Rec: The Phenomenon called “Qin Shen Shen”
What is “Qin Shen Shen”?
Qin Shen Shen is a singing duo formed in 2019, in the 1st season of a Chinese music competition show called “Wo Men De Ge” aka “Our Song”. It’s made of Zhou Shen and Li Keqin, two experienced solo singers who met for the 1st time on the show. “Qin Shen Shen” is their team name.
But who are they?
1) Zhou Shen:
A singer from mainland China, mostly known for singing OSTs of C-dramas and movies, including CQL (Xue Yang’s theme) and DMBJ ChongQi.
28 years old. (5 yrs old, when together with Li Keqin)
Famous for his naturally high-pitched voice, similar to a soprano or mezzo-soprano.
Wants to lower people’s expectations, but keeps blowing people’s minds, so he’s stuck in a vicious circle of growing expectations and one-upping his past self.
Most famous song is called “Big Fish”.
Self-professed insecure.
Talks a lot.
2) Li Keqin:
A veteran singer from Hong Kong, who debuted 30+ years ago.
53 years old but is secretly 8 (3 yrs old, when with Zhou Shen)
Is known for having such great vocal stability when singing live that he earned himself the nickname: “CD-Qin”.
Will make mistakes in Mandarin but look really cute doing it
Famous songs include “Half-Moon Serenade” and “Great Auditorium Concert Hall”.
Is a good sport. Is good at sports.
*is stressed* *pretends to stay calm* *slays* *rinse and repeat*
So why should I check them out?
“Match made in heaven” is the moniker given to them the 1st time they sang together. That stuck for a reason. Li Keqin and Zhou Shen are a “1+1= greater than 2″. In theory, they’re worlds apart, but combining them sets off sparks. Whether it’s their understanding of how a song should be sung, their skills, or their style in singing duets: all match. On top of that, their voices’ timbre are weirdly complementary. Li Keqin’s baritone fits under Zhou Shen’s floating pitch like an anchor grounding them. Zhou Shen’s sound brings both voices to greater heights. The exponential added value they bring each other as a duo is just a rare find in any circle. In short: You’re in for a musical FEAST.
Chemistry. Chemistry. Chemistry. Complementary in some ways, similar in others, how they magically fit like a glove right off the bat is itself a wonder. Zhou Shen’s “prepare-for-the-worst” attitude goes hand-in-hand with Li Keqin’s apparent optimism. When one throws, the other’s there to receive. Sometimes they complete each other’s sentences, other times they’re like night and day…In all cases, what a team.
Laughs!! So many laughs! When they’re not singing, Qin Shen Shen is a full-time comedy duo. Throwing each other under the bus is a skill they acquired in 0 time and make use of daily. And if they’re not the ones throwing the jokes, they sure are receiving well. Dorks.
Cuteness overload. Both are just incredibly likeable and cute individuals onscreen. (yes both) Unbelievable. You have to see it to believe it.
A heartwarming dynamic. At the end of the day, QSS is a duo formed for a competition on TV. But even with the most cynical eyes, what you see is a dynamic between 2 very different singers of different generations, who have to get to know each other enough to collaborate in a short time, within a dynamic that fits. And it works! Boy do they make it work!!
Where to check them out?
If you’re short on time, some of their songs to pick from: “Under Mount Fuji”, “All the Lovers in the World”, or “Wild Wolf Disco”.
If nothing else, give their audio clip a chance: Clean vers of “Under Mount Fuji” without audience reactions, and a compilation of clean audios to cherry-pick from.
If you decided you want to see more of them, they’re a regular on “Wo Men De Ge/Our Song” S1: Ep. 1 with Eng subs. (More info on the show here)
Give the “match made in heaven” duo a try!! They don’t disappoint!
hijacks post to add yet more non-exhaustive reasons i love them
both of them are independently strong singers with A++ pitch accuracy, and it shows – many of their duet arrangements are challenging (lots of overlapping parts and harmonisation instead of singing in turns), and one or the other is always dealing with the language barrier of mandarin vs cantonese lyrics, but their performances are constantly amazing. one time they mashed up two songs and sang the respective choruses at the same time, and i still didn’t actually realise those were separate songs until i looked it up.
both of them have also collaborated with many singers over the years, with Li Keqin in particular having some fairly established singing duos, but this partnership just blows it all out of the water. exhibit A: just listen to their first-ever duet, with 0 rehearsing or even knowing who the other person is. how did they even do that. ?????
Zhou Shen consistently refers to LKQ as Keqin-laoshi/teacher Keqin, making him the most formal among the younger singers in terms of how they address their veteran singing partners (which for the record includes actual legend Fei Yuqing). and while Li Keqin rarely calls ZS by name, he also doesn’t use the nickname Shenshen that even the MC sometime uses. the mutual respect is very much there… but you wouldn’t know it from how regularly and gleefully they throw each other under the bus.
the literal translation of the term the show uses for the veteran singers is “role model singer”, and Li Keqin absolutely does this justice amidst all the clowning around. you can literally see Zhou Shen growing more confident and self-assured over the episodes, which is notable for someone who has repeatedly called himself insecure relatable ngl
and finally, for the heartwarming quotient: Zhou Shen planned a surprise birthday party for LKQ (albeit he started it by scaring him half to death). Li Keqin agreed to pick a song ZS really liked even though it wasn’t ideal for competition and also was mandarin lyric hell for him. the list goes on
tl;dr – come for the music, stay for who they are as people and as a duo
