SINGAPORE - The search is on to uncover Singapore's contestants for the singing competition judged by Mandopop king Jay Chou.
China Super Vocal is slated to air in China in July with Chou and his fellow mentors, singer-songwriter- host Harlem Yu, songbird Na Ying and rocker Wang Feng, from season four of the popular show The Voice Of China.
Due to a legal dispute over copyright, which is held by the Dutch producers of The Voice Of Holland, the Chinese television contest is being branded as a new show, even though the Chinese title Zhong Guo Hao Sheng Yin remains the same.
From April 2, auditions will be held in Singapore at five different locations, including Plaza Singapura and JCube, and 40 to 50 candidates will be shortlisted for the closed- door semi-finals to be held at China Cultural Centre on May 7.
The official hotline numbers are 6288-3321 and 9842-3165 and registration is free. Those interested can also sign up via the WeChat app by searching for the account eeva_chang_sg. Participants have to be at least 16 years old.
The finals will be held as a concert on May 21 at The Coliseum at Hard Rock Hotel Singapore and the top three to five contestants will get a chance to realise their musical dreams in China.
The auditions are organised by veteran radio deejay Eeva Chang Mei Hsiang's Eeva Productions. She said at a press conference at China Cultural Centre on Friday (March 18) morning that she hoped to get top local musicians Dick Lee, Liang Wern Fook and either Paul or Peter Lee as judges for the finals. She declined to reveal the production cost of the auditions.
She said: "My aim is find the right person to represent Singapore. I would be very happy if they are chosen by the mentors."
On season four of The Voice Of China, husband-and-wife singers Alfred Sim and Tay Kewei represented Singapore but were not picked by the mentors.
The Voice Of China has been hailed as China's most successful music variety programme, with the first season in 2012 attracting more than 120 million television viewers and 400 million Internet users, according to the South China Morning Post. It is also popular beyond its shores, even if its winners such as Liang Bo and Zhang Bichen remain better known in the mainland than outside it.
The preliminary rounds of the Singapore auditions will be aired on Chang's programme on radio station 88.3JiaFM and will also be posted on Eeva Productions' YouTube channel. Local professional music critics have been invited to be the judges.
Chang, who is hoping for at least 500 people to take part in the auditions, wants to get the word out to everyone from students to pub and getai singers.
As to what would help a contestant stand out on the show, she said: "Your voice has to be memorable and your interpretation has to be persuasive so that people can accept it. The contest is not about styling or how well you dress up, it's purely about the music."
