Chapter 28
As night falls, the venue is still brightly lit.
Dou Yu held the process card, stood in the center of the stage with a smile, and looked at the crowd below.
To appear more formal, he wore a silver-grey suit today. The fabric shone faintly under the light, making his face look handsome and delicate.
Many fans in the audience actually came for the mentors. At this moment, the cheers were about to blow the roof off. Dou Yu stretched out his hand and made a pressing gesture, then took the microphone and said, "Good evening, everyone."
The crowd responded in unison: "Good evening!"
"Welcome everyone to the recording site of the first performance of "Super Rookie." Dou Yu continued. Then he paused and smiled, "Everyone is very enthusiastic today."
After all, it is a live show, and the program will have to go through post-production editing before it is broadcast. Therefore, in order to adjust the atmosphere, Dou Yu chose a more relaxed approach at the beginning.
There was a burst of laughter from the audience.
In stark contrast is the large waiting room where the trainees are located backstage.
This was the place used to record the song selection. All the trainees sat on the steps, surrounded by a whole circle of equipment to record their reactions. In the front there was a huge projection screen showing the real-time stage scene.
Seeing the packed audience and hearing the cheers from the crowd, many inexperienced trainees showed obvious nervousness on their faces.
Dou Yu exchanged a few pleasantries and quickly finished his opening remarks without wasting time. Then, the remaining three mentors sat in the mentor seats.
Dou Yu looked at the cue card and announced the name of the first group that was already waiting backstage:
"Flame" Group A.
-
In fact, although everyone from the audience to the trainees thinks that the super new program team is not a good thing, Xie Xichao puts aside his personal emotions and understands why the program team can make such a clichéd theme as a talent show still be popular in the third season.
He got to know the program director Ma Hongping and assistant director Cheng Yan. The two are old friends. They previously hosted a talk show together, which was also a prime-time program with high ratings that year.
According to Xie Xichao's observation, these two people are very good at creating passionate group portraits.
They used friendship, competition and personal dreams, these contradictory yet related elements, very skillfully. At the same time, they are willing to spend money and time on song selection and stage quality.
The copyrights of the songs selected for the first public performance are basically all popular songs, and the stage order announced now is also carefully arranged.
Because the scene needs to mobilize the emotions of the audience, regardless of the quality of the first stage, we must choose songs that can blow up the audience.
"Flame" is such a song.
Xie Xichao sat in the corner and Ai Qingyuan sat next to him. Both of them watched the real-time footage.
Ai Qingyuan said: "This song is very nice."
The camera immediately moved over and focused on them.
Xie Xichao: “…”
He said, "Yeah."
"Flame" is the main song of a comeback by a popular boy group, with a dark and sexy style.
The advantage is that it is really exciting, with many and diverse accompaniment instruments.
Disadvantages...
Jie Xichao looked at the screen.
On the screen, a group of people have completed their initial movement in the dark, and their shadows look quite handsome like the original.
The next second, the passionate accompaniment sounded, and the atmosphere on the scene was obviously aroused, with many people waving banners in their hands. After a short intro, the lights suddenly came on.
Amid the increasingly enthusiastic cheers, the camera moved to the face of the person in the center position.
Then……
Everyone saw the evil smile on the C position’s face.
The camera froze briefly, and the screen and the scene fell into a brief and eerie silence, as if a goose with its neck strangled.
Jie Xichao turned his eyes away silently.
Um……
The downside is that it can get greasy very easily.
Greasy.
And, greasy.
*
Three and a half minutes passed in a flash.
Although the smile of the C position at the beginning was a bit scary, the overall atmosphere of this group was good. After the performance, Group A returned to the backstage and Group B took over.
The levels of the two groups were similar. I don’t know if it was because Group B’s style was slightly fresher, but in the final vote Group B narrowly won.
The C position of Group B had bright eyes and bowed deeply to the audience. Xie Xichao recognized him as one of the few Class B trainees he had taught, and felt a little proud of it.
Next came the second and third groups.
After three sets, Xie Xichao rubbed his temples, feeling a little helpless.
What he was thinking was...
After all, he is just a trainee with little experience.
Is the effect not good?
Not really.
Whether it was people at the scene or in the waiting room, after a few performances, they all felt excited and exploding.
The audience roared so hard that their faces turned red, and the trainees in the waiting room were also getting excited. The scene has been heated up, there is no doubt about that. but--
Resolve evening and morning thoughts.
In fact, most of this is due to the song itself.
Human beings need literature and art because they have the ability to move people's hearts.
A nice song with an exciting melody can certainly ignite a scene, but that is based on the special atmosphere of the scene. If it is played online, the audience in front of the screen will not be able to be infected by the atmosphere of the scene, and at that time, all the shortcomings will be exposed.
Messy movements, broken high notes, and a group dance that couldn't be cut into the entire shot.
After a few games, Xie Xichao had only one feeling:
It's horrible.
He felt a little tortured, but the camera was right next to him and he had to keep himself awake. Fortunately, the next stage was not so torturous to the ears. The lights came on, and the moment the C position opened its mouth, everyone became alert.
Xie Xichao also raised his eyes.
The stage that is going on at this moment:
"Swans in the Rain" Group A.
C position is Zou Yi.
-
"Swans in the Rain" is a sad lyric song.
The lyrics describe a scene in which a pair of lovers who were separated in their youth reunite many years later, and it was drizzling on the street at the time. The swan in the title refers to the musical fountain sculpture in the center of the city.
The swan does not refer to the swan itself, but implicitly refers to the first love that dares not meet after the swan sculpture.
Probably to fit the background of the story, this group's stage costumes are all pure white in various styles. At the beginning, Zou Yi slowly walked out from behind the piano and went to the center of the stage.
During his first performance on stage, Xie Xichao felt that he had a good voice, and this stage proved it.
As an introduction, Zou Yi set the tone as soon as he opened his mouth.
His voice is not special, but it is steady enough and of good texture. In addition, Xie Xichao guessed that he must have practiced it specially. In short, the young man's voice is soaked in emotions and has a special sense of story.
His heartstrings moved slightly.
However, before he could ponder it for a few more seconds, Zou Yi's singing had already ended.
The next boy's voice sounded, and Jie Xichao's eyebrows moved slightly.
Ai Qingyuan was much more impolite than him. He said, "This man can't handle it."
Jie Xichao coughed.
Before going on stage, Guan Heng specifically found him and asked him to keep an eye on Ai Qingyuan and stop talking nonsense. Although he could cut it, he couldn't cut it every time.
Ai Qingyuan raised his eyebrows.
He said, "Switch with me."
Xie Xichao:?
Seeing that he didn't move, Ai Qingyuan took a step forward and walked to his left, which was the outermost side of the row of seats. Then he said something to the staff beside him.
Then, the cameraman next to them left silently.
Ai Qingyuan sat back in his seat, muted his own microphone, and also muted Li Xichao's: "Is this ok?"
The tone was quite reluctant. It seems like a big concession has been made.
Xie Xichao: “…”
The corner of his mouth twitched.
"Zou Yi sings quite well." Ai Qingyuan didn't mean to ask for his opinion. He was driven crazy by the previous performances and needed to vent. He said to himself, "It's just that their group configuration is too bad. No one can keep up with him."
Jie Xichao was silent.
Although Ai Qingyuan's words were harsh, they were indeed right.
Zou Yi gave a very good start, but his teammates were unable to follow suit and some even sang out of tune due to nervousness, completely destroying the atmosphere and tone that Zou Yi had worked so hard to create at the beginning.
The third boy pulled it back a little, but still looked a little thin.
At this time, the disadvantages of lyric music become apparent.
The singing was hard to get into, and the song lacked the atmosphere that a powerful song could bring. The whole stage was bland and even a bit boring. At least in their waiting room, there was a trainee who had already finished his performance and couldn't help but yawn with his back to the camera.
After this group's performance, the applause from the audience was noticeably smaller.
Jie Xichao looked at the boy on the screen. He was obviously a little disappointed, but still forced a smile.
Their group was not the main stage of the program, and there were no popular contestants. The mentor made a few simple comments and then replaced another group.
This group is even more mediocre.
Xie Xichao was distracted.
He was calculating how many lines Zou Yi sang.
As if he could see through his thoughts, Ai Qingyuan asked, "Are you wondering why Zou Yi has so few words?"
"He gave it up himself." He sneered. "There are members from his own company in their group. I think there are also several people from Class F. When I passed by earlier, I heard them discussing word division. He divided up most of his own words."
Jie Xichao suddenly realized.
He lowered his eyes slightly and sighed in his heart.
Perhaps it was because his expression was too obvious, Ai Qingyuan asked: "Do you also think he is too saintly?"
Xie Xichao did not give a direct answer, but just said: "Virgin Mary should not be a derogatory term."
Ai Qingyuan was slightly stunned.
Then he said, "Okay."
“But I still think,” he shrugged, “that if someone without ability takes more parts, it will only ruin the song. It’s totally unnecessary for him to be the center.”
This topic was brought up briefly, but then dropped because of Jie Xichao's silence, becoming an insignificant episode.
-
Time flies.
In a blink of an eye, the first half of the show was over.
The program team set up a little break in the middle. Through the screen, you can see fans from various groups chatting on the spot, most of whom are beautifully dressed girls.
There were no seats at the performance venue, and at this moment, most people's makeup was a little smudged due to the heat.
Staff are distributing water.
The recording was also paused in the waiting room, and some people who needed to touch up their makeup put on some, and some who needed to drink water drank some.
Ji Yan had just finished his performance and came back from outside with several bottles of water. He distributed them along the way and left the last two bottles for Xichao and Ai Qingyuan. The latter declined politely. Jie Xichao took it and thanked him, then unscrewed the bottle cap and looked up.
He took only a small sip to moisten his throat.
"The next group should be you and Brother Heng." Ji Yan lowered his voice.
I just posted two sets of lyrical songs, so I have to change the style from now on. Generally speaking, the production team will not keep the popular contestants in the group until the end when the audience is tired.
Jie Xichao nodded.
The staff has just notified them to wait in the backstage, and they are the next group to go.
"I'm going to wash my hands," he said.
Ai Qingyuan beside him said "hmm" absentmindedly.
He hadn't said much since the beginning, and he actually showed a rare nervousness.
Jie Xichao stood up and went to the bathroom.
There were people coming and going in the corridor, but the sink at the end was quiet. He turned on the cold water and washed his hands, and finally felt his mind, which had been buzzing with noise in the waiting room, clear up a little.
There were light footsteps coming from the side, and someone walked out.
When I looked up, the other person smiled.
"What a coincidence," he said.
Xie Xichao also smiled and made way for the other person: "I'm ready."
Guan Heng washed his hands, and the two walked back together and parted at the end of the corridor.
According to the result of the draw, Guan Heng's group went on stage first.
Xie Xichao said, "Come on."
Guan Heng patted him on the shoulder, then turned and walked backstage.
*
Although they had joked before that they would see each other's results, everyone knew in their hearts that the only stage they could not see in real time was each other's stage.
Despite this, when backstage, Xie Xichao could still feel the other party's stage quality from the enthusiastic cheers from the audience.
Ai Qingyuan was beside him, looking tense.
Xie Xichao asked him: "Are you nervous?"
Ai Qingyuan: “…”
"nonsense!"
He looked at Jie Xichao as if he were a ghost: "Aren't you nervous?"
"Not bad." Xie Xichao said.
His fingers instinctively went to his pocket before he remembered that the dice were already put away.
He raised his eyes and saw the faint light blocked by the curtain.
Ai Qingyuan looked at his profile, looked at his trembling eyelashes, snorted, and thought he was pretending again. Who wouldn't be nervous when going on stage?
He decided not to expose him and went to the side to take a deep breath and relax.
Xie Xichao was still standing there.
He closed his eyes and listened to the sounds outside.
Chorus, climax, and finale.
The familiar words and melodies flowed in his heart, but what was clearly reflected in his mind was the stage they finally rehearsed.
Then comes the ending, the curtain call, and the self-introduction that begins again.
The moment Guan Heng's group left the stage amid cheers, he opened his eyes, and the slight trembling in his body caused by excitement slowly calmed down with his steady heartbeat.
He said, "Let's go."
Then he adjusted his headset one last time and walked toward the stage.
The curtain was opened, and the noisy crowd had not yet subsided. He raised his eyes and looked towards the audience, while countless eyes fell on him.
The light also fell.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
