediently go back
“But…”
Jiang Ruowei inhaled and recalled the costume she had seen. Although she had been far away, she could clearly see their outfits fitted with traditional songs.
“They should have chosen a traditional song.” Jiang Ruowei couldn’t help but chuckle, then added with a hint of sympathy in her voice: “For the first public performance, choosing the national style, ah! They are not afraid to be executed in public.”
Anyone with live experience knew there was an unwritten consensus, which was the hotter the stage, the better the effect. To put it simply, an upbeat performance would more easily ignite the excitement of the audience, therefore fast singing and dancing were the easiest to shine. On the contrary, more lyrical songs required for the viewers to think, and the results would not often be satisfactory.
Today was the first public performance, not the personal fan meeting of Qiao Dai’s team members. It was hard to imagine passersby would be interested in more classical songs until the end. This time, she was afraid that Qiao Dai had shot herself in the foot.
Lin Lang did not answer and retracted her gaze to look at herself in the mirror. Her small cat eye makeup made her sexier than usual but Lin Lang felt a little uneasy. Today, she had seen too many of this exact same shape backstage. She was afraid that when things reached an extreme, they could only move in the opposite direction1.
After the countdown in the live broadcast room ended, the host appeared on the screen, followed by the four mentors. Only when the teachers were seated at the judges’ table the host spoke: “Now, let’s give a warm round of applause to tonight’s mystery guest… Teacher Meng Lingsi!”
With a melody, a woman in her thirties walked out. She was a classical beauty, with big eyes and a slender nose. Her appearance was elegant and she looked generous, gentle, and sincere. The four mentors stood up to welcome her and Jiang Fengchi courteously pulled up her chair and waited until she was installed to sit back down.
The name Meng Lingsi might have been unfamiliar to a younger audience, but the others got excited as soon as they saw her. Yet instead of listing all the prizes she had won, they felt it was better to directly tell people she was the choreographer of a dance segment in a certain award-winning work.
[Miss Meng is here!]
[It’s Teacher Meng! I am crazily calling your name right now!]
Meng Lingsi sat down and chatted a little with the four mentors, a way to leave more preparation time for the first group. But since she was the guest of honor for tonight’s show, it was impossible to avoid talking about “Treading water”. Meng Lingsi smiled softly and her gentle voice was heard through the microphone: “I heard that one of today’s group chose “Treading water”. To be perfectly honest, I was both surprised and admirative. It takes a lot of courage to choose to perform a traditional song on this stage and I am looking forward to it.”
It wasn’t money nor fame that could convince her to make an appearance here but the opportunity to watch another adaptation of “Treading water”. She really wanted to see how classical and traditional songs would be performed in today’s entertainment industry. That was what she pursued in her career; she hoped to integrate Chinese traditional culture into the current entertainment circle. She wanted their culture and traditions to be recognized abroad so that more people would learn and understand instead of misappropriating them.
As soon as Meng Lingsi’s voice fell, the barrage in the live broadcast room exploded.
[What? Someone is going to perform “Treading water” in front of its original dancer? So strong!]
[Are there still people who don’t know this song? Well hurry up and watch it, you will definitely love it!]
But at the same time, other people were not as optimistic.
[“Treading water” is really good, yes. But can these little sisters perform it correctly? The original dancers and singers are all big shots.]
[+1, doesn’t it take an awfully long time to practice?]
But the debate around “Treading water” did not last too long as the first team had gone on stage and everybody turned their attention to them, instead of continually talking about a group who hadn’t performed yet.
[Omg, Luan Zhen’s rap is so good, there is really nothing wrong with it!]
[Krumping2! It’s the first time I’ve ever seen some in a women’s group!]
[They are too amazing! I know I keep repeating myself but let Sister Luan Zhen make her debut right away!]
Unsurprisingly, because it was a public performance, most of the top-ranked teams had chosen songs with explosive ambiances. They sang rap and high notes and their dances were more powerful than usual. The viewers were engrossed, their blood was boiling and the temperature on the scene seemed to have risen several degrees, the atmosphere suddenly high to the extreme.
“Qiao Dai and her team are about to be obliterated. The previous group has made the atmosphere so high, how can they ride it with their traditional song?”
When today’s show had officially begun, the program team had not concealed the schedule any longer. The order of appearance had been made according to the results of a draw, and after seeing Qiao Dai’s team song and time slot, the other girls couldn’t help but shake their heads. It wasn’t that their place was bad, it was just that all the previous groups had performed very popular songs. This meant that before they could go on stage, the mood of the audience had gradually risen; if they suddenly poured a bucket of cold water on the viewers’ heads while they were in a frenzy, wouldn’t the result be disastrous?
Perhaps because many players had gotten mediocre scores because of their lack of seriousness during the initial rating, this time almost all the top-ranked players had chosen more difficult songs and they had happened to be the first groups to perform. Now that the atmosphere had reached its peak, if the next group couldn’t keep up the mood, they would easily become cannon fodder.
Jiang Ruowei had been watching the performances of the other groups but when she saw how strong they were, she turned away and her fingertips felt a little cold. The latest group had been so powerful, crushing Jiang Ruowei’s song in every sense of the word. Even if it wasn’t her team’s turn yet, she already had a bad feeling.
Fortunately, the next one to perform was Qiao Dai’s group. No matter how she thought about it, she doubted traditional music would beat strong and popular songs. Just like that, the mood would fall and when Jiang Ruowei and Lin Lang would go on stage, the contrast with the first few groups would not be as strong and they would not look too bad. Thinking of this, Jiang Ruowei breathed a sigh of relief and returned backstage to prepare for her upcoming performance.
On Qiao Dai’s side, the girls were already waiting.
“Next group, get ready. Enter!”
The voice came through their earpieces. Qiao Dai and her teammates looked at each other, inhaled, and cheered themselves. Then they turned around with determination and walked onto the stage.
Chapter 27: All promoted (1)
At 7 pm, the real-time broadcast of <Pick Eleven> went live on the Internet. Unlike the previous live broadcast of the initial rating, the show had officially started for a week. The 101 contestants who were participating had already appeared on stage and had gained their own fanbase. Especially the newcomer Qiao Dai, whether it was for sleeping on the water, her stunning first stage, or her underwater portrait, was no longer an unknown player but had accumulated enough popularity to be one of the biggest dark horses of the show.
Fans had already joined the live broadcast room during the commercials and teasers, cheering for their favorite players.
[Yayyy, go Daidai!]
[Yiqi, go Yiqi!]
[Little Lu Ying, you’re the best!]
While fans were already commenting, players backstage were getting ready or training one last time, all while inquiring about the performances of the other groups.
Although the program had not made the repertoire public, during the latest rehearsal, some players had been walking around and had seen tidbits of practice from other groups; they could more or less guess the content of today’s show.
“Ruowei, do you know what song Qiao Dai’s team is performing?”
In the dressing room, Lin Lang and Jiang Ruowei were chatting. The two of them were teammates for this stage.
Jiang Ruowei shook her head. She had originally wanted to sneak in during their rehearsal to take a look but too many staff members had been watching the excitement and had prevented her from coming in. They had told her not to run around and cause trouble to them; she could only obediently go back
“But…”
Jiang Ruowei inhaled and recalled the costume she had seen. Although she had been far away, she could clearly see their outfits fitted with traditional songs.
“They should have chosen a traditional song.” Jiang Ruowei couldn’t help but chuckle, then added with a hint of sympathy in her voice: “For the first public performance, choosing the national style, ah! They are not afraid to be executed in public.”
Anyone with live experience knew there was an unwritten consensus, which was the hotter the stage, the better the effect. To put it simply, an upbeat performance would more easily ignite the excitement of the audience, therefore fast singing and dancing were the easiest to shine. On the contrary, more lyrical songs required for the viewers to think, and the results would not often be satisfactory.
Today was the first public performance, not the personal fan meeting of Qiao Dai’s team members. It was hard to imagine passersby would be interested in more classical songs until the end. This time, she was afraid that Qiao Dai had shot herself in the foot.
Lin Lang did not answer and retracted her gaze to look at herself in the mirror. Her small cat eye makeup made her sexier than usual but Lin Lang felt a little uneasy. Today, she had seen too many of this exact same shape backstage. She was afraid that when things reached an extreme, they could only move in the opposite direction1.
After the countdown in the live broadcast room ended, the host appeared on the screen, followed by the four mentors. Only when the teachers were seated at the judges’ table the host spoke: “Now, let’s give a warm round of applause to tonight’s mystery guest… Teacher Meng Lingsi!”
With a melody, a woman in her thirties walked out. She was a classical beauty, with big eyes and a slender nose. Her appearance was elegant and she looked generous, gentle, and sincere. The four mentors stood up to welcome her and Jiang Fengchi courteously pulled up her chair and waited until she was installed to sit back down.
The name Meng Lingsi might have been unfamiliar to a younger audience, but the others got excited as soon as they saw her. Yet instead of listing all the prizes she had won, they felt it was better to directly tell people she was the choreographer of a dance segment in a certain award-winning work.
[Miss Meng is here!]
[It’s Teacher Meng! I am crazily calling your name right now!]
Meng Lingsi sat down and chatted a little with the four mentors, a way to leave more preparation time for the first group. But since she was the guest of honor for tonight’s show, it was impossible to avoid talking about “Treading water”. Meng Lingsi smiled softly and her gentle voice was heard through the microphone: “I heard that one of today’s group chose “Treading water”. To be perfectly honest, I was both surprised and admirative. It takes a lot of courage to choose to perform a traditional song on this stage and I am looking forward to it.”
It wasn’t money nor fame that could convince her to make an appearance here but the opportunity to watch another adaptation of “Treading water”. She really wanted to see how classical and traditional songs would be performed in today’s entertainment industry. That was what she pursued in her career; she hoped to integrate Chinese traditional culture into the current entertainment circle. She wanted their culture and traditions to be recognized abroad so that more people would learn and understand instead of misappropriating them.
As soon as Meng Lingsi’s voice fell, the barrage in the live broadcast room exploded.
[What? Someone is going to perform “Treading water” in front of its original dancer? So strong!]
[Are there still people who don’t know this song? Well hurry up and watch it, you will definitely love it!]
But at the same time, other people were not as optimistic.
[“Treading water” is really good, yes. But can these little sisters perform it correctly? The original dancers and singers are all big shots.]
[+1, doesn’t it take an awfully long time to practice?]
But the debate around “Treading water” did not last too long as the first team had gone on stage and everybody turned their attention to them, instead of continually talking about a group who hadn’t performed yet.
[Omg, Luan Zhen’s rap is so good, there is really nothing wrong with it!]
[Krumping2! It’s the first time I’ve ever seen some in a women’s group!]
[They are too amazing! I know I keep repeating myself but let Sister Luan Zhen make her debut right away!]
Unsurprisingly, because it was a public performance, most of the top-ranked teams had chosen songs with explosive ambiances. They sang rap and high notes and their dances were more powerful than usual. The viewers were engrossed, their blood was boiling and the temperature on the scene seemed to have risen several degrees, the atmosphere suddenly high to the extreme.
“Qiao Dai and her team are about to be obliterated. The previous group has made the atmosphere so high, how can they ride it with their traditional song?”
When today’s show had officially begun, the program team had not concealed the schedule any longer. The order of appearance had been made according to the results of a draw, and after seeing Qiao Dai’s team song and time slot, the other girls couldn’t help but shake their heads. It wasn’t that their place was bad, it was just that all the previous groups had performed very popular songs. This meant that before they could go on stage, the mood of the audience had gradually risen; if they suddenly poured a bucket of cold water on the viewers’ heads while they were in a frenzy, wouldn’t the result be disastrous?
Perhaps because many players had gotten mediocre scores because of their lack of seriousness during the initial rating, this time almost all the top-ranked players had chosen more difficult songs and they had happened to be the first groups to perform. Now that the atmosphere had reached its peak, if the next group couldn’t keep up the mood, they would easily become cannon fodder.
Jiang Ruowei had been watching the performances of the other groups but when she saw how strong they were, she turned away and her fingertips felt a little cold. The latest group had been so powerful, crushing Jiang Ruowei’s song in every sense of the word. Even if it wasn’t her team’s turn yet, she already had a bad feeling.
Fortunately, the next one to perform was Qiao Dai’s group. No matter how she thought about it, she doubted traditional music would beat strong and popular songs. Just like that, the mood would fall and when Jiang Ruowei and Lin Lang would go on stage, the contrast with the first few groups would not be as strong and they would not look too bad. Thinking of this, Jiang Ruowei breathed a sigh of relief and returned backstage to prepare for her upcoming performance.
On Qiao Dai’s side, the girls were already waiting.
“Next group, get ready. Enter!”
The voice came through their earpieces. Qiao Dai and her teammates looked at each other, inhaled, and cheered themselves. Then they turned around with determination and walked onto the stage.
