A competition aiming to revive Mandarin indie folk music xinyao is back for the third time.
Registration for the National Schools Xinyao Singing and Songwriting Competition 2017 will start today, and students in secondary schools, junior colleges, the Institute of Technical Education and polytechnics can take part.
Apart from cash prizes ranging from $1,000 to $1,500, first-prize winners from the contest's three categories - solo, group and songwriting - will each win a pair of return air tickets from SilkAir to Darwin, Australia (solo); Laos (group); and Fuzhou, China (songwriting).
Other top performers will win cash prizes ranging from $200 to $1,000.
By the end of the year, 20 schools would also have played host to 90-minute concerts that feature xinyao music performances by performers from TCR Music Station.
Registration for the solo and group categories will close on May 19, while the deadline for the songwriting category is June 2. Auditions will be held on May 27 at Jurong Junior College (JJC), when 20 contestants will be picked for each of the solo and group categories. The finals will take place on Aug 12.
The competition will be broadcast on Hub E City (StarHub TV Channel 111/825) from the preliminary rounds, and participants will be featured on radio station UFM100.3.
This year's event is organised by the Committee to Promote Chinese Language Learning, Chinese-language daily Lianhe Zaobao, JJC, TCR Music Station and mm2 Entertainment. Those who are interested can sign up at http://xinyao.zaobao.com/2017/
