Huayu: The young actress is heavily dependent on me

In early March 2015, the first season of "Oh My God" premiered on iQiyi.

This online variety show, hosted by Xie Na, is described as "not a large-scale, unreliable, pseudo-music" and focuses on music-based reasoning.

Of the six contestants in each episode, only two are truly good singers; the rest are tone-deaf. The judging panel and guests must use various clues to guess who the real "singing god" is.

The show's unique positioning and Xie Na's distinctive "Na-style" hosting style attracted a large number of young viewers as soon as it was launched, with the first episode quickly garnering over ten million views.

When Zhou Shen received the invitation from the program team, Chen Li helped him make the decision:

Bring "Dala Bengba" up there.

This song demands almost unrealistically high vocal skills—one person has to play four roles in one song: a boy, a girl, a king, and a dragon, with a vocal range spanning more than four octaves and almost no breathing breaks throughout.

If you sing well, it's a game-changer; if you sing badly, it's a live broadcast disaster.

But Chen Li knew that Zhou Shen's voice was naturally made for this kind of "impossible song".

On the day of the recording, Zhou Shen stood backstage wearing a simple white shirt, holding a microphone in his hand, his knuckles slightly white.

He was eliminated from "The Voice of China" less than a year ago. Although he released a cover album "Reminiscence" with Li Wei, he is still seen as an oddity in the public eye because his voice is "like a girl's".

From being a left-behind child in a mountain village to being called a "sissy" and a "freak," this young man from Shaoyang, Hunan, has become accustomed to walking with his head down and preparing to be ridiculed before he even opens his mouth.

When the host, Xie Na, announced the name "Zhou Shen," a sparse round of applause erupted from the audience, interspersed with a few unfriendly whispers.

Zhou Shen walked onto the stage, the lights shining on his slender figure. Someone in the audience muttered, "What can this guy sing?" A judge in the judging panel looked down at the information, a subtle smile playing on his lips. Zhou Shen noticed all of these details.

The music started. He closed his eyes.

"Long, long ago, a dragon suddenly appeared—" When the first sentence was uttered, the entire audience fell silent. It was a young boy's voice, clear and firm, like a true warrior embarking on a journey.

Then, without any transition, his voice suddenly rose, transforming into that of a charming princess:

"Come save me, hero!"

The whispers from the audience vanished instantly, and the judges sat up straight, their composure completely gone.

Then the third character appeared, the king's voice deep and majestic:

"Whoever can rescue the princess, I will pass the throne to him!"

In the fourth second, a dragon's low growl roared out from the same person's throat, rough and fierce, completely different from the princess just now.

He then switched between four roles in one go: boy, girl, king, and dragon, with a vocal range spanning more than four octaves.

The most breathtaking part is the chorus, where the four characters' voices switch rapidly within five seconds.

It was impossible to tell whether Zhou Shen's face was covered in sweat or tears. He held the microphone in one hand, while the fingertips of his other hand tapped out rhythms in the air, precisely hitting the transition points between each character, as if he were performing a complete musical all by himself.

The judge in the judging panel who had just been looking down at the documents now took off his in-ear monitor, his mouth agape in an "O" shape, and the document in his hand had somehow slipped to the ground.

As the last note faded, the entire audience fell silent for two seconds.

Then it exploded.

Xie Na rushed out from behind the stage, holding a microphone and shouting, "My God, Zhou Shen, are you even human?"

All five members of the judging panel stood up and applauded. The judge who had been smiling earlier stood up and clapped several times before realizing that his facial expression control had completely collapsed. He simply gave up and gave the camera a "I give up" gesture.

A female audience member was wiping away tears, while a bespectacled boy next to her kept repeating the same phrase: "Amazing, amazing."

After the show aired, the comment sections of various platforms exploded.

The Weibo hashtags #ZhouShenDaLaBengBa# and #MyGodZhouShen# both trended on Weibo.

The most popular comments in the video's comment section are all...

"I apologize, I previously thought he got the show because of connections."

"This voice is a gift from God, no, it's like God opened a cafeteria for him."

"I suggest playing it at 0.5x speed; you'll come back and thank me."

"Raise your hand if you listened while kneeling."

One highly-rated comment analyzed the situation at length:

"This song is not written for humans at all. There are no breathing spaces, no breathing points, and the four characters are switched at lightning speed. I counted, and he didn't drink a drop of water in the whole minute or so. Zhou Shen is not a singer, he is a voice actor monster."

As the trending topic continued to gain traction, some netizens noticed a detail in the subtitles at the end of the video.

The lyrics and composition of "Da La Beng Ba" are both attributed to the same person: Chen Li.

The comment section exploded again:

"Wait a minute, this song was written by Chen Li?? The Chen Li who directed 'So Cute Us'?? The Chen Li who wrote 'The Wind Rises' and 'Undyed'??"

"I became a fan of Chen Li after watching 'Undyed,' then I found out he was a director, and later I found out he was also an actor. Now you're telling me he can write this kind of magical anime-style song? How many hidden talents does this person have? Can he reveal them all at once?"

"From 'Undyed' to 'The Wind Rises,' from 'Rings of Time' to 'Dala Bengba,' Chen Li's musical style spans an absurdly wide range. One song makes you cry, the next makes you jump. It's a waste of talent for this person not to be a music producer."

"I just searched it up, and Zhou Shen's 'Rings of Time' was also written by Chen Li—this person wrote two songs for Zhou Shen at the same time, one a heart-wrenching ancient-style song, and the other a catchy and addictive one. How did he manage that?"

Immediately afterwards, iQiyi officially announced on Weibo that "Years" will be used as an insert song for the highly anticipated fantasy drama "The Journey of Flower," sung by Zhou Shen.

This Weibo post was forwarded over 30,000 times within an hour, and the comment section was full of...

"Chen Li + Zhou Shen = Awesome combination"

"The combination of 'The Years' and 'The Journey of Flower' makes me want to cry just imagining it."

"So Zhou Shen signed with Chen Li's studio? What kind of amazing combination are these two?"

With Zhou Shen's sudden rise to fame, netizens also discovered that he was signed with Chen Li's studio.

Someone posted a timeline on Weibo:

In September 2014, Zhou Shen was eliminated from The Voice of China.

In the same month, Chen Li gave him a contract and a demo of "The Wind Rises" in a small coffee shop in Shanghai.

Less than a year later, Zhou Shen, with three hit songs—"The Wind Rises," "The Years," and "Da La Beng Ba"—transformed from an eliminated contestant in a talent show into a "heavenly voice" trending across the internet.

This timeline was forwarded tens of thousands of times, and Chen Li was dubbed by netizens as "the strongest HR in the Chinese music scene".

And Zhou Shen's name has finally changed from "a contestant eliminated from The Voice of China" to a name that is remembered by the audience.

Most of those who used to call him "sissy" have fallen silent in the comments section.

One comment that reached the top three summed it up for everyone:

"Zhou Shen's voice isn't effeminate; it's unique. Thanks to Chen Li for discovering this star that has been hidden in the dust."