I’m Really a Superstar

In the afternoon.

At Central TV’s basement recording studio.

This was the venue that The Voice’s program team had booked temporarily to hold the preliminary auditions. They did not actually need to do any recording but only needed to use the location today to pick some outstanding and talented contestants for the recorded stage auditions by the coaches. The preliminary auditions were estimated to take place over two weeks. It would be held either once daily, once every two days, or even once every three days. The degree of intensity would depend on the number of contestants and their standards. The application conditions only required candidates to submit a demo of their singing. If the program team staff felt that the candidate met the required standard, they would notify them to make their way here for the preliminary auditions. If it’s not up to standard, then they would not even be notified at all. After all, with just the program team staff’s strength, they were unable to support so many contestants and decidedly had to make a small sacrifice in some of the proceedings.

At the venue.

The staff had all arrived and gathered.

Zhang Ye came over holding a box lunch he had taken from the Central TV cafeteria. As he was in a rush, he decided to eat as he walked over, finishing it up just as he arrived.

Little Wang walked up to him and said, “Hand that to me.”

“OK, thanks a lot.” Zhang Ye gave the empty lunch box to her.

At the other side, Ha Qiqi—in charge of the preliminary auditions—was pointing and instructing the staff on their work. When she saw Zhang Ye, she immediately brought two people over with her and said, “Teacher Zhang, the arrangements are almost all done. We can proceed with the auditions.”

Zhang Ye nodded. “When will the contestants arrive?”

Ha Qiqi answered, “Many of them are already here, but we’re only starting in the afternoon, so I got someone to bring them to the waiting room.”

They sat down in front of the computer.

Zhang Ye randomly opened a few emails and listened to some of the demos that the contestants sent in. He said, “Were these chosen today?”

Ha Qiqi nodded. “They were picked by me and the professionals one at a time.” Then she introduced the few people beside her to Zhang Ye.

A Teacher Sun.

And a Teacher Yan.

They were both music industry insiders who were borrowed from Central TV.

Zhang Ye shook hands with them and got to know them a bit. He said, “Teacher Sun, Teacher Yan, I will have to trouble the both of you in the coming days.”

Teacher Sun immediately said, “It’s no trouble at all. We’re here to help, so you can consider us professional consultants who give our opinions for your consideration. As for how the program will be done and how to pick the contestants, we will still leave that up to you, Director Zhang.” Since they were transferred to the program team of The Voice, they had to listen to Zhang Ye’s commands as they were now members of his team.

One of the music consultant recommended, “Director Zhang, this person you’re listening to right now is one of the better ones. Both Old Sun and I agree on this, as does AD1 Ha.”

Ha Qiqi praised, “Right, this person sings very well.”

Only then did Zhang Ye seriously listen to it.

It was a woman’s voice. The vocals and basic singing were quite good, and the sound was crystal clear. There wasn’t any sharpness or anything bad with it. She also had quite a high soprano voice.

Teacher Sun analyzed, “She should be considered a very trained vocalist. It feels very stable as well. Listening to her voice, it probably belongs to someone who has had experience performing onstage before. And judging from her picture, she looks quite good too. I feel that she has what it takes to become a star.”

Teacher Yan added, “But it will also depend on how well she performs later.”

Name: Chang Si.

Gender: Female.

Age: 25.

Hometown: Beihe Province.

Occupation: Music Teacher.

After taking a look at her personal information, Zhang Ye did not say anything. He just stored it in his mind and asked, “For today’s first wave of preliminary auditions, are there any with good potential?”

Ha Qiqi pointed at an email on screen. “This person is quite good too.”

The music consultant beside them nodded and said, “This person was trained in the performing arts and graduated from a real music college. His singing is very good and he’s also currently a backup singer for a certain star, so we can consider him to be a professional. If such a person got on stage, he probably would not have any stage fright at all and could perform quite well instead. Since we have to consider if they can perform to their potential while on television, if we get total rookies for this show, they might get nervous and make mistakes. When that happens, the quality of the broadcast will also be affected. That’s why on all the other talent show programs most of the contestants are in music-related professions. Those type of contestants are always the most well-accepted by television programs. They’re often invited to take part in many different programs since due to various reasons they did not do well in their past participations on the other programs, though their stability on the programs is what’s good about them.”

Name: Hu Liangyi.

Gender: Male.

Occupation: Musician.

When Zhang Ye finished listening to that person’s demo, he did not show any expression at all and only asked, “Just these two? No others?”

Ha Qiqi observed Zhang Ye’s reaction, not knowing what to make of it. She answered, “We’ve already notified 50 candidates to join today’s round of auditions. Most of them are good enough. It’s just that these two are the more outstanding ones. We’ve also singled out a few others that are quite good, though they did not register for the audition and were recommended by staff from our internal department or seen on other television programs instead. If you agree to it, we can immediately start making contact with them. Invite them to join our program?”

Zhang Ye asked, “Who are they? Let me take a look.”

“Such as this person.” Ha Qiqi bent over to handle the mouse and clicked on a video clip of a singing talent show from two years ago. “Here, take a look at this one.”

The video started playing.

It was of a man singing a Heavenly King’s classic track.

Ha Qiqi said, “Back then, on the show, he did not qualify and was eliminated at the second round, but most music consultants have a good impression of him. He most probably did not get into the next round because of some result fixing by the program team for that competition.”

Zhang Ye did not say a word.

Ha Qiqi said, “Director Zhang?”

The music consultants also looked at Zhang Ye.

Ha Qiqi immediately continued, “And there are a few other musicians we have our eyes on. Their professional qualities are very good. I know that our program is looking for people who can sing well, and those people are quite good at singing as well. Why don’t I show you? Their information is all in the computer. It should be easy to talk to them if I invite them over; alternatively, we can also offer them an appearance payment which I’m sure they’d agree to.”

Zhang Ye gave a wave of his hands and said, “Forget it, let’s not look at those first.” He checked his watch for the time and suggested, “Why don’t we do it this way: the auditions will start at 1:30 PM sharp, while I’ll go out for a while and be back very soon.”

Having said that, Zhang Ye left. Zhang Ye had come to the audition venue with high expectations, but before he could even warm his seat, he already had to leave.

The program team staff looked at each other with blank faces.

Wu Yi, puzzled at this, asked, “What’s with Teacher Zhang?”

“I don’t know,” Ha Qiqi replied, not understanding anything either. “We found people in accordance to the standards, didn’t we? Don’t all the other talent shows also pick their contestants this way? It’s not like we judged them based on their physical appearances either.”

One of the music consultants remarked, “Maybe it’s that Teacher Zhang just had something to attend to.”

Ha Qiqi took her mind off the matter and said, “Let’s continue from here then. Go through the candidates’ information once more while wait for Teacher Zhang to come back before we begin the auditions. Notify the candidates about the start time and provide them with box lunches if they haven’t eaten lunch yet. Little Wang, I leave you in charge of the waiting room.”

……

Outside.

When Zhang Ye came out of the basement, he briefly shook his head a little. He wasn’t just dissatisfied with Ha Qiqi and the others regarding the candidates they chose, he was extremely frustrated. Was it that the contestants were not up to standard? It wasn’t that and in fact their singing was also relatively good and safe, but this was not the desired show effect he wanted. He needed a different kind of contestant! From the start, Ha Qiqi and the others—or rather it should be said that the whole of Central TV and the entire country—all did not know what kind of a program he was aiming to do. They basically had no understanding of the concept that Zhang Ye wanted, not one of them! But come to think of it, he couldn’t blame them. It was just because Zhang Ye had seen things they had never seen before, so their understanding of things was much too different!

How could he handle this?

What could he do to make them understand what he was looking for?

Zhang Ye felt that using words to explain was not enough. He needed to be more direct and place an example in front of their eyes and ears to get his idea of the concept across to them. And so, Zhang Ye thought of a person, someone whose voice involuntarily floated into his mind. He decided that he would pull in the first contestant for their program to tell them what his understanding of a good voice was!

Well-trained and safe?

A high soprano?

With experience performing onstage?

Slick and proficient in singing?

—Was that what having a good voice meant?

Zhang Ye got into his car and drove straight out from television station tower and headed for the city.

1. Assistant Director