spent about 4 days making a super-vocal hoodie!!!! this is a white one and a yellow one frankensteined together (made my brother model)
(extensive) notes, progress pics, refs and additional comments on the zs shows i watched while sewing this under the cut ^^
at the moment of writing this, 4 separate people have commented the 0人能走出声入人心 sticker under my post showing this off on xhs
this was a project motivated by sheer greed. i wanted this hoodie so fucking bad you have no idea. not to wear or anything i just wanted to have one
it was originally a cheap yellow hoodie and a cheap white one! the grey portions, i dyed myself (gonna complain about that later). the idea was that buying the two from the same seller would ensure that they were the same size
an idea that was wrong 😑 the yellow one ended up being a bit bigger than the white one (even though there was only one size available), which meant that i had to work from the white instead of adding white to the yellow. this also meant that i had to resize all the yellow pieces i used
at this point i was so committed to the project & so consumed by greed that i just didn't care. thought ughhh these things might as well happen and started cutting lol
^ these are the earliest progress pics i have. didn't actually take pics of the hoodies as they were, my bad, but u can see that the hood in the second pic is white! since the white hoodie was my base
5. i didn't have any templates or measurements. literally just stared at these two pics really hard 👇
6. but it was fun! during this project, i watched the last 5 eps of srrx (was on my srrx rewatch), 中国好声音3 (ep 7 and 15 (had watched ep 2 before), 我要上春晚 2015 (ep 1129), 我要上春晚 （直通春晚）2016 (ep 01111), 中国好声音4 (ep 15) and 挑战好声音. i've caught clips of a lot of these, but this was my first time watching full eps ^^
slight digression. i've now finished every single 中国好声音/中国新声音 ep that zs was on (a LOT) and of the too many finales/巅峰之夜s i have watched, this one was the best!!! zbc ily
but u have to understand. i finished my srrx rewatch and then watched the 中国好声音3 eps and li qi was there. and then he was on the 中国好声音4 too..... i didn't know he and zs had interacted that closely before (although idk if they actually talked much)
(speaking of which, zs had a mini solo in the 我们的梦 大合唱 @ 好声音3 ep 15 and i may be biased but he stole the entire show. my bbg. he's on @ ~4:35 here and lemme tell u those 6 words made watching all 2.5ish hours of that thing worth it)
and then i watched 挑战好声音 and zhaili shuotian was there..?.?..?..?? 0人能走出声入人心 ✋ he was a contestant, not a mentor! this was pre-beard so i almost didn't recognise him.. it's not on his baidu either so i felt like i was going insane. but no
that's zhaili shuotian.
and then someone later in the season sings 得不到的爱情 in shanghaihua... im connecting the dots.............
but i really loved 挑战好声音!!!! almost as much as i despise yoku. i thought the runtime was beautiful (40mins!!!!!), the editing was very 2017 (so many random gifs.. but still not as bad as 我爱二次元), the concept was creative, and i appreciated the work that the producers put into souping up the contestants' stages
and i loved all of zs' performances. very much a 突破 sort of show!! having watched zs on yyyjh1 as well it's super super cool to me how he's always been committed to challenging himself and new styles.. shoutout to 有点儿意思 (talked abt it here) and 果汁分你一半 (when i saw what he did w the latter i literally said 'ohh i love you ☺️☺️' out loud.. stupidest grin on my face..)
i've also now finished all of zs' 我要上春晚 + 直通春晚 eps. it's an obnoxious volume of chunwan. but this 直通春晚 201601111 turned out to contain my favourite chunwan skit to date lol coming in at the very last moment?? i thought its mix of physical comedy, delivery, and (surprisingly) touching message made it very easy to watch ^^ it's at abt ~49mins here.
7. digression over! anyway, the grey parts of the hoodie (as i have mentioned before) were dyed from extra bits of the white one. it was my first time using fabric dye and i did not expect it to be as incredibly frustrating as it turned out to be 😭 the first two times i tried to dye the strips, the colour didn't take at all.. in the end i eyeballed the measurements out of desperation and they took on the third try 😑 worth it!!! though!!! and i'm very happy with how similar the colour was to my refs (on account of the eyeballing lol)
^ sleeves progress pics. super fun to make!! (measured them according to my own wrists, so tbh they're a bit tight..)
8. however what was both the most annoying + most rewarding was the hood. the srrx hood is yellow with white lining, but the hoods i had were yellow + yellow lining and white + white lining 😑 so i spent most of the process zoning out with a seam ripper in hand (not a good idea typically) and breaking both hoods down into four semicircle pieces each. then, i cut 2 of the yellow semicircles down to the size of the white ones and sewed yellow-to-yellow on the curved edge + likewise for 2 of the white pieces, then sewed them together to make a lined hood
^ very satisfying. thank god the og hoodie doesn't have a drawstring also
9. the last step was the text on the front!! i ran it through a font identifier and found out that the font used was called Edo Pro Brush Font, ach so:
i decided on 40cm x 10cm for measurements and omfg getting this printed was such a fucking hassle 😭 it's quite a large design and a lot of custom iron-on sticker sellers on shopee maxed out at ~30cm + once i found people willing to do it they cancelled on me 😭😭 and then i found another seller and they cancelled on me too 😭😭😭 like the dyeing, third time was the charm ig.. fml..
but it's done!!!!! and i'm very happy with it. i have a couple other sewing projects to share, but (like this hoodie) they're in purgatory rn bc i'm waiting on some finishing details. now i can say i have a srrx hoodie ☺️ not that i a) am going to wear it b) actually like srrx. i don't like srrx.
(+ if you want to see what my notifs have looked like for the last few days:)
PS. as things stand i've watched all of zs' shows from 中国好声音3 (2014) to 天天兄弟营业中 (2020) (and then a lot afterwards but my streak was broken by kr lol)!!! except for 放歌新中国 (missing ep 20151004 on the cctv upload (one of the 3 zs eps of that stupid show 😑😑)), 中华百家姓 (mangotv has a copy but i can't find an upload of the full season that's free (not paying mangou money 👍)), and 约吧好声音 (also haven't found a free copy). if anyone knows where to find any of those, i would be immensely grateful!!!!
Zheng Qiyuan & Xu Junshuo - 《榮耀為我臣服 | Glory Submits for Me》 [La Gloire à mes genoux from Le Rouge et le Noir]
(Super Vocal S2)
• If I recall correctly, XJS translated this song into Mandarin himself. He very, very badly wanted to sing this with ZQY during the singing partner selection process
• Towards the end of the song, XJS's mic pack falls out, and he takes out one of his in-ears to try and hear properly shortly before hitting that last High D without wavering. XJS has always been one of my favourites from this season for a reason
Let’s start with Gao Yang’s fabulous pretty prince(ss) aesthetic and amazing performance! He owned the stage and showed so much personality and charm, I was just blown away.
And then sweet Liang Pengjie comes out and delivers that wonderful, energetic, thrilling performance. Every one of his 兄弟们 was radiating their pride and joy at him throughout that song, and made me incredibly emotional. 加油，朋朋！And seeing them all crying at the end, especially Fang Shujian, was so touching!
Of course, seeing the outrageous success of darling Lars Huang Zihongfan (who currently has over 8 million fans on Weibo!) is a delight. He was a dang FETUS on 声入人心, for crying out loud. And now he’s a star. Watching his ascent is thrilling. (Unfortunately, the audio appears to be deliberately distorted during his performance above. Whyyy? Hopefully they’ll post the clip by itself on YouTube, but they did post on Weibo… https://h5.video.weibo.com/show/1034:5111819124277305 )
Frank Ju Hongchuan is one of my favorites for a lot of reasons. His voice is a grounding note that ties the others together and provides a solid foundation for beautiful music. He writes great songs, and can arrange the heck out of a song for an ensemble. But honestly? He just seems so sincere, and like a good friend to the brothers (including Dalong, whose absence is felt every week, but who is always remembered fondly on Frank’s Weibo!). He supports them all in their endeavors, posting about their projects and celebrating their successes. He cries openly out of sheer, unbridled affection, and I’ve gotta say, that’s a beautiful thing.
The presentation of 风声 is something I hoped would happen from the beginning, so I’m so excited to finally get to see what they’ve been working on! Seeing the shadow puppets come into play was so dang satisfying! And hearing all the random snippets of music played at the mystery house, coming to life in this staging? Aaaahhh! I’m a wreck! Every one of them is killing it and all of this is making me want to fly around the world to see this show when it’s produced.
And the rehearsal outtakes of Qi Yu and Liang Pengjie! 😂 Lovable goofballs!
Seeing the four babies come together to revisit one of their wonderful performances from 声入人心 absolutely broke me. I was a weepy mess.
They followed that with a high energy performance from two of the opera bros, Hong Zhiguang and Ma Jia, which I needed to pull myself together after getting so emotional over the boys.
And then… right back to making me cry, with Frank and Gao Yang singing one of my favorite songs, 《大船》. Dear lord, it’s so beautiful. Their voices are so good together. And Ayanga looked as emotional as I was during this song. (Possibly for the same reason…) GAAAAAHHHHH. I am still so worked up over this performance! This arrangement!
We end with a pair of group songs, including the inevitable Auld Lang Syne. A beautiful weep fest. A wonderful episode. I will be rewatching this one repeatedly. And crying. 😭
I am impressed at the amount of talent in this show. 36 participants and all of them talented as hell. The only reason not everyone is a Principal at the end is merely because of confidence at the time of performing. Which is the only reason Zhou Shen, who has the voice of an angel, was a bit lackluster (it must have been the beginning of his career.. he was nervous most of the times, thank God for sweet Wang Xi who was always rooting for him 🥰).
The lead "actor" of this show is, no doubt, Ayunga. He performed flawlessly every song. The judges and the rest of the boys loved and admired him. Didn't matter if his French wasn't good, his harmonization compensated everything. The 2nd lead, but more or less in the 2nd half, was Zhen Yunglong. I love to see them interacting, the chemistry! And when they formed their group... ahhh, the mentors and their students 🥰 Both of them with the experience and confidence, guiding the youngsters, the "1975" team 🥰
And both enjoy performing so much! It is so much fun to see the singing together. And while not singing, they both enjoy watching the others, and how cute was them worrying for their children? (They deserved to win, tbh, but still, I loved that the professor invited the children to perform with him in his concert... isn't that the best??)
So yes, it is a joy to see the charm of YunCiFang 🥰
There is also a bit of a fight over Zhou Shen... Yuncifang wanted him but Wang Xi was adamant to have him 🤣 so it provided some fun moments:
Besides them, I became a huge fan of Wang Xi (that silky voice 🤤), Yu Di (always consistent in his performances... I love that he got a couple of jobs while the judges were scoring him 😄), Liao Jialin (I prefer his countertenor over Gao Tianhe), Wang Kai (a pro... he was just too competitive 😅), Li Qi, Cai Cai, Hong Zhiguang and Ma Jia and well, all of them actually. All of them very sweet, sensitive boys. The only one I didn't care, in spite of his huge talent, was Gao Tianhe 😅 such a diva.
My favorite performances:
- Bella Ciao
- L'amore si muove
- Les Rois du Monde
- The Sound of Silence
- Nei Blu, Dipinto Di Blu
- La Paloma
- I'll cover you (+ all the other duets btw Ayunga & ZYL. They improved so much since that infamous performance from their college days)
Now I am in the rabbit hole that is Super Vocal 🥲 I am happy this show open doors for them, and that musicals and opera are more popular now in China. These guys deserve every ovation they are surely getting today. I wish I could know more about their current professional lives and how did their tour went after the final. The ending had many tears, including from Yuncifang, and I admit I also shed some tears 🥺
Some moments I enjoyed from rewatching eps 1 and 2 of the first season of 声入人心:
Ayanga going "It's my classmate :D" when Zheng Yunlong shows up
"I thought it was Wang Kai from Nirvana In Fire..." RIP operatic tenor Wang Kai (the joke is they’re both 王凯)
The :O expressions when Zhou Shen turned up!
Gao Tianhe's claws coming out early!! He's an arrogant little bitch but I find him so entertaining, which is a good thing for someone who comes in with such I'm The Main Character Of This Variety Show energy, really, otherwise I wouldn’t like him at all xD
Shang Wenjie comparing Zheng Yunlong to Takeshi Kaneshiro (having now watched some stuff with him in it, this is hysterical to me)
Liao Jialin going straight for the boss move of a vocaloid cover with a segue into operatic Europop. IN WHAT OTHER SHOW WOULD YOU SEE THIS
Cai Chengyu and all his high Cs *chef's kiss* (Shi Kai: take good care of my seat! *lingering hand-holding*)
Knowing much more about the performers and their relationship now than when I first watched it made Zheng Yunlong and Ayanga competing in the Principal Reassessment so much more intense and exciting, my god
Then followed right after by Zhou Shen, so clear and gorgeous UGH how is his voice so good
Gao Tianhe absolutely being the Main Character of the duet selections at the end, this boy is just so highly strung
Gosh I love countertenors so much, I feel like this is the only thing I've ever seen that really appreciates them.
I don't know if there have been any other meisheng-themed variety shows since? Tangentially, I was super excited about City of Musicals, but we only got a few episodes of that - does anyone know what happened to it?
