অধ্যায় ১৬০: বসন্ত উৎসবের গালার অডিশন

since 方醒 has already advanced to the grand finale of 《the voice》, he does not need to participate in the recording of the ninth episode.

therefore, the next two weeks are relatively free, and he actually appears at the company a bit more often.

although 方醒 does not need to record the ninth episode of 《the voice》, 李采薇 still has to participate.

the competitive theme for the ninth episode is "dream".

方醒 directly sent her a song titled 《initial dream》 and asked her to sing it on the stage of 《the voice》.

this is a song with lyrics by 姚若龙, composition by 中岛美雪, and originally sung by 范韦琪.

it is perfectly suited for participating in the "dream" themed competition.

after sending the song to 李采薇, 方醒 left the rehearsal matters alone, leaving them to be arranged by the company.

wednesday.

the studio holds its regular meeting.

方醒 went to listen to 乔英红's work summary.

"currently, we are already in talks with two blue-blood brands, and we are confident we can sign one of them; it just depends on which brand suits us better." at this point, 乔英红 said.

the employees of the studio were all very excited. soon they would be signing an endorsement with an international major brand, which would instantly elevate their professional background and qualifications.

however, 方醒 suddenly interjected: "don't rush to sign the endorsement just yet. the song i sang in the seventh episode of 《the voice》 is slightly sensitive. actually, i don't care that much about blue-blood or red-blood brands, and signing one is not a must."

乔英红 nodded slowly and said: "that's true. initially, we actively discussed endorsements because of the incident with 刘宏声, and i got a bit hot-headed too. endorsements do need to be approached with caution. even if we sign, it would be for next year's endorsement, so there's really no need to be too hasty."

endorsements also affect a star's own image, so what brand to endorse needs careful consideration.

of course, for the employees of the studio, the most important thing is still the endorsement fee.

the more they earn, the higher their bonuses will be.

just as the regular meeting was underway.

梁宇松 suddenly walked over.

the door of the conference room was open, and 梁宇松 knocked on the door frame, walked straight in, and said: "方醒, you might need to fly to kyoto with me this afternoon, and sister 乔 should go too."

方醒 casually asked the reason for going to kyoto: "is there work?"

"it's work. we're going to meet the spring festival gala director team. they are interested in a few of your songs, but whether you will sing them yourself or let other stars sing them is not yet determined. the spring festival gala director team wants to meet and chat about it," 梁宇松 explained.

there are still three months until the spring festival gala.

it sounds like a long time away, but actually preparations for the spring festival gala begin half a year in advance.

in the beginning, it's just preliminary preparations and team building.

then they begin the intensive process of auditioning programs.

three months ago, the spring festival gala team started soliciting various types of programs for auditions.

preliminary auditions are basically mainly online.

the types of programs solicited by the spring festival gala production team are mainly dance, vocal music, sketches, instrumental performance, and magic.

units or individuals submit programs to the spring festival gala production team in the form of video and audio.

if selected by the spring festival gala production team, they will receive an interview notice to go to the cctv station for a live interview.

however, even passing the interview does not mean being able to step onto the spring festival gala stage.

the spring festival gala is cctv's most important annual program, with half a year of preparation and five joint rehearsals.

changes happen during every joint rehearsal, and some programs may still be cut after a few rehearsals.

over a month ago, 乔英红 had mentioned once that the spring festival gala was soliciting programs.

since it was still four to five months away from the spring festival gala at that time, it was just the preliminary program solicitation.

therefore, 方醒 didn't pay too much attention and just asked her to make sure the program submission was handled properly.

consequently, songshi records submitted several songs with hopes of making it to the spring festival gala stage to the spring festival gala production team.

now they have received a notification from the spring festival gala production team to go to kyoto for an interview.

...

in the afternoon.

方醒, 梁宇松, and 乔英红 flew to kyoto together.

along the way, they brought along executive manager 郭柯达.

"are we really going to be on the spring festival gala? this is simply unbelievable."

at the airport, 郭柯达 still felt it wasn't quite real.

when he first participated in 《tomorrow's star》, he just wanted to muddle through a show and never even thought about successfully debuting in a group.

although he didn't debut in the end, in the blink of an eye, he ended up on the 《the voice》 program, even though it was in the capacity of a manager.

every recording of 《the voice》 features camera time for the managers.

乔英红 was busy with the studio's affairs, so 郭柯达 accompanied 方醒 on 《the voice》 every time.

although 郭柯达 wasn't singing on stage, he managed to get plenty of camera exposure.

now, 《the voice》 hasn't even finished recording, and in the blink of an eye, they are going to the spring festival gala.

this leapfrog progress made 郭柯达 feel very unreal.

"don't get too happy too soon. the spring festival gala production team is only interested in our songs; whether we can actually make it onto the spring festival gala still depends on the interview results," 梁宇松 shook his head and reminded him with a smile.

"brother fang's ability—i can guarantee it, we will definitely make it," 郭柯达 patted his chest, gave a thumbs up, and wore a confident look, even though this confidence didn't stem from himself.

upon arriving in kyoto, the group took a car to the cctv spring festival gala production team.

after stating their names, they were led by staff to the chief director's office instead of the conference room.

actually, this wasn't 梁宇松's first time coming to the spring festival gala production team for interviews.

姚丽颖 had been on the spring festival gala three years ago, and 梁宇松 had personally come along that time as well.

previous interviews with singers all took place in conference rooms.

this time was a bit special; they were actually taken to the chief director's office first.

before coming, 乔英红 had already checked out the situation of this year's spring festival gala production team.

this year's spring festival gala chief director is 沈纪林, who had just finished directing a cctv television series at the beginning of the year.

in the middle of the year, he received an invitation from the spring festival gala production team to serve as chief director.

the group arrived at the chief director's office and met 沈纪林.

沈纪林 was in his fifties, neither fat nor thin, with a very composed demeanor.

when 方醒 and the others walked in, he was on the phone, seemingly chatting about the television series.

seeing the guests enter, 沈纪林 quickly ended the call, invited the four of them to take seats in the reception area, and had the staff serve tea.

"director shen, long time no see." 梁宇松 stepped forward to shake hands.

"it has been many years, almost ten years, hasn't it?" 沈纪林 tried hard to recall the time.

"it has, it has." 梁宇松 actually couldn't remember how long it had been either, but the two of them had indeed collaborated before, having met while working on music scoring for a television series.

after exchanging pleasantries, 沈纪林 got down to business: "calling you over this time is mainly for the interview of the spring festival gala's song-type programs. however, i have another matter on my end, and i might need the help of a few of you."

梁宇松 nodded and said: "you're too polite, director shen. if you have anything to say, please go ahead."

沈纪林 gathered his thoughts and said: "at the beginning of the year, i just finished directing a historical drama. post-production has already been going on for seven or eight months, and it's scheduled to air as cctv's opening drama for the new year, so the station attaches great importance to it.

"i monitored the post-production of this drama for three months; the editing is almost done, and the remaining post-production work has been handed over to the production crew.

"since i took on the work for the spring festival gala, i haven't been able to fully attend to it.

"the post-production progress of this historical drama is pretty good. i've checked it a few times and am very satisfied, it's just that the musical score is still somewhat lacking.

"this time, after listening to the songs you submitted, i feel they are quite good.

"especially 《the youth of china》 and 《a real man should strive to be strong》, both of these are very good.

"later on, i heard that you also produced theme songs for films, so i wanted to ask if there's any possibility of collaboration on the theme song or insert songs for the historical drama."

梁宇松 nodded and said: "if there's a chance to cooperate, of course that would be great. i just don't know if our songs can meet director shen's requirements. the movie theme song we produced previously was 《liaozhai》, which is quite different from a historical drama."

沈纪林 nodded and said: "indeed. i'm just asking first, maybe there will be suitable ones? of course, today is the interview for the spring festival gala program; the historical drama music score is just to see if we can find a suitable match, and it won't affect the spring festival gala program interview."

"of course, of course." 梁宇松 nodded repeatedly.

at this moment.

方醒 interjected and asked: "what kind of historical drama is it?"

沈纪林 had seen 方醒's performances, so he answered the young man's question seriously: "the three kingdoms, a orthodox historical drama. do young people have any ideas?"

upon hearing that it was a drama about the three kingdoms, 方醒 had an idea in his mind.

however, he didn't make grand promises and instead said: "we can give it a try. it would be best if we could see more video materials."

upon hearing this reply, the smile on 沈纪林's face became even brighter: "of course. i'll have a copy of the video materials prepared for you to take back later. if you have any suitable songs, you can contact me or the production crew."

"okay, i hope we have the opportunity to cooperate." 梁宇松 agreed.

"alright, personal matters about the television series are settled. let's head to the conference room. let's meet the spring festival gala production team and have a chat." after finishing, 沈纪林 led the four of them to the conference room to prepare for the spring festival gala program interview.

since 方醒 is a singer and the songs he sings had already been recorded into videos and sent to the production team.

therefore, the first on-site interview did not require live singing.

instead, they were asked some basic questions.

the deputy director of the spring festival gala production team began to ask: "the spring festival gala is broadcast live, everyone should know this. however, i still need to explain it once more.

"this year's spring festival gala requires a total of five joint rehearsals. no taking time off is allowed, no being late is allowed. until the very moment of the live broadcast, any program can still be cut."

方醒 nodded and replied: "understood."

the deputy director continued: "the production team currently considers the songs you submitted, 《the youth of china》 and 《a real man should strive to be strong》, to be suitable.

"in addition, i saw you sing a song called 《the brightest star in the night sky》 a couple of days ago, and that song is also suitable.

"out of these three songs, which one to sing, who will sing it, whether it's a solo or a duet, will depend on the director's arrangement.

"do you have any objections to this aspect?"

乔英红 took over the conversation and said: "basically, we have no objections. however, we still hope that these songs can be sung by 方醒, or sung as a duet."

the deputy director nodded and said: "of course, we will give priority to the original singer to sing them, but i'm stating it clearly in advance: if the rehearsal results are not ideal, some adjustments might be made."

during the first interview, it was impossible to directly determine whether they could make it onto the spring festival gala.

the encouraging part was that the chat process was very pleasant.

this time, three songs caught the eye of the spring festival gala production team; the probability of all three failing to be selected was slightly low.

...

after returning from kyoto, friday arrived quickly.

tonight, the seventh episode of 《the voice》 was going to air.

方醒 invited 陆湘儿 over to watch the program together.

陆湘儿 brought up two large bags of fruit and then began to wash them very carefully.

after washing the grapes, honey peaches, and guavas clean, she arranged them on three plates and placed them on the coffee table.

方醒 glanced at them and said strangely: "that's not right. this isn't your style. shouldn't it be piled high with potato chips, spicy strips, and nuts?"

"nonsense! that's ning xiaoyun's style, i don't like eating puffed food at all." 陆湘儿 picked up a giant peak grape and stuffed it into her mouth, chewed twice, and even quickly licked the fruit juice that spilled onto her lips.

"this is so sweet."

陆湘儿 was very satisfied with the grapes she picked this time.

"is it as sweet as you?" 方醒 was washing cups, turned around, and said a cheesy pickup line with a straight face.

clearly, what he said had a very teasing tone, but when spoken, it lacked any greasy feeling, resembling playful banter between a young couple.

"who knows, try it and see."

陆湘儿 held back the smile at the corner of her mouth, picked up a grape, walked over, and stuffed it into 方醒's mouth.

after 方醒 finished tasting it, she asked with a beaming smile, "which one is sweeter?"

"i only tasted one, how can i compare?"

as 方醒 spoke, he reached out one hand, preparing to hug her.

陆湘儿 agilely stepped back and hummed, "you're getting worse and worse at talking lately."

"no way?" 方醒 feigned ignorance.

"then you tell me, who is sweeter?" 陆湘儿 deliberately put on a straight face and pursued the question.

"you are sweeter, you are sweeter." 方醒 reached out quickly and pulled her into his embrace.

陆湘儿 struggled hard: "too perfunctory!"

"don't move, don't move. i'm holding cups in my hand, if you move again i'll spill them." 方醒 held two cups in one hand and blocked her with the other.

only then did 陆湘儿 quiet down, get soundly kissed, and then ran back to the sofa with a huffy expression, though the corners of her mouth concealed a sweet smile.

...

eight o'clock in the evening.

the seventh episode of 《the voice》 aired on time.

陆湘儿 used her phone to open the live streaming platform, clicked into ni hongdan's live streaming room, held it up in front of 方醒, and said: "this music critic has always supported you, starting from the previous show."

方醒 glanced at the live streaming room and said: "i have some impression of this music critic; it seems she even came on the show as a professional judge."

陆湘儿 nodded and said: "right, it was during 《tomorrow's star》. i watched that episode and saw her on camera. later on, i followed her and found out that she supported you very early on. back then, fans all over the internet were cursing you."

方醒's expression was very calm as he said: "let them curse if they want, i don't care about these things."

陆湘儿 curiously asked: "do you really not care? it's a bit better now, but when 《tomorrow's star》 first started, so many fans were online abusing you. ordinary people wouldn't be able to handle it, right?"

方醒 grinned and said: "that's why i'm in class two (pun on 'second class' / 'nutty')."

陆湘儿 sighed and said: "if it were me, being chased and flamed by so many people, i reckon i would have a breakdown. therefore, the fact that we are together must never be made public; i'm afraid i wouldn't be able to withstand the siege of the fans."

方醒 poked her forehead with his finger and smiled: "are you overthinking it? what fans do i even have? they're all just trolls looking for a laugh, alright?"