Chapter 1069: Out of control grand finals!
Translator: Legge Editor: Legge
In the front row.
Zhang Xia commented, "Little Liao sang very well today."
Chen Guang also said, "Yeah, she really did quite well."
Amy laughed and said, "Ever since the revival round, Spinach has transformed into another person. It's like she's suddenly been enlightened. She's a surefire favorite to win today."
Wang Zhuishu said, "I think she'll do well too."
On the last stage, Spinach's popularity was not considered particularly high. At the least, it was quite far off from Petal Shower and The Clown's level of popularity. But ever since the revival round, Spinach had started to really accumulate a good deal of popularity and left an impression on many in the audience. They all started to like her. Although the celebrity guest partner Spinach had invited was not that famous and was just a C-list artist like herself, they sang the song wonderfully.
Following their performance, the next contestant came out!
The second person to take the stage was Sunset Glow!
By rights, Sunset Glow should have appeared much later. After all, she had been crowned the Masked King once. Although she wouldn't have gotten a better spot in the appearance order than The Clown, she could still have chosen between appearing as the second to last or third to last contestant. But as she probably had some considerations regarding her song and the atmosphere in the studio, Sunset Glow chose to be the second contestant to go on stage.
On the stage, a familiar tune started playing!
Zhang Ye also found it very familiar. It turned out to be "Super Star"!
The audience was screaming.
"This song?"
"Sunset Glow is really that singer?"
"This song is the best!"
"Where's her celebrity guest partner?"
"Yeah, where's the celebrity guest partner?"
There was only Sunset Glow onstage.
The masked Sunset Glow raised her microphone and sang.
"Praising your smile,
"Your knitted brows break my heart.
"I cannot notice me,
"I only feel what you feel."
Suddenly, the stage was covered in fog!
With a loud rumble, all the lights went out!
When the lights came back on, another masked woman had appeared onstage. When she opened her mouth to sing, the theater was stunned for a moment before erupting into thunderous applause!
"Wherever you go,
"Bring my soul along with you.
"It's captured in your spell,
"What use is leaving it?"
Her celebrity guest partner had taken the stage as well!
This voice sounded all too familiar!
Zhang Ye smiled.
Zhang Xia smiled.
Many of the audience members knew this voice as well!
But what was even more surprising was yet to come. The lights went out again, with only a few columns of light remaining. The effect was especially artistic.
Vaguely, Zhang Xia, Chen Guang, and the others discovered someone standing up beside them.
The audience also saw this. From out of the blue, Amy had taken out a mask and worn it over her face, then strode forward and made her way up onto the stage as well. With a smile, she stood alongside Sunset Glow and the other celebrity guest partner!
Their three voices chorused in unison!
"You're a zap, you're my light, you're my only fairy tale.
"I love just you. You are my super star.
"You decide, I abide. There is nothing better here. Loving just you. You are my super star."
The audience went crazy!
No one had expected that Amy would also go up onstage!
Sunset Glow chose to remove her mask at this point in time. When it was off, the face of someone who looked particularly quiet was revealed—Spring Garden's Li Xiaoxian!
Next to her, one of them removed their mask as well—Amy!
The last person to take off her mask was Sunset Glow's celebrity guest partner—Xiaodong!
All the members of Spring Garden had assembled!
This lineup was a really powerful one!
At their televisions.
The home audience was also taken by surprise.
"It's really Xiaoxian!"
"Sunset Glow is Li Xiaoxian!"
"Damn, for real?"
"I didn't believe it when the netizens analyzed who she might be!"
"I always thought that the singing of Spring Garden's trio was just so-so. They've always sung group songs that talk about lovey-dovey subjects, so I didn't hear anything special. I never expected Li Xiaoxian's singing to be so good! She can also sing good by herself! So this isn't just some pretty girl group; they really have the skills to back themselves up!"
"Vote for her!"
"Yes, vote!"
Spring Garden was the country's most popular girl group with no others coming close. The group was so popular that all of its members were practically B-list celebrities and worth a lot. If the three members were separated individually and looked at, they might not be much. But when these three B-list celebrities joined together, their influence was absolutely comparable to that of an A-list star!
Zhang Ye's three sisters were also screaming and shouting from their seats in the audience.
When they finished singing, the entire place was chanting their names!
Sunset Glow (Li Xiaoxian) lifted her microphone and said, "Thank you. Thank you, everyone. And thank you to my two sisters who are here to support me. I was actually very nervous for today's grand finals, but I feel much better with them standing here with me. Hello, everyone, I am Li Xiaoxian!"
Applause and screams rang out once more!
"Xiaoxian!"
"Xiaoxian!"
"Xiaoxian!"
Li Xiaoxian said, "I really didn't think that there would be so many people who like me." She smiled. "I wasn't confident at all about joining King of Masked Singers, and I felt really perturbed. I was afraid that I would be too embarrassed if I lost, so I didn't let anyone know that I was joining the show at the beginning. I was too scared to tell anyone about it."
Amy grumbled, "You didn't even let me know."
Xiaodong said with a giggle, "You've kept it under wraps quite well."
Li Xiaoxian blinked. "Sorry about that, my sisters."
Xiaodong laughed. "It's fine, you're forgiven." Then she looked at the audience and into the cameras. "Everyone, remember to vote for our dearest Xiaoxian."
Amy suddenly pointed her microphone at the audience. "Did Xiaoxian sing well today?"
The audience was unanimous. "Yes!"
Amy asked, "Should you vote for her?"
The audience replied, "Yes!"
Amy and Xiaodong were trying their best to get votes for Li Xiaoxian.
Everyone noticed that Sunset Glow's tally was currently soaring. It shot up to two million votes, double that of Spinach's tally. She had replaced Spinach and was in first place for the time being!
The third contestant to appear onstage was King of Oddity!
He had revealed his identity already, so everyone knew who he was. But when the crowd saw him coming onstage with his celebrity guest partner, they were still surprised for a bit!
Their costumes were too extravagant!
They were both wearing golden robes!
They were even wearing bejeweled crowns that looked extremely expensive on their heads. These were definitely not provided for by Beijing Television and were probably rented by their talent agencies!
Their song was titled "The King's Sorrow"!
The audience was startled!
"How much did they spend on that?"
"Wow, they're so stunning!"
"I must vote for them just based on their costumes!"
"They're so willing to spend on their outfits!"
"How extravagant!"
"Awesome!"
"This visual impact is so great!"
They began singing. The entire song felt like some sort of stage play with a lot of people taking part in the performance. At times, people would come out for a dance. At other times, a chorus would come out and accompany the main singers!
When they were a minute and a half into the song, King of Oddity's celebrity guest partner took off his mask!
Li Yue 1 !
A famous singer from Hong Kong!
A B-list celebrity!
When her identity was revealed, King of Oddity's tally rocketed up. King of Oddity was not considered a very popular singer in the music industry, or at least was not known as a great singer. However, it was different for Li Yue. She held a lofty position in the pop music scene, and she was very popular and worth a lot!
The song ended.
When Zhang Ye saw King of Oddity's tally, he was startled and frowned a little. King of Oddity had almost managed to catch up to Sunset Glow with over 1.8 million votes now and was already ahead of Spinach by a mile. In truth, Zhang Ye felt that Spinach's group sang the best among the three groups that went first. The song Sunset Glow had sung was not exactly suited for a competition as it did not allow her to showcase her singing skills. As for the King of Oddity's "The King's Sorrow," he sang average. He clearly made several mistakes and his form today was not really that good. But why did the results of the voting turn out this way?
Zhang Ye realized that something was wrong!
This had deviated from the premise of the show!
When King of Oddity and Li Yue started asking for votes, Zhang Ye felt this feeling even stronger!
King of Oddity said, "I hope that everyone can vote for me. Thank you."
Li Yue smiled and said, "King of Oddity's next album is about to get released, and the album will be titled King of Oddity. Although he doesn't want me to reveal too much, I still want to say this."
King of Oddity looked at her and tugged at her.
However, Li Yue insisted on speaking. "He has decided that all the proceeds for the King of Oddity album will be donated to charity, which will be used to aid children. When I heard about it, I felt really touched. For a singer who is so kind-hearted, he totally deserves your votes!"
King of Oddity quickly waved it off. "I'm just doing something that's within my power."
The applause from the live audience wouldn't end!
"Donating everything?"
"Is he serious?"
"King of Oddity is such a kind-hearted person!"
"Yeah, he definitely deserves praise!"
"It's rare that a celebrity can be so charitable. There really aren't many like him!"
"That's so nice of him!"
"Supporting King of Oddity!"
"Just by that commitment of his, I must support him!"
"How generous!"
But there were also doubters.
"Wasn't there some negative news coverage about King of Oddity some years ago? Something about him verbally abusing a reporter after drinking? Cussing out a waiter? He even beat someone up in the past? What's with this about donating his album sales to charity now? What's with him making this declaration on this occasion? Is he trying to get more people to vote for him? Why do I find him so pretentious?"
"Those are just rumors. How can you believe all that?"
"King of Oddity is a very nice person. He's willing to donate all of his album's proceeds. Why don't you do the same if you can!"
"Passerby transforming into a fan!"
Zhang Ye had also heard of that news regarding King of Oddity. He did not know if they were true, but at least on today's stage, King of Oddity felt like two different persons on and off stage. His talk and attitude were entirely different, and that left Zhang Ye unable to distinguish how he really was. In his opinion, it was a good thing to contribute to charitable causes. But to use that as a tactic to ask for votes on this occasion, it didn't seem to be in good taste!
Meanwhile, King of Oddity's tally kept climbing!
Right after he announced that he would be donating to charity, his tally shot above Sunset Glow's!
Over 2.3 million votes!
King of Oddity was in first place!
And his tally was still continuing to rise!
Hu Fei was very happy.
The program team's staff were also beaming.
This was because they were constantly receiving news updates of the show's viewership rating and the constantly increasing number of people tuning into the show. So they were not exactly bothered by these developments.
Only Zhang Ye fell silent.
He suddenly thought that he should have intervened in the competition's grand finals format and rules, and that he should have participated more actively in the show's production.
It seemed out of control now!
The tallies no longer had anything to do with the performance itself!
Whoever invited the more popular celebrity guest partner?
Whoever had the more extravagant costume?
Whoever gave the most touching speech?
All of that would decide who would get the most votes?
This was not the original vision that King of Masked Singers had!