Abstract Art Award Winner

It's clear that this year's Jiangsu TV 55 Gala is trying to follow the same route as Bilibili's New Year's Eve Gala.

While indulging in nostalgia, they also cater to young people, including Ultraman, which appeals to boys and children, as well as boy bands that can attract fan groups.

To put it simply, it's about picking and choosing from that model, extracting what's useful to you, and then transferring it over.

The main point is that although it's small, it has all the essential parts.

Even though there aren't many programs, the selection of each program is very targeted.

But Zhou Le felt he probably knew how Jiangsu TV did it. They must have drafted most of the list first, and then contacted one of them. After all, many artists' work was suspended during this period. Why not take advantage of such an opportunity, which included appearing on a TV station, cooperating with a major company, and receiving money?

They made money, gained fame, and got exposure.

There's absolutely no loss involved, okay?

So they come, and then the platform can tell the client, "Look, all the people I invited have come, and our deposits have already been paid. So, what about the payments in between?"
Give me some more money so I can arrange food and lodging for the guests.

So the client settled another payment. This performance, which was destined to go viral, was a mixed-genre concert, but the platform cleverly created ten awards for the programs and guests.

If it's just a simple performance, it might only attract a portion of fans, but if it comes with awards, the fans will be even more enthusiastic.

Of course, this award isn't exactly a prestigious one.

The terms "ultimate product recommendation machine," "domineering female CEO," and "heartbreakingly unfulfilled couple" sound like they're just for fun, and indeed, the theme is indeed playful.

Therefore, everyone's overall mood was relatively relaxed.

Especially veteran artists like Wu Bai, Wang Xinling, Wu Qingfeng, and Liu Tao, although some of them are not very old, have been in the industry for a long time and have rich stage performance experience.

No matter how relaxed everyone was, Zhou Le burst out laughing when the domineering female CEO group came on stage to sing. Han Xue, Liu Mintao, and Wan Qian each sang a solo song, but Zhou Le couldn't stop laughing when the group version of "Red High Heels" came on.

When Liu Mintao sang, he was more relaxed than ever before. He felt that what the other person was holding was not a microphone, but a swaying glass of red wine. He was in a state as if he had drunk half a catty of wine before going on stage to sing.

Three parts sarcasm, three parts nonchalance, and three parts arrogance.

In the final point, I don't care about anyone.

But Liu Mintao rolled her eyes in the direction Han Xue was facing.

Just then, the camera switched to Liu Mintao's side.

"Okay, this is going to be a trending topic."

As a natural-born trending topic magnet, Zhou Le naturally knows what kind of content audiences like to see. As long as it's not cut in post-production, anyone with a brain in marketing and promotion will know how important this shot is to the entire performance.

As for Han Xue's side
Zhou Le could tell that the song had been padded with sound, at least 70 or 80 padded, so even Zhou Le, sitting in the audience, couldn't hear the singer on stage.

Including that song from before.

All I can say is that even if the sound was padded, it was still Han Xue who recorded it himself and then cleaned it up. After all, Zhou Le had heard Han Xue sing before, including on some shows where similar content had appeared.

At the end of last year, she also recorded a dubbing variety show, and her performance was good, especially her dubbing ability, which was indeed very strong. However, there was a stepmother tea party later on, which she performed with Zhang Hanyun.

At the time, it received rave reviews, but Zhou Le felt that something was slightly off. His personal voice was fine, but his singing was a bit strange.

Now it seems even more obvious. Not to mention that the Cantonese pronunciation was not standard, even though Zhou Le had lived in Guangdong before, he couldn't speak it well himself. If you really want to speak it, it's just a matter of copying it verbatim. But even so, you can tell that the pronunciation is indeed very awkward.

But last week, when I went back to watch Liu Mintao on this show, I laughed every time I watched it.

At that moment, Zhang Wei and Xue Zhiqian were sitting next to him.

The two of them were also amused by what they saw, and they hid behind the pedestrian sign and laughed.

"That eye roll is ridiculous."

Fortunately, none of the three of them laughed very loudly, so it wasn't very noticeable; from the stage, all you could see was them chatting.

"I reckon that either Teacher Liu Mintao was looking over there, or he was too relaxed, his whole body was in a very relaxed state, just like he had drunk fake alcohol."

"I really like Teacher Liu's relaxed attitude. I'll definitely have to find a way to collaborate with Teacher Liu in the future."

"Haha, I've already thought of a solution for Teacher Liu. When someone asks why she rolled her eyes, she'll give them a disdainful look and say it's because her contact lenses are in the wrong place and her eyes are uncomfortable."

"That's a good reason. Tell Teacher Liu about it later, so she doesn't have to come up with it herself."

Zhou Le won the title of "Strongest Product Recommender" on this show, and even received a trophy.

The award was presented by an artist, and Zhou Le quietly asked while accepting the award, "Is there any prize money for this award?"

The award presenter was taken aback by the question.

"Haha, just kidding, thank you, teacher."

After receiving their awards, the show ended, and the group removed their makeup, changed their clothes, and went to eat.

Zhou Le also took some time to chat with Liu Mintao, but Liu Mintao naturally couldn't admit those things in front of everyone.

"Is Ms. Liu experiencing discomfort from wearing colored contact lenses?"

Zhou Le said.

Upon hearing this, Liu Mintao thought, "That's a good reason."

"Yes, you're absolutely right. It's just that the colored contacts aren't very comfortable. Why didn't I think of that reason before?"

This statement completely exposed Liu Mintao's true thoughts.

"Haha, then Teacher Liu can use this reason."

The next day, Zhou Le returned to the film crew in Anhui and continued filming for a few more days before asking Lin Yufen for leave.

"Director Lin, I still have a little bit here."

"Any other business? No problem, just go ahead and do what you need to do. I'll adjust the schedule here. How many days are you going?"

Three days will be enough.

"Okay, go ahead. Is it far? Do you need me to arrange for someone to buy you a plane ticket?"

"It's not far, you can just drive there, it's in Wuxi."

"Okay, be careful on the road."

Zhou Le is the lead actor, the financial backer, and the person on set who gives her the least trouble. There's no reason why she shouldn't be allowed to take leave if something comes up.

Let alone taking three days off to appear on a show, even if it's just awkward acting, it doesn't matter. After all, she's just an actress. If the filming schedule is affected by Zhou Le's own reasons, then Zhou Le will have to pay more out of his own pocket and explain to the other investors.

After saying that, Zhou Le left again, while Tian Xiwei stayed behind to continue filming. This time, Zhou Le was going to join the new generation of rappers.

I met Huang Zitao once before and learned that he was a mentor on this show. He even recommended Zhou Le to the production team, but Zhou Le felt that he was not qualified to be a mentor in these areas, so he did not agree to be a mentor.

But later, during the coordination process, they said that if I didn't want to be a mentor, I could be a mascot. They even gave this mascot a name: "Bilibili Special Invited Witness Officer."

But whether he's a witness or something else, Zhou Le only participated in the recording for two days. He came to chat on the first day and then did a simple program arrangement.

I participated in the recording on the second and third days.

The show's executive producer is Yan Min.

"The main reason for doing this is that rap is still very popular and can attract many young people. The style is also in line with the tone of Bilibili."

Yan Min said this during the meal.

"But I didn't know much about Director Yan's show before. Given the current momentum of The Rap of China, how can we get a share of the pie?"

Zhou Le was curious but also wanted to ask for advice. He couldn't think of anything for a while. After all, the market was only so big, and the Rap of China had been around for three years and had already eaten up all the edible parts.

The mentors they invited over there were Wu Yifan, Zhang Zhenyue, and MC Hotdog, along with a well-known singer. They also invited Huang Zitao, who is comparable to Wu Yifan, as well as Ma Siwei and No No, who are also top figures in the rap scene, and a well-known foreign rapper.

However, it is not easy to take away a portion of the market from there.

"It is indeed difficult, but we were never aiming to compete with them. They mainly go underground, while we will focus on campus and anime styles."

They're always arguing and fighting, so let's go for peace and love—we'll differentiate ourselves in the end.

Zhou Le nodded. If that were the case, it might actually work, but how to promote and market it would depend on Bilibili's methods.

After having a meal and getting to know each other on the first day, they went to get their makeup done early the next morning to prepare for the audition recording.

We have to eliminate some people right from the start.

Whether it was intentional or accidental, the production team filmed the contestants entering the venue even when the auditions were officially starting.

Zhou Le had already seen the list last night.

As Yan Min said, there were indeed many people he had never heard of before, but there were also some he knew, such as some rappers from labels in Beijing, Hangzhou, Chongqing, and Shanghai.
Once they arrived, the director on the other side told the actors to prepare to enter the set.

Zhou Le doesn't need to show up now. He can make an appearance after the first batch of people are selected, but there's nothing for him to do right now.

So they went straight to the filming crew's location to watch the scene together.

Most people entered normally, greeting each other, talking about their representative works, and then talking about what place they were aiming for this time.

Several of the older men were also humble and didn't seem aggressive at all. They spoke like seasoned veterans, old hands in the world, leaving no room for error.

Zhou Le noticed that the overall appearance of the contestants here was better than that of the contestants on The Rap of China.

After a while, someone suddenly came in, and Zhou Le noticed that the expressions of the staff around him changed.

"Is this person famous?"

"Yes, this is Jiang Yunsheng, who is quite well-known in the industry."

Zhou Le nodded. Speaking of the name, he seemed to have some recollection of it; he had heard others mention it before.

But I only matched the face with the name today.

But Zhou Le felt that this rapper was a bit pretentious, after all, he wasn't old, but he was quite famous, and he was also quite good-looking.

It fits the style of New Rap of China quite well.

"He is actually very good at freestyle. He has participated in Underground 8 Mile before, but he won the runner-up in the Kunming division and did not make it into the top three in the national finals."

Zhou Le thought about it and realized that everyone he had met seemed to be more capable than Jiang Yunsheng. Air had won a championship, GAI had also won a championship, and Wang Yitai was a writer who could produce super hits.

"Let me introduce myself first," Huang Zitao said.

Jiang Yunsheng nodded: "My name is Jiang Yunsheng. I know the rest that I need to know, and I will know the rest that I don't know in the future."

That statement does sound very pretentious.

Huang Zitao comes from a very wealthy family, so he must have heard it. But he is a very pretentious person, so how could he let a contestant be even more pretentious than himself?
So he pretended not to hear and asked the other person to say it again.

With this, all the pretense he had put on was gone. Although Jiang Yunsheng repeated himself, his aura was noticeably weaker.

After they finished talking, Jiang Yunsheng went inside, but there were a few people between them. Zhou Le suddenly saw a familiar face.

When Zhou Le went to Chengdu that time, he went back to their label's headquarters with Wang Yitai and met the people from that label.

At that moment, Zhou Le felt as if he had gone to some kind of large-scale gangster gathering place, where everyone had tattoos that seemed to cover their entire bodies.

This contestant named TY is considered a leader within Wang Yitai's label.

However, Zhou Le's impression of the other party was not based on the two-letter English name, nor did he know what famous songs the other party had sung before. The only thing he knew clearly was that the other party had dissed Huang Zitao.

"Chinese hip-hop doesn't need trash like you. Your rap sounds worse than reciting a memorized text. You're like a pair of ripped briefs."

It's basically like pointing your finger at someone and cursing them, although not as directly and harshly as another rapper's insults.

At that time, Huang Zitao accepted a game endorsement and also released a song called "Dominator".

That rapper released a diss track called "Super Dominator" and became famous overnight.

TY, on the other hand, took Huang Zitao's old jokes and released a song called "go die".

But it's not much better in reality.

The surrounding staff became excited; they had been waiting for this moment for so long.

The first thing the other person said when they met was, "Hello, Brother Tao."

Upon hearing this, not only the staff and Zhou Le, but also the other mentors and contestants laughed.

To be part of this circle, you naturally need to know the past history. You could say they know very well who has criticized whom in the past.

But Huang Zitao has obviously let it go, since he can't just start arguing on the show.

"Introduce yourself."

After that, TY opened her mouth to speak, but she felt a little awkward introducing herself to someone she had scolded so harshly, and she laughed as soon as she opened her mouth.

Huang Zitao generously stated, "I know you've dissed me before."

The two then hugged on the spot.

"I wanted to showcase some aspects of myself on the show, and also change my image, given my previous one."

Upon hearing this, Huang Zitao finally couldn't hold back any longer. (End of Chapter)