“The Next” Season 1 (天籁之战第一季) - Singing Competition

From October 2016 to January 2017, Hua Chenyu participated in Dragon TV’s singing competition/show “The Next Season 1”.

1. About the show

“The Next” (also known as “Sound of War”) is a singing competition/show where anyone can challenge mature singers, and fight for dreams to reach the top. From the start of each episode, 7 ordinary people from all walks of life will choose a singer to challenge, and each singer warrior (singers) would choose to accept a single challenger.

The song the challenger chose for the singer warrior will then be revealed, and the singer warrior must compete with their challenger by singing the chosen song. The singer warriors have 24 hours to rearrange to chosen songs, and after 24 hours, they will face their challengers on the stage with 400 audiences who would cast their votes to decide the winner.

On average, the rearrangement of a song goes along the lines of choosing a style, composing a demo, rearranging, settling the music sheets, rehearsals, etc. This process usually takes 1 week, but in “The Next”, the time is shortened to only 24 hours, with 4 singer warriors sharing one music band.

In the second half of the competition, each of the surviving challengers form a combination with a singer, and compete against other teams by performing together.
In addition to Hua, singers also includes Karen Mok, Fei Yu-ching and Yang Kun.

Hua Chenyu fully demonstrated his songwriting ability and singing ability on the show. Taking this show as an opportunity, Hua relied on his own strength to reverse the negative image imposed on him by the media in the past three years, and has become increasingly popular not only in mainland China, but also in Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

Through the show, Hua formed deep friendships with three senior singers, Karen Mok, Fei Yu-ching and Yang Kun.

2. Playlist

“The Next S1” Full Version

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGjsh-EBqdUMKcrd0yGj-kiClncWG1Yi-

Collection of Hua Chenyu performances

3. Detailed information about each episode

EP1: Wandering (流浪记)

Original Singer: Panai
October 16, 2016

EP2: The Cloud Of Hometown (故乡的云)

Original Singer: Fei Xiang
October 23, 2016

EP3: My Skateboard Shoes 2016 (我的滑板鞋2016)

Original Singer: Joseeh Punmanlon
October 30, 2016

The original song “My Skateboard Shoes” is a viral meme song, and is regarded as a so-bad-it’s-good kind of song. It has no rhyme or rhythm and Hua was able to rewrite the entire song into something coherent in 24 hours.
Original version
This arrangement has become one of Hua’s most widely sung masterpieces.

EP4: Mice Loves Rice (老鼠爱大米)

Original Singer: Yang Chengang
November 6, 2016

A really cute performance!

EP5: Dear friend

Original Singer: Shunza
November 13, 2016

EP6 No Performance

November 20, 2016

Draw a bye. Rest for one episode

EP7: Great Sage Equal To Heaven (齐天大圣)

Derived from the openning song of the Chinese TV drama “Journey to the West”, “Yun Gong Xun Yin (Vocal-less)”
November 27, 2016

“Yun Gong Xun Yin” is a song without lyrics that everyone is familiar with in China, so the process of reorganizing it was extremely difficult. As a result, the performance was a great success, and the song also became Hua’s signature work.