SPOP Sing! (season 1)
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''SPOP Sing!'' () is a Chinese singing reality competition broadcast by
Mediacorp Channel 8 Channel 8 ( zh, 8頻道) is a Singaporean Mandarin-language free-to-air terrestrial television channel in Singapore, owned by state media conglomerate Mediacorp. The channel broadcasts general entertainment and news programming in the Manda ...
. Season 1 premiered on 9 August after the broadcast of National Day Parade and ended on the live finale on 4 November at
Padang Padang () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province of West Sumatra. It had a population of 833,562 at the 2010 CensusBiro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. and 909,040 at the 2020 Census;Bad ...
. During the live finals, 18-year-old
Singapore Polytechnic Singapore Polytechnic (SP) is a post-secondary education institution and statutory board under the purview of the Ministry of Education in Singapore. Established in 1954, SP is the first and oldest polytechnic in Singapore, and is renowned for ...
student
Jarrell Huang Jarrell Huang Jun Rong (born 14 October 2000) is a Singaporean singer, actor and songwriter. In 2018, he was crowned champion of the local singing competition ''SPOP Sing!''. In 2020, he participated in the Chinese male group competition show ...
(17 at the time of his audition) was announced the winner of ''SPOP Sing!'', and 21-year-old LASALLE College of the Arts student Marcus Tay was declared as a runner-up.


Development

The show was first revealed to the public on 22 April 2018 during the broadcast of ''
Star Awards 2018 Star Awards 2018 (also SA2018SG, Chinese: 红星大奖2018) is a television award ceremony which is held in Singapore, with the Post Party and Ceremony Awards was broadcast live on 22 April 2018. A total of 15 awards were handed out during the ...
'' with a teaser clip uploaded to Toggle, aimed to promote the Chinese culture, the music genre of
mandopop Mandopop or Mandapop refers to Mandarin popular music. The genre has its origin in the jazz-influenced popular music of 1930s Shanghai known as Shidaiqu; later influences came from Japanese enka, Hong Kong's Cantopop, Taiwan's Hokkien pop ...
and
xinyao ''Xinyao'' ( zh, s=wikt:新謠, 新謠, p=Xīnyáo) is a genre of songs originating from Singapore. It is a contemporary Mandarin vocal genre that emerged between the late 1970s to 1980s. ''Xinyao'' songs are typically composed and sung by Singapo ...
, and paying tribute to local singing talents of Singapore. This is also the first S-Pop themed competition in more than a decade, since ''SPOP Hurray!'' in 2008. The grand prize for winning ''SPOP Sing!'' is a cash prize of S$30,000, and the winner's own debut single, titled "逆风飞翔" (originally sung by
Hsiao Huang-chi Hsiao Huang-chi (; born 22 September 1976), also known as Ricky Hsiao, is a Taiwanese singer, songwriter and former judoka ( 2nd dan black belt). He represented Taiwan in FESPIC Games in Beijing in 1994, where he won the bronze title and placed ...
and composed by Peter Lee) released under a recording deal. Former ''
Sing! China ''Sing! China'' (; formerly ) is a Chinese singing competition television series broadcast on Zhejiang Television. It is produced by Star (CM) Holdings Ltd. It premiered during the summer on 15 July 2016. It is a re-branded version of ''The V ...
'' finalists
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and
Joanna Dong Joanna Dong Ziyan (; born 15 November 1981 in Singapore) is a Singaporean singer, actress and host. Primarily a jazz vocalist, she is the first artiste signed to Singapore label, Red Roof Records. Early life and education The only child of divo ...
, as well as songwriter
Boon Hui Lu Boon Hui Lu (born 11 December 1993) is a Singaporean singer-songwriter and actress. Early life and education Boon was born on December 11, 1993, in Singapore to a self-employed courier provider father and a housewife. Boon studied at Anglic ...
, were appointed as the show's ambassadors, while Lee Teng,
Bonnie Loo Bonnie Loo (born 12 July 1994) is a Malaysian actress and singer based in Singapore managed by The Celebrity Agency. Early life Loo was born in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia, and is the elder of two daughters. She began to take singing lessons whe ...
and ''
YES 933 YES 933 is a Mandarin Chinese radio station in Singapore. Owned by the state-owned broadcaster Mediacorp, it primarily broadcasts a contemporary hit radio format focusing on Chinese and Korean pop music. The station has historically been one o ...
'' DJ Gao Meigui hosted the programme. The show premiered on national TV with the prelude episode
Spop Sing! Prelude
on National Day 2018 at 9pm on Channel U. Apart from the top 20 contestants, judges and ambassadors, Jim Lim was revealed as the Music Director, and
Serene Koong Serene Koong (born 21 September 1988) is a Singaporean singer, songwriter and producer. She is a three time Global Chinese Golden Chart Award, three time Singapore Hit Awards, Star Awards 20, Star Awards winner, and Asian Academy Creative Awa ...
was revealed as the Vocal and Performance Mentor.


Auditions

The auditions were announced on 17 May 2018, along with a list of the 200 shortlisted mandopop/xinyao songs published on the Toggle website, participants were required to sing any one of the 200 songs during the audition. Auditions were held at nine different locations, which were either open to public (Open auditions) or held privately (Campus auditions). Similar to ''
Campus SuperStar ''Campus SuperStar'' is a Singaporean reality television singing competition to find new singing talent, contested by aspiring singers drawn from public auditions. The show began on 2 January 2006 and is broadcast on MediaCorp Channel U. It i ...
'', auditions were open to students studying on a local institution with an age limit between 13 and 25 years old, and in a change to the former, Polytechnic and University students were also eligible to participate as well. Lee Teng did not appear after the Cineleisure open auditions onwards. The auditions required singers to enter an egg-shaped karaoke booth to perform a song of their choice. Their performance was recorded under video surveillance, which would be reviewed by the panel of judges after the auditions.


Short episodes

Several short videos of audition highlights were uploaded on Toggle starting on 7 June 2018. Another short episode, ''Fun With SPOP Sing!'' was broadcast on
Mediacorp Channel 8 Channel 8 ( zh, 8頻道) is a Singaporean Mandarin-language free-to-air terrestrial television channel in Singapore, owned by state media conglomerate Mediacorp. The channel broadcasts general entertainment and news programming in the Manda ...
on 5 June 2018 at 9.50pm, right after the finale of '' Babies On Board''. A Toggle-exclusive six-episode spin-off of the show, ''All About SPOP'', premiered on 27 July, featuring celebrities and composers sharing their knowledge on Mandopop/xinyao music genre.


Marketing

The Committee to Promote Chinese Language Learning (CPCLL), a committee which promote
Mandarin Chinese Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...
to
Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
, was the supporting partner of the show. Ambassador Hartono was among the ambassadors of CPCLL since 2017. Other sponsors include Bonia,
Huawei Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ("Huawei" sometimes stylized as "HUAWEI"; ; zh, c=华为, p= ) is a Chinese multinational corporationtechnology company in Longgang, Shenzhen, Longgang, Shenzhen, Guangdong. Its main product lines include teleco ...
,
KFC KFC Corporation, doing business as KFC (an abbreviation of Kentucky Fried Chicken), is an American fast food restaurant chain specializing in fried chicken and chicken sandwiches. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, it is the world's se ...
,
Mitsubishi Electric is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational electronics and electrical equipment manufacturing company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1921 as a spin-off from the electrical machinery manufacturing d ...
, Win2 Crackers and Simmons.


Revealing of the Top 20 contestants

On 16 July, the judges confirmed the Top 20 contestants who would advance to the live shows. The identities of the top 20 were revealed to public for the first time in a meet-and-greet session on 21 July at
Cathay Cineleisure Orchard Cathay Cineleisure Orchard is an shopping centre, urban mall located at 8 Grange Road, Singapore. The building is managed by Cathay Organisation under its subsidiary company of Cathay Cineleisure International. Background The mall opened in Octob ...
. The broadcast was streamed live on Channel 8's Facebook page.


SHINE Festival

The Top 20 contestants appeared at Shine Festival at OCBC Square on 4 August, where they sang "无底洞", "幸福不难", "王妃" and "不为谁而作的歌" in groups.


Non-competition episodes

Three non-competition episodes were aired during the season. A half-hour episode titled ''Prelude'' (SPOP 乐飞扬) was broadcast on 9 August on Mediacorp Channel 8 and Channel U after the 2018 National Day Parade, and re-ran on 19 August after the 2018
National Day Rally The National Day Rally (; ; ) is an annual message delivered by the Prime Minister of Singapore to the entire nation, on the first or second Sunday after National Day on 9 August. Started in 1966, the national day rally is Singapore's equivalen ...
. It featured interviews from singers, songwriters and producers in Singapore's music industry, as well as the competition's ambassadors, and provided a brief introduction to each of the 20 contestants. The music video for the theme song, "听我唱响", as well as the show's new title card, premiered during this episode. Two more were aired before the semi-final and grand finals on 28 October and 3 November, respectively. A half-hour episode aired before the semi-final, titled ''The Final 10'' (十强SING人), featured the ten contestants on their preparation leading up to the semi-finals. A two-hour special aired the day before the grand finals, which features a
compilation Compilation may refer to: *In computer programming, the translation of source code into object code by a compiler **Compilation error **Compilation unit *Product bundling, a marketing strategy used to sell multiple products, such as video game co ...
of performances, was titled ''Non-Stop Music'' (歌曲马拉松). Unlike the regular episodes, ''Non-Stop Music'' was not available for catch-up.


Pop-up Store Promotion

A ''SPOP Sing!'' promotional
pop-up store Pop-up retail, also known as pop-up store (pop-up shop in the UK, Australia and Ireland) or flash retailing, is a trend of opening short-term sales spaces that last for days to weeks before closing down, often to latch onto a fad or scheduled e ...
appeared on
Bugis Junction Bugis Junction, formerly known as Parco Bugis Junction is an integrated development located at Victoria Street, Middle Road and North Bridge Road in Bugis, Downtown Core in Singapore. The development consists of a shopping mall, an office tower ...
on 29 and 30 September 2018 in promotion of the show. Hosts Lee Teng and Gao Meigui appeared on the 29th, and
YES 933 YES 933 is a Mandarin Chinese radio station in Singapore. Owned by the state-owned broadcaster Mediacorp, it primarily broadcasts a contemporary hit radio format focusing on Chinese and Korean pop music. The station has historically been one o ...
DJs Henry Law and Hazelle Teo appeared on the 30th.


Semi-finalist Meet-and-Greet

A second pop-up store was held on orchardgateway on 27 October and the semi-finalists appeared in a meet-and-greet session. The semi-finalists also appeared in Ngee Ann Plaza for guest performances in the Mediacorp ''Subaru Car Challenge''.


Grand Finals Pre-show Showcase

A non-telecast pre-show music showcase was held at the Padang on 4 November at 4.00pm and featured local musicians
Derrick Hoh Derrick Hoh Wei Jian (born 17 September 1985) is a Singaporean singer and songwriter who is active in the Chinese Mandopop scene. He gained nationwide recognition after emerging as the second runner up in Channel U's ''Project SuperStar'' i ...
and
Trouze Trouze is a Singaporean-American electronic music trio consisting of Declan Ee, Jovany Javier and Tat Tong. The group had a Billboard charts, Billboard Dance Top 20 hit in 2016 with the song "Age of Innocence" with Elephante and Damon Sharpe. ...
,
Kelvin Tan Kelvin Tan Wei Lian (陈伟联, born 5 October 1981) is a Singaporean Mandopop singer who earned a living as a busker before he won the first edition of Project SuperStar in 2005. He has released three albums, '' All I Want Is...'' (2006), ' ...
, Desmond Ng, AL4HA,
Kelly Poon Kelly Poon (born 11 July 1983) is a Singaporean singer, songwriter and actress who was the runner-up on the first season of the ''Project SuperStar'' singing competition held in Singapore. Early life Poon attended Huamin Primary School and ...
, StellaVee (
Stella Seah Stella Seah (born Seah Hui Xian; 28 October 1992) is a Singaporean singer-songwriter currently signed under Ocean Butterflies Music. She was discovered after winning Starhub's first reality singing contest, ''Academy Fantasia'' in 2012. She ...
and Vee), The Apex Project, and Elton Lee.


Contestants

After rounds of auditions, on 16 July, the judges selected and confirmed the final 20 finalists and revealed on 21 July. The 20 finalists, along with their
Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...
handles, are as follows: Key: : All contestants' age reflected in the table are the ages at the time of their auditions until the Top 20 Reveal; a caret next to the age indicate singers turned one year older at the time before the prelude episode aired.


Live Shows

The series consist of seven episodes (five one-hour quarter-finals, one 2.5-hour semi-finals, and one three-hour
live broadcast A live broadcasting, also called a live transmission, generally refers to various types of media that are broadcasting without a significant delay. The most common seen media example of the live transmission is a news program or a news broadcasting ...
grand finals), with the first episode first aired on Toggle via Toggle-It-First service (with free viewing, and captions were not added until the actual broadcast) on 21 September and on Mediacorp Channel 8 on 24 September, and ending on 4 November for both Toggle and Mediacorp Channel 8. Episodes rerun on Sundays at 2.30pm the week after the episode broadcast. The quarter-finals were taped and pre-recorded at the open field near *SCAPE, the semi-final episode was taped inside Capitol Theatre, and the grand finals at the Padang. In a competition format which was previously seen on the fourth season of ''
Campus Superstar ''Campus SuperStar'' is a Singaporean reality television singing competition to find new singing talent, contested by aspiring singers drawn from public auditions. The show began on 2 January 2006 and is broadcast on MediaCorp Channel U. It i ...
'', it was mandatory for contestants to perform renditions of songs (mentored by
Serene Koong Serene Koong (born 21 September 1988) is a Singaporean singer, songwriter and producer. She is a three time Global Chinese Golden Chart Award, three time Singapore Hit Awards, Star Awards 20, Star Awards winner, and Asian Academy Creative Awa ...
and directed by Jim Lim, with performances accompanied by live band Black Sakura) performed or composed by homegrown talents for the entire competition, hence the theme of the competition. In contrary to most reality competitions involving public voting, the judges and the audience themselves made the decision to eliminate contestants from the competition, while members of the public were only allowed to cast their votes when the competition was left with the final two contestants to decide on the winner. This format was previously seen on another Singaporean singing competition, the second season of '' The Final 1''. Color key:


Week 1: Quarter Finals 1

*air-date: 21 September 2018 (Toggle); 24 September 2018 (Mediacorp Channel 8) For the first four quarter-finals (复赛), five contestants compete each week to vie for a place in the semi-final (半决赛). Prerecorded performances of each contestant's performance aired, as did the judges' selection (五选二) of two contestants from each group to advance to the semi-final. The remaining three contestants who were not chosen by the judges were placed under the "elimination zone" (淘汰区) and were in risk of elimination. After the judges' decided on the first two contestants, the open field audience will then cast their votes via their remote device to save one contestant from the "elimination zone" (SPOP抢救SING人) and that contestant had to compete again in the wildcard round (翻身赛). A new competition element, "popular index" (人气指数), was introduced, which is the open field audience's evaluation for a contestant's performance, though this does not necessarily influence the outcome of the competition, as the judges themselves select which contestants were to advance and which contestants were to eliminate. For all episodes, Billy Koh and Peter Lee were the first two judges, while the third judge was rotated in each quarter-final, with singer
Joi Chua Joi Chua (born 3 August 1978) is a Singaporean singer, songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. She is known for the hits "Waiting for a Sunny Day" (等一个晴天), "One Day I Will" (有一天我會), and "Watching the Sunrise With Me" (陪我 ...
taking on the first and third quarter-finals, and
Jimmy Ye Jimmy Ye Liang Jun (born 1967) is a Singaporean former singer and Director at Singapore Management University (SMU). A former law lecturer who left the legal profession for music and show business, he is also currently Director, SMU Office of St ...
on the second and fourth quarter-finals; both singers joined as judges on the wildcard round.


Week 2: Quarter Finals 2

*air-date: 28 September 2018 (Toggle); 1 October 2018 (Mediacorp Channel 8)


Week 3: Quarter Finals 3

*air-date: 5 October 2018 (Toggle); 8 October 2018 (Mediacorp Channel 8)


Week 4: Quarter Finals 4

*air-date: 12 October 2018 (Toggle); 15 October 2018 (Mediacorp Channel 8) At the end of the fourth quarter finals, it was announced that all judges agreed to bring back one further act who they felt should not have been eliminated on the quarter-finals; the singer was later revealed to be Karena Yeo.


Week 5: Quarter Finals 5- Wildcard round

*air-date: 19 October 2018 (Toggle); 22 October 2018 (Mediacorp Channel 8) The five contestants who were recipients of the "audience's save" and "judge's save" from the first four weeks returned to the stage to perform for the wildcard round (dubbed as "Comeback round" in the captions). Like the previous quarter-finals, judges decide which two contestants advanced to the semi-finals. The "popular index" was discontinued from this round onward and was replaced with a scoring system, in which the top two scoring contestants advancing to the semi-finals, while the other three contestants were eliminated.


Week 6: Semi-Final

*air-date: 25 October 2018 (Toggle); 28 October 2018 (Mediacorp Channel 8) Ten contestants performed two songs in this semi-final, one with a group (The judge's top three acts, Marcus Tay, Daryl-Ann Jansen, and Jarrell Ng, did a schoolyard-style pick to assign two/three more contestants to form their group) and another with a solo (ten of 11 songs were assigned by production and contestant picked the song by racing first to "snatch" their Huawei smartphones; "她说" was the only song unselected). After each performance, two different set of scores were shown; one after the group's/every two solo performance (which is a given score from one of the three judges), and another after all the contestants have performed (average of all the judges' scores), with the latter accounted to the overall score. After the first round scores are revealed, each judge then picked one contestant from each group to receive a bonus score for their individual performance as a group (indicated in an orange background). The first round has a 30% weightage towards the overall score (all the members for the group received identical set of scores), and the second round covered the remaining 70%. Only the scores for the top five contestants were revealed (with their contestant's smartphone displaying the show's logo); contestants with the three highest combined scores will directly advance to the grand finals, while the two remaining contestants will compete for the fourth and final finalist via the "audience's save". Mediacorp host (who was also the host of another S-pop themed competition ''SPOP Hurray!'')
Quan Yi Fong Quan Yi Fong (born 1 March 1974) is a Taiwan-born Singaporean host and actress, who has since taken up Singaporean citizenship and given up her Taiwanese citizenship. Career Quan joined the SBC in 1992. In 1996, she was fired by TCS over a ...
was officially introduced as the fourth host of ''SPOP Sing!'', and Joi Chua served as the episode's third judge. Before the start of the second round, group performances (see non-competition performances below) were made to pay tribute to the late-
xinyao ''Xinyao'' ( zh, s=wikt:新謠, 新謠, p=Xīnyáo) is a genre of songs originating from Singapore. It is a contemporary Mandarin vocal genre that emerged between the late 1970s to 1980s. ''Xinyao'' songs are typically composed and sung by Singapo ...
singer Dawn Gan, who died on 22 September 2018.


Week 7: Grand Final

*air-date: 4 November 2018 Four finalists performed up to four songs in the live finale.
Liang Wern Fook Dr Liang Wern Fook (; born 1964 in Singapore) is a Cantonese Singaporean writer, musician, singer and researcher in Chinese literature and pedagogy. He was one of the pioneer figures in '' xinyao'' (Singaporean Chinese folk songs) movement in t ...
and
Eric Moo Eric Moo Chii Yuan (, born 9 February 1963), better known as Eric Moo or Wu Qixian, is a Malaysian Chinese singer-songwriter and record producer. Personal life Moo was born in Mambang Diawan, Kampar, Perak, Kampar, Perak on 9 February 1963. ...
were brought in as guest judges for the grand finals at the Padang (dubbed as "决战@Padang"). Unlike regular episodes, the grand final does not have captions (including the re-run), as it was a live broadcast. Eliminations occur at the end of each round starting from round two, in which one contestant who received the lowest judge's score (scores are separate from each round) was eliminated. In round one, the contestant with the highest judge's score was exempt from performing (and immune from elimination in) round two. During the fourth and final round, online votes cast from the public (a 20-minute voting window which opened from 9.05pm) decide on which contestant will win ''SPOP Sing!''.


Elimination chart

Color key:


Contestants' appearances on earlier talent shows

*Charlene Chua and Fu Qiao Han both participated in the second season of tvN's '' K-Pop Star Hunt'' and were chosen as top 16 contestants in the Singapore leg; both singers were eliminated in the regional finals and did not advance to the final 16. *Jarrell Ng was a contestant on four shows prior to ''SPOP Sing!'': in 2007, Ng won the singing competition segment on the inaugural season of ''The
Sheng Siong Sheng Siong Group Ltd. ( Chinese: 昇菘集团 Shēng Sōng Jítuán) is the parent company of Sheng Siong Supermarket Pte Ltd, commonly known as Sheng Siong, the third largest chain of supermarkets in Singapore. The supermarket chain also ai ...
Show''. In 2009, he was among a child cast (who portrayed Huang Yixin) in the 2009 drama ''
Together ''ToGetHer'' (, aka Superstar Express) is a 2009 Taiwanese drama starring Jiro Wang of Fahrenheit, Rainie Yang and George Hu. It was produced by Comic International Productions ( 可米國際影視事業股份有限公司) and directed by Linzi ...
''. In 2011, he participated on the first season of '' Chinese Million Star'', where he finished in ninth place. In 2017, he appeared on the second season of '' Sound Of My Dream'', but failed to receive mentorship from guest mentor
Fish Leong Fish Leong Ching Yu (, born Leong Chui Peng on 16 June 1978) is a Malaysian singer and songwriter. Having sold more than 20 million records to date, she has achieved popularity and success in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, and M ...
. *Celine Wong was a contestant under team
Gary Chaw Gary Chaw (; born 9 July 1979 in Kota Belud, Sabah, Malaysia), also known as Gary Cao or Cao Ge or by his alter ego Cao Xiaoge, is a Malaysian Chinese singer-songwriter based in Taiwan, who has had achieved success in Taiwan, Mainland China, ...
in the first season of '' The Voice Jue Zhan Hao Sheng'', where she was eliminated during the battle rounds.


Reception

''SPOP Sing!'' had a viewership of more than 1.7 million throughout the season broadcast, which include 816,000 viewers watching from Toggle viewing service. The finals episode was met with critical reception as the live finale won the ''Star Award''s for Best Variety Special during the 2019 ''Star Awards'' ceremony. A
spin-off Spin-off, Spin Off, Spin-Off, or Spinoff may refer to: Entertainment and media *Spinoff (media), a media work derived from an existing work *''The Spinoff'', a New Zealand current affairs magazine * ''Spin Off'' (Canadian game show), a 2013 Canad ...
, '' SPOP Wave!'' was aired in 2021.


References


External links

* {{Official website, https://tv.toggle.sg/en/channel8/shows/spop-sing 2018 Singaporean television seasons