I have been obsessed with listening, and occasionally watching, song clips from Super Vocal recently.
声入人心 单曲纯享
Yes, yes - everyone who likes 周深 Zhou Shen had recommended to watch the whole thing multiple times, but I never had any desire to expand beyond Zhou Shen until recently.
Maybe it was seeing 刘宪华 Henry Lau's expressions as he watched other people sing.
Such a cutie. A polyglot polymath cutie with really nice abs (you all saw the movie Double World, yah?)
Or maybe it was Zheng Yunlong (I still don't think he's fair. Nothing about Zheng Yunlong is fair. Not his height, not his face, not his singing. It's just not fair. Especially when they put him in costume. Any costume. Or do his hair. Any hairstyle. ）
And it's all been incredibly wonderfully ... gay? Since they only have men on the show, all the duets have been between guys. They didn't even bother changing the lyrics to pretend they were singing about girls -- it's just "Oh, 哥 big brother, I miss you" etc. So awesome.
And the men are so wonderfully put together. And talented.
Anyway, I highly recommend it. Everyone was right - Super-Vocal is totally worth listening to / watching. (Maybe someday I'll get to watch the entire thing instead of just listening at work.)
a humble invitation to lose your mind about 《声入人心》 with me
finally getting around to a rec post for 《声入人心》 Sheng Ru Ren Xin / Super-Vocal because this lowkey might be the best show I’ve watched in the year of our eternal suffering 2021. yes, you heard me right, this variety show from 2018 is quite possibly my favorite television thing I’ve consumed all year
(rolls up sleeves) aight here we go—
what is 《声入人心》 / Super-Vocal, and what’s up with that title?
《声入人心》 is a 2018-19 Chinese variety show where they gathered a ludicrously talented cast of 36 classically-trained male singers and had them do ludicrously talented vocalist things for 12 whole episodes of musical virtuosity. nominally, the cast is competing for six 首席 shou xi / uhhh “finalist” seats, but lest that put you off, the first nine episodes feature absolutely zero elimination — they pit challengers from the remaining 30 against the top 6 each episode, and regularly re-shuffle the positions based on performance
the title is actually a delightful pun on the chengyu, 深入人心 shen ru ren xin / “to enter deeply into the hearts of people” (used to describe something of great influence and resonance) by swapping out the first character 深 shen / “deep” with 声 sheng / “sound” so the name of the show becomes something along the lines of “sound that reaches deep into your heart”
who knows where “Super-Vocal” came from, though I will concede that everyone involved in this show is pretty Super and there sure is Much Vocal happening
what sets this music-based variety show from other music-based variety shows?
good question! not one I’m particularly qualified to answer, considering that this is (checks notes) the first music-based variety show I’ve ever watched. 《声入人心》 focuses primarily on 美声 mei sheng / bel canto, which means most of their performances explore the spectrum of classical opera, operatic pop, musical theater, and folk songs (and sometimes Beyonce so tbh anything can happen, really). you’ll hear songs in Chinese, English, French, Italian, Spanish, and occasionally a multilingual mix of the above
the show also makes technical aspects of song and music theory accessible; little pop-ups will helpfully identify when key changes occur, and the performances steadily increase in difficulty as the participants move from duets to three-part and four-part harmony (good god the harmonies on these performances). I genuinely felt like I learned a lot about music and vocal performance just from watching this show, which is super exciting!
that’s all very well and good hunxi, but what about the people?
GLAD YOU ASKED because I love everyone in this bar. like, the music in this show is objectively spectacular but the heart of this show lies in the interactions between all the contestants, who are overwhelmingly supportive rather than competitive with each other (I personally find it hilarious how the editing attempts to generate Conflict and Tension but really everyone is extremely wholesome and encouraging and mutually appreciative of each other). everyone just loves music So Much
anyway, the contestants range from 19-year-olds who are still in college to their professors who have put out professional albums to singer-songwriters secretly running the pop music industry to independent up-and-coming musicians to stars of the Chinese musical theater scene, so there’s quite a nice spread of experience, vocal ranges, and musical styles
and because I, unsurprisingly, play favorites, I’d like to specifically shout out:
王晰 Wang Xi: this is in fact the man I won’t stop yelling about since his newest album 《B面图景》 just dropped; he has a baritone to make your knees go weak and a devastatingly dry wit capable of rendering even Ayanga speechless
周深 Zhou Shen: there is a dearth of him in the first few episodes but don’t fret! As soon as he gets the chance to sing everyone is immediately floored. This is still relatively early on in Zhou Shen’s career and outside of his musical comfort zone, so he’s actually quite shy and uncertain of himself until Wang Xi forcibly adopts him
阿云嘎 Ayanga: I made an entire separate post about this man and I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to call him the protagonist of this variety show. let’s just say that prior to this show I knew of him and after this show I would die for him
郑云龙 Zheng Yunlong: known as 音乐剧王子 “the prince of musical theater,” he definitively proves that he deserves that title throughout this show. One of the chillest chaos agents ever to grace a stage. Also he and Ayanga used to be roommates in college and I live for them dragging each other (okay it’s mostly Zheng Yunlong dragging Ayanga) every chance they get
honorary shout-outs to 蔡程昱, the goodest boy, 翟李朔天, for having The Most Flair All The Time, 方书剑, a literal sunshine puppy, 余笛老师, for a truly stunning range, and 简弘亦, who I maintain deserved far more screentime than he got, and look I can keep going but at this rate I’ll just go through all 36 of them so you should just watch the show and understand exactly why I’m like this now
can I get a sampler of the music so I can know what to expect?
absolutely! behold, recommendations based on any qualms or queries you might have:
“Operatic pop? What’s that?” Glad you asked, give "Grande Amore” a try, and if that doesn’t float your boat, I offer for your consideration “Melodramma” and “Les Rois du Monde”
"I mean, how good can the harmonies really get?” Get a load of Wang Xi, Ju Hongchuan, and Li Qi absolutely rocking these harmonies in “Sound of Silence”
“But I was promised musical theater?” and so you shall have it, here’s Zhou Shen singing “Memory” in two languages and Jia Fan, Cai Chengyu, and Ding Hui singing “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” in three part harmony, just because they can
“uhhh why are all of your recs not in Chinese? do they sing in Chinese at all?” yes they do, and they’re bangers
“Ayanga? 🥺” Ayanga <3. (also 双云 <3 <3 <3)
what else should I know going in?
hmmm, some housekeeping:
for reasons of copyright, some songs have been muted on the YouTube episodes; you can usually track down the performances by searching for the song/performers’ names + “声入人心 纯享版,” I only think there was one I had to go searching on bilibili for
the first two episodes are all 36 of the contestants performing a sample from their vocal range! don’t worry about remembering everyone; simply sit back and enjoy everyone mutually fanboying over everyone else’s talent
I think these have English subs on the YouTube videos! no idea how good they are, but they Sure Are There
ooooh keep an eye out for 马克 Mark, the pianist! he is a certified Legend
