Singer 2019


The seventh season of Chinese television series Singer was broadcast on Hunan Television between January and April 2019. Singer 2019 was produced by Hong Tao, and its music director was Hong Kong senior musician Kubert Leung. The first episode was recorded on January 4, 2019, and first premiered in Mango TV on January 11, 2019. YouTube also broadcast the episodes with the results replaced by commercial snippets.
The season ended on April 12, 2019, and Chinese singer Liu Huan named as the winner. Liu was the first mainland Chinese singer to win since Han Hong in season three, as well as the first male winner since Han Lei in season two. Taiwanese Sodagreen lead singer Wu Tsing-fong and Chinese four-member band Super-Vocal finished runner-up and third place, respectively. For the first time, the top four singers were all male. This is also the first season since the inaugural season the season ended without the biennial concert held after the final.

Competition rules

Like the previous seasons of I Am a Singer and Singer, Singer 2019 was divided into four rounds of three stages, with seven singers performing for a 500-member audience each week. The electronic voting feature, first appeared as a pre-voting twist in the previous season, were introduced; the electronic voting was conducted throughout the performance and accounted for 50% of the final score. Similar to the previous seasons, the accumulated votes from both Qualifiers and Knockouts determined which singer would be eliminated from the competition. The Challenge round, first introduced in season three, also returned. It featured a rule for contestants to beat at least four out of the seven remaining singers to stay in the competition.
The announcement of results was also changed: fourteen envelopes displaying the contestants' placements for the current round were placed on the table, among which seven envelopes were named envelopes that had the names of the contestants, and the other seven were numbered envelopes containing placement numbers. One by one, singers were tasked to select one envelope from each category and could view the result alone without the other singers. Singers were given the ability to disclose the results they had viewed—either by bluffing or revealing the actual results—to other contestants as they see fit. While the top four performers were able to receive their information on the placements for the round, the bottom three instead received blank envelopes, similar to season six where the placements were not announced until the Knockouts. The managers also had the option to reveal the electronic voting results.
In terms of song selections, each contestant could only pick their own songs for their first appearance. After each round, if a contestant finished first, the singer may select their own song for next week's show. Additionally, managers or contestants may also survey other performers under isolation, without influencing or impeding other potential contestants.
Beginning from the second round, singers, usually those with higher placements, were given WeChat messages to usher their way to the stage to check envelopes for the bottom three placements. Afterwards, Hong Tao would notify these singers about the safe results for the performance and would sometimes discuss which singer would be eliminated. The remaining singers who did not receive messages would enter the room later, after which Hong Tao would announce the placements for the remaining placements. The electronic voting results, which were also revealed at the end of the show, were announced privately to each singer's respective manager after each performance ended under isolation to other managers with the audio muted.

''National's Recommended Singer''

Organised by Sina Weibo, an online spin-off called National's Recommended Singer premiered on December 27, 2018. Similar to I Am a Singer- Who Will Challenge, singers and online viewers can recommend a potential singer. The requirements are to produce one musical composition, be at least 18 years of age, and be available at the scheduled time arranged by producers. During certain time periods—usually a week between the recording and airing dates of the Qualifier Round, viewers were polled online to chose their top eligible singer, and the singer with the most votes will be chosen as the National's Recommended Singer, who will then join the panel in the Knockouts where they will separately face a challenge against a Professional Challenger in a Pre-Challenge Face-off.
Hosted by Hong Tao, the face-off was streamed exclusively online concurrently with the current Knockout Round; it was not broadcast on television. The votes cast for the face-off were separate from those of the Knockout round, and the outcome depended on which singer received the majority of the votes. The winner of the face-off was given the Challenger status and the right to participate in the competition. However, a loss will result in his or her elimination and ineligibility to participate in the Breakouts, although the singer was still allowed to perform Return performances during the recording of the Challenge round; due to the change, this is the first season not all previously eliminated singers were eligible.
The first round's eligible contestants were Zheng Yiming, Bii, Eric Chou, and Liu Yuning. Voting ended on January 5, 2019, and Liu was voted the first National's Recommended Singer with 1,467,482 votes cast. On January 28, 2019, Jefferson Qian was chosen as the second National's Recommended Singer and faced Super-Vocal finalists for the second Pre-challenge face-off. On the third and final round, Angela Hui was chosen as the third and final National's Recommended Singer and faced Bii.
Although he did not participate in the Pre-Challenge Face-off, Chen Chusheng was also chosen by professionals and immediately became a challenger during the Ultimate Knockout or Challenge Round, due to one singer who did not perform that week because of an injury.

Contestants

The following Singer 2019 contestants are listed in alphabetical order. Singers without a placement for the final are listed as finalists and singers who withdrew are listed as withdrawn.
Key:
ContestantCountryMusic PartnerStatusWeek EnteredWeek ExitedResult
ChinaChallenger
TaiwanChallenger
ChinaChallenger
TaiwanInitial singer
ChinaInitial singer
RussiaSubstitute singer
ChinaSubstitute singer
Hong KongChallenger
BulgariaInitial singer
ChinaInitial singer
ChinaChallenger
ChinaChallenger
ChinaChallenger
TaiwanInitial singer
ChinaInitial singer
TaiwanSubstitute singer
ChinaInitial singer

Future appearances

Cai Chengyu of Super-Vocal returned in season eight to serve as a temporary music partner for Zhou Shen in episode five due to his original music partner being unavailable. Second season finalists from the same show entered the competition on episode eight as Surprise Challengers.

Results


Competition details

First round

Qualifying

This round's performance order was determined through each contestant's preferred style.

Knockouts

Challenge

Pre-Challenge Face-off
The first National's Recommended Singer is Liu Yuning, and the first Professional Challenger is ANU.
Main Show
During the episode, Yang Kun's manager, Li Weijia, left in the middle of the taping due to participate the Chinese New Year Worldwide Celebration 2019
Challenge ranking

Second round

Qualifying

The first substitute singer for the season was Polina Gagarina. Starting from this round, results were revealed in batches, starting with singers with a higher ranking receiving WeChat messages and being informed on placements in private. Also on the same episodes, separate scores for paper and electronic votes were also revealed.
Qualifying ranking
During the announcement of the results, the top four singers received envelopes for the round. The bottom three singers also received envelopes, but without information.

Knockouts

Three singers were chosen at random, not knowing that they were safe. They were given messages to enter the room to view the results for the bottom three singers for the Knockout round. A fourth singer later received a separate message to view the results for the top four placements. The last three singers entered the room last, after which Hong Tao announced the results in full.

Overall ranking

Challenge

Pre-Challenge Face-off
The second National's Recommended Singer is Jefferson Qian, and the second Professional Challenger consisted of Super-Vocal finalist members Frank Ju, Ayanga, Zheng Yunlong, and Cai Chengyu; their music manager Neil Gao was also a Super-Vocal finalist.
Main Show
The results for the Knockout were announced in batches. Five singers, including the Challenger Super-Vocal finalists, were selected at random through WeChat messages. The results for the first three safe singers were announced. During the announcement, the audio in the singer's backstage was switched off. The last two singers later entered the room, and the other placements for this round were revealed.

Third round

Qualifying

The second substitute singer for the season was Faith Yang.
Qualifying ranking
During the announcement of the results, the top four singers received envelopes for the round, while Gagarina was given an empty envelope. Hong Tao later announced that she finished first for the round.

Knockout

The results for the Knockout were announced via envelopes. The envelope with the identities of the first and last place singers were concealed; the latter had "I'm Won't Tell You" written on it. The identities were later revealed as Polina Gagarina and Faith Yang, respectively. After the envelopes were viewed, Hong Tao revealed the outcome for the round.

Overall ranking

Challenge

Pre-Challenge Face-off
The third and final National's Recommended Singer is Angela Hui, and the third and final Professional Challenger is Bii.
Main Show
The results for the Challenge was the same from last week, except that the producers randomly selected five singers to reveal the envelopes first. Hong Tao announced the rankings for the aforementioned five singers; the last two singers then entered the room with the same procedure. Polina Gagarina would have been eliminated for finishing last; however, Angela Hui, who finished 6th, was unsuccessful in her challenge and was eliminated instead.

Fourth round

Qualifying

The third and final substitute singer for the season was Gong Linna. For this week, the results for this round were void due to Gagarina's injury during the following week.
Qualifier ranking
While announcing the results, the top four singers received envelopes for the round while Gong was given an empty envelope. Hong Tao later announced that she finished first for the round. The second to fourth place singers entered the room first, and Hong Tao announced the results for two of the three placements. The last four singers entered the room next to reveal the first-place envelope, after which Hong Tao announced the result for the first-place singer. Due to Gagarina's bye in the following week, which caused this week's result to be void, the other three placements were only revealed through captions.

Knockout/Challenge

On March 12, Zheng Yunlong, one of the band members from the Super-vocal finalists, withdrew due to scheduling conflicts, hence reducing the team members down to three. During the same week, Gagarina was absent due to a muscle injury sustained during rehearsal; the round became a Challenge round while Gagarina was temporarily eliminated and then was substituted by Chen Chusheng, who then became the final challenger. During the performance, Wu and Liu were initially revealed to perform 6th and 1st, respectively, before their order was swapped.
Knockouts/Challenge ranking
The results for the Knockout/Challenge were announced in batches; four singers were selected at random to reveal the placements for the aforementioned four; the last three singers then entered the room next during the revealing of the other placements for this round.

Breakouts

Four of the seven singers who were initial singers—Chyi Yu, Liu Huan, Wu Tsing-fong, and Yang Kun—were exempt for this round. The other three singers would participate along with the ousted singers for a chance to enter the finals. The order for this round was determined through each contestant's status quo, their duration on the stage, and whether they required to ballot for their performance order. All but three singers determined their performance order by ballot.
Similar to the last season's breakout, there were eliminations midway during the performance. Ten singers were grouped into two groups of five, with the first five singers grouped in group one, and the other five in group two. Electronic voting was conducted after each group's performance, and the lowest ranked singer from each group was immediately eliminated with their paper votes rendered void. Angela Hui and Zhang Xin were ranked lowest in the electronic voting for their respective groups.
The singers sang one song, and three of the remaining eight singers who had the most paper votes qualified for the finals. The Super-Vocal Finalists, Polina Gagarina, and Gong Linna placed in the top three and qualified for the Finals.

Breakout ranking

Finals Rush Hour

The round before the finals was dubbed as "Santine Finals Rush Hour". Its performance was a guest singer's duet. For the first time in the show's history, public viewers could also cast their votes to decide the outcome for the round. These performances were recorded and shortly uploaded onto Mango TV; the voting period remained opened for seven days until the airing date on April 5. The top three singers who received the most votes from both the 500-member audience and public viewers were entitled to an advantage—a bonus 10, 20, and 30 votes for 3rd, 2nd, and 1st place singers, respectively—in the first round of the grand finals. The results, however, were not publicly revealed until the start of the finals.
The performance order for this round was decided based on the prior ranking of each singer's previous performance: Super-Vocal finalists were placed last due to finishing first while the next higher ranked singers selected a place from start to finish, except for Polina Gagarina, who could choose her performance order between any one of the performances instead. Chen Chusheng, despite being unsuccessful in the breakout round, was temporarily brought back as a guest singer by-virtue of never being eliminated in the competition and being added on impromptu.
The episode generated controversy after one of the public audience members, Sakura Zou, made a post on Weibo accusing Super-Vocal Finalists for allegedly using unauthorized music after the show was aired. However, Souya Music replied on the day after the show that licenses to the program group were never issued and that no copyright violations occurred.

Grand Finals

The finals were divided into two rounds, with the first song in the semi-finals being a duet with a guest singer and the second song in the grand finals being a solo encore performance. Similar to the previous season, votes cast were the sole determinant of the season's winner.
The first round of the finals featured a guest singer's duet. The order and grouping were determined through balloting and discussion. They are as follows: Gong, Super-Vocal finalists, and Gagarina in Group 1, Wu and Yang in Group 2, and Chyi and Liu in Group 3.
The singer with the most votes on each group directly advanced to Round 2, leaving the other four singers eligible for a "save" or second chance through a re-vote; the singer who received the most votes cast would be saved and would also advance to the second round.
Legend Group 1 Group 2 Group 3

Had Chyi Yu, Gong Linna and Polina Gagarina advanced to the next round, they would have performed "走西口", "掌声响起", and "Those Were the Days" as their encore songs, respectively.

Round 2 (Winner of Battle)

The second round of the finals featured an encore song, and the singer who received the most votes was crowned the winner. The order for this round was determined by each singer's previous performance order from the first round, except for Yang Kun, who was defaulted to perform first after being the last contestant to advance. During the performance, Liu performed a medley of Empress Xiaoshengxian dedicated in memory of Yao Beina, a singer from The Voice of China, who died on January 16, 2015.

Ranking

was declared the winner of Singer 2019 with 62.22% of the votes cast, leading by a 37.37% margin ahead of runner-up Wu Tsing-fong. 62.22% was the highest vote percentage attained in the history of the show.

Ratings

Pre-show segments, such as Singer Gathering and Singer Announcement, and broadcast ratings from China Central Television are excluded from the rating and tally.
Bold text in and indicate the highest and lowest-rated episodes of the season, respectively.