Chinese entertainment, from radio love songs to superstars

Chapter 198, Just for Him
Shen Lang chatted with a group of acquaintances backstage for a while, then he said goodbye to everyone and went to his lounge to prepare for makeup.

This year's Spring Festival Gala is indeed, as people feel, nothing new.

It seems that every program can be found in the past Spring Festival Galas with similar shadows, lacking any eye-catching surprises.

In other words, the Spring Festival Gala has formed a fixed pattern, with certain routines from program types to performance forms.

CCTV is unwilling to relax its censorship policy, which to some extent limits directors’ room for innovation.

Directors don’t dare to try new creative ideas and expressions, just to get through the night safely, collect the money and leave. As for “reputation”, directing the Spring Festival Gala now only brings “bad reputation”, not “good reputation”.

At exactly eight o'clock, the usual opening began, with blaring drums and music, and a group of dancers, big and small, all appeared on the stage. In the high-decibel subwoofer, there were pre-recorded cheers: "Great!", "Wow!", "So happy!", etc.

Then, the four hosts jumped onto the stage, with friendly smiles on their faces, and shouted excitedly: "Dear audience friends, dear audience friends in front of the TV, Happy New Year."

What followed was singing and dancing, and the "modular" filling began, with a singing and dancing program, a language program, and so on.

In the singing and dancing category, dozens of singers who looked familiar but whose names could not be remembered took turns to go on stage. It was considered a good treatment if four people sang one song. The most people sang one song, with up to 4 people singing one song, each with a line, and then singing together.

In the language category, Feng Gong, Zhao Benshan, Guo Donglin and other "evergreens" of the Spring Festival Gala took turns to perform.

During the casual chat just now, Shen Lang got a lot of inside information about the selection of "actors" for the Spring Festival Gala from Zhao Benshan.

Many people are very concerned about the Spring Festival Gala and will pass all kinds of "tickets" to the show, thus giving rise to "ticket actors". With the tickets they can squeeze into the Spring Festival Gala, and some can even sing a solo. It is said that at most there are hundreds of ticket actors.

Among the notes handed over, which one is important and which one is not, which one must be done and which one can be postponed, the positions of these people are also very important, such as whether they are at the front or the back of the stage, before or after midnight, all of this has become a science.

Generally, the preparation period for the Spring Festival Gala is about 4 months. The first 2 months are the planning and preparation period. After the third month, the director and the main creative staff basically start to focus on the actors and figure out how to arrange these actors.

Therefore, they had to classify the actors with "tip" into different levels according to their weight. According to the previous probability, about 2/3 of the actors with "tip" were blocked every year, and only 1/4 of the actors with "tip" were able to perform on the Spring Festival Gala.

So, many times we can’t blame the director, as he doesn’t have much say.

It was 11 o'clock. Gao Yuanyuan and her family were sitting in the living room. They gradually felt tired and took turns yawning.

The actors and audiences on TV are lively and happy, but they cannot hide the fatigue and boredom on the faces of the audience in front of the TV.

It can be seen that the appeal of these programs is indeed limited. The Spring Festival Gala, which should have been full of joy and surprises, now seems a bit bland. Even the most anticipated Zhao Benshan failed this year. The skit "Water Delivery Man" he performed with his old partners Fan Wei and Gao Xiumin was not as exciting as in previous years.

"Yuanyuan, when will Shen Lang go on stage?" asked Mother Gao.

"It'll be there soon, Mom. Probably around 11:15," Gao Yuanyuan replied.

"Ha...I should have gone to sleep first." Mr. Gao yawned.

"In previous years, he always applied to go on stage at the front, but this year, the director arranged him to go on stage at the back in order to increase anticipation," Gao Yuanyuan explained.

As we were talking, another show ended.

"Dear audience friends, at this time of bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new, we often lament the passing of time."

"So, where has the time gone?" "Next, let's find the traces of time and feel the passing of time in this song 'Where has the time gone'."

With Zhu Jun and Zhou Yao singing in unison, the most mysterious and anticipated program of this year's Spring Festival Gala finally slowly began.

Before this, the audience had not seen this show in the big rehearsal. The atmosphere seemed to be tightly pulled by an invisible thread, and everyone's eyes were focused on the stage.

"Mom, Dad, Shen Lang is here." Gao Yuanyuan hurriedly reminded her drowsy parents.

When Gao's mother heard her daughter's words, she opened her eyes forcefully, trying to drive away the sleepiness that kept coming: "I almost fell asleep."

Father Gao yawned again at this time, and then said with all his strength: "If you don't come again, I can't hold on any longer."

The family of three then focused their attention on the TV.

Shen Lang was seen sitting quietly in front of a piano, with a spotlight shining on him, outlining his handsome features, like a music prince walking out of a painting.

His fingers rested lightly on the keys, and as they moved, a beautiful melody emerged.

"The old tree in front of the door sprouts new buds

The dead trees in the yard are blooming again

Half-survival, a lot of words

Hidden in the white hair..."

Originally, Shen Lang had conceived of using the big screen to design some images to match the songs and add more visual impact and appeal to the performance. However, CCTV did not use the LED big screen this year, so the plan had to be shelved.

He had considered dancing as a backup, but felt that it might seem a bit too dry and might even affect the mood of the song. After careful consideration, he finally gave up and decided to just sing solo.

Indeed, a song ultimately has to impress the audience with its lyrics, melody and singing.

And when it comes to these three things, Shen Lang is the most confident.

At this moment, the expectations of the audience at the scene and the audience in front of the TV series were released, but the song was mediocre and seemed to be below their expectations.

Fans are not panicking at all, because there is a saying that goes "You may not believe the rumors about Shen Lang, but you can definitely believe his songs."

The second line of the lyrics, "The little feet in my memory, the chubby little mouth, I give him my love for a lifetime, just for that call of mom and dad," instantly evokes people's memories of their childhood and the selfless love that parents give in the process of raising their children.

At this time, everyone had a clear understanding in their minds - the new song brought by Shen Lang was about family affection.

It is normal to choose this theme during the Spring Festival when families reunite, which forms a sharp contrast with last year's lively and happy "Gong Xi Fa Cai".

However, they did not know what kind of impact the next song would have on their hearts.

(End of this chapter)