Super Vocal, Chinese TV talent contest for opera singers and musical performers, scores top ratings
- Classically trained singers jump at the opportunity to promote opera and musicals to a wide audience by taking part in Super Vocal
- Thirty-six singers will be whittled down to six this month in final episode of show, No 1 on review website Douban and among the top five reality shows
Step aside pop stars and idols. A new televised singing contest in China that showcases the vocal prowess of classically trained singers is not only taking the country by storm but fuelling interest there in both Chinese and Western opera and musicals.
Created and produced by Hunan Television and iQiyi (a popular internet TV content provider), Super Vocal (Sheng Ru Ren Xin in Chinese) sets out to introduce classical opera and contemporary musicals to a wider audience. Since going on air on November 2, 2018, it has been ranked the fifth most watched reality TV show in China, according to iQiyi.
Thirty-six singers aged between 18 and 38 were selected to take part. Six winners will be announced in the final episode, which is scheduled to air middle of January.
One contestant, Zheng Yunlong, says he initially refused to take part in the programme because he didn’t want the unnecessary attention, especially on his private life.
“However, I think [Super Vocal] is a way to communicate with a broader audience and this is what I should do as a Chinese musical actor for the development of musicals at this stage of time,” says Zheng, who is a rising musical star in China and won the 2018 Musical Academy Awards in China. Born in 1990, the young artist sang the lead in the Chinese version of Jekyll and Hyde, staged in 2017.