The eighth season of

Chinese television Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

series ''

Singer Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

'' ( zh, 歌手; previously titled ''I Am a Singer'') was broadcast on

Hunan Television Hunan Television or Hunan TV () is a state-owned provincial satellite TV station launched on September 29, 1970. It is currently China's second-most-watched television channel, second to China Central Television's CCTV-1, although Hunan TV has oc ...

between February and April 2020. ''Singer 2020'' was produced by Hong Tao, and its music director was Hong Kong senior musician

Kubert Leung Kubert Leung () is a musician and Cantopop songwriter in Hong Kong. In the 1980s he set up two Cantopop bands, Life Exhibition and Ukiyo-e (浮世繪). Later, Kubert Leung became a songwriter for singer Candy Lo. He has also written songs for Easo ...

. The season premiere was first taped on January 3, 2020, and it was announced that the season will be subtitled ''Year of the Hits'' (), and this was the second season to feature returning contestants, after

season five A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and polar ...

. For the first time in this series, return performances were absent for the entire season. The season premiered on February 7, 2020, and ended on April 24, 2020.

Hua Chenyu Hua Chenyu ( Chinese: 华晨宇; born February 7, 1990) is a Chinese singer and songwriter. First debuting as the winner of ''Super Boy'' 2013, he gained widespread recognition for his vocal ability and stage performances after participating in ...

, a Chinese singer who previously competed in season six, was named the winner, making him the first previous season returnee to win ''I Am a Singer'', while

Tia Ray Tia Ray (; born 12 December) is a Chinese singer-songwriter from Hunan, China. She rose to fame in 2012 as a contestant on the televised singing competition The Voice of China, where she finished as one of the final contenders. She has since rele ...

and

Jam Hsiao Jam Hsiao Ching-teng (, born 30 March 1987) is a Taiwanese singer and actor. At the age of 17, while still in high school, he began working as a restaurant singer. In May 2007, Hsiao took part in the first season of China Television (CTV)'s sta ...

, both also previously returning singers from

, finished second and third respectively. This is also the first time none of any new initial singers (outside returning singers) made it to the final round. Additionally, runner-up Ray's became the highest-placing singer who was previously eliminated and advanced via the Breakout round following

Aska Yang Aska Yang (, born April 4, 1978, in Taoyuan City (now Taoyuan District), Taiwan) is a Taiwanese Mandopop singer. Education He graduated from the National Changhua University of Education (NCUE), with a major in Guidance and Counselling. Durin ...

and

Gary Chaw Gary Chaw (; born 9 July 1979 in Kota Belud, Sabah, Malaysia), also known as Gary Cao or Cao Ge or by his alter ego Cao Xiaoge, is a Malaysian Chinese singer-songwriter based in Taiwan, who has had achieved success in Taiwan, Mainland China, ...

, who also made it to the final round not higher than third place, and

Sitar Tan Tan Weiwei (; born 8 October 1982), also known as Sitar Tan, is a Chinese singer and actress. She was the runner-up of the third season (2006) of '' Super Girl'' (), a singing contest in China. In 2015, she participated ''I Am a Singer'' (sea ...

and Lao Lang, both not higher than fourth place. Despite the announcement on 22 September 2020 that the series would be ending, Mango TV announced in November 2023 that the series would return after nearly four years of hiatus.

Competition rules

Like the previous seasons of ''I Am a Singer'' and ''Singer'', it features five rounds of two stages, Qualifier and Knockout, with seven singers performing for a 500-member audience each week. The

electronic voting Electronic voting is voting that uses electronic means to either aid or handle casting and counting ballots including voting time. Depending on the particular implementation, e-voting may use standalone '' electronic voting machines'' (also ...

, first appeared as a pre-voting twist in season six and introduced permanently on season seven, where voting (up to three votes) was conducted throughout the performance and accounted for 50% of the final score. As such for past seasons, the scores from both weeks are combined to decide the eliminated singer who received the fewest votes. Unlike the last season, separate scores for paper and electronic votes are not revealed. The competition reverted to the pre-

season three A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and polar ...

format with Challenge rounds (a round which featured a new singer requiring to rank in the top four to avoid elimination) removed, but instead replaced with a variant round known as Surprise, which in-turn functions similarities to the Substituted singers as well. Three new singers were introduced at the start of the Qualifier round and along with the managers; while on backstage, the singers watched their performance while seated with a microphone stand lever. During the performance, a contestant may pull the lever to issue a challenge to the current contestant, but any current contestants are not aware from their existence until the performance ended. After the challenger performed, an electronic vote will immediately conduct with the results being revealed afterwards (previously after the episode prior to the first round). All three Surprise challenges do not need to be performed on a single episode, but challengers must challenge to a singer within the current elimination round. If at least one challenger succeed in the Surprise round, one contestant from the current lineup will be eliminated at the end of the current Knockout round; if multiple challengers succeed, a re-vote will conduct between the successful singers and the singer with a higher vote advance will replace the eliminated singer, but all successful singers, regardless if they lose the revote will be guaranteed a place in the Breakout round. If all three challengers were unsuccessful, all seven contestants are safe from elimination itself. The final round features a small change in which the Challengers were reduced to two, and no re-vote was conducted for multiple successful singers, meaning that the singers are immediately advanced to the competition and eliminations are conducted as usual. A variant of this twist also apply on the Breakout and Grand Finals where singers who lost the duel were eliminated from the competition regardless of the outcome of the round. As the season is subtitled ''Year of the Hits'', the contest is suggested for a pool of younger singing talents with an age range of 18 and 35. Contestants are no longer restricted to the songs selection, and may freely choose a song they composed on their own or on someone else.

Postponement of premiere and COVID-19 pandemic

Like most episodes of ''I Am a Singer'', each episode began taping one week before the airing of the episode. The season began filming on January 3, 2020, with a premiere date announced on January 10; however, the premiere was rescheduled to January 31 to avoid clashing with the

Chinese New Year Chinese New Year, or the Spring Festival (see also #Names, § Names), is a festival that celebrates the beginning of a New Year, new year on the traditional lunisolar calendar, lunisolar Chinese calendar. It is one of the most important holi ...

holiday. On January 29,

Mango TV Mango TV (芒果TV, ''Mángguǒ TV''; MGTV) is a Chinese video streaming platform under Mango Excellent Media, which is controlled by Hunan Broadcasting System. Mango TV was established on May 26, 2006, in Changsha, Hunan and later decided to use ...

announced that the show will be postponed for a week to February 7 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and production was postponed until further notice. After the first Knockout round, all singers returned to their home countries (Hua, Huang and Ray in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, Zhou in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

, Hsiao and Hsu in

Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

, and Misia in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

) to record their performances, known as a "cloud recording"; the host for the first two episodes,

, was replaced by his manager, Eliza Liang as the host for the remainder of the season, besides Surprise singers, the studio band ensemble, and host Hong Tao, who were the only members present in the studio premises. All of the performances were either pre-recorded or performed live, and results were instead shown through a remote video conference between host Hong Tao and the singers. Production resumed on February 17, 2020, with further measures enacted such as staggered filming dates. The returning performance for

Mao Buyi Mao Buyi (; born October 1, 1994; birth name Wang Weijia; ) is a Chinese singer and songwriter. Mao rose to prominence for winning the all-male singing competition ''The Coming One'' () in 2017. Mao is a self-taught pop artist known for works de ...

planned for week three (who was eliminated after the second week) was cancelled, making it the first time eliminated singers (outside previously withdrawn singers) were not given Return performances. The 500-member audience were also absent but instead viewed through live-stream and had votes cast via the

special livestream website or through their mobile application. These changes were initially enacted until the third Knockout rounds where Mainland Chinese singers were allowed to return to the studios, but other singers remained on their respective cities till the end of the season. On the finals on April 24 when the show resumed live audience, though safe distancing measures were taken effect. During the finale, host

He Jiong He Jiong ( zh, c=何炅, p=Hé Jiǒng, born 28 April 1974) is a Chinese television host, singer, actor, director and a former Arabic lecturer at Beijing Foreign Studies University. He is best known for co-hosting the Hunan TV variety show '' Ha ...

revealed the information that the 251 members of the 500-member audience undergo a

DNA testing Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, or ...

and safety checks before being permitted entry to the studios, while the remaining members watched and judged the performances online. Almost all of the episodes (with the exception for the tenth week) were delayed from the scheduled time slot at 8.00pm (7.30pm in the finals) due to the extended coverage by ''

Xinwen Lianbo ''Xinwen Lianbo'' () is a Chinese daily news television programme produced by state-owned television broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV). It is shown simultaneously by all local TV stations in mainland China, making it one of the world ...

''.

Contestants

The following ''Singer 2020'' 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: : – Winner : – Runner-up : – Third place : – Other finalist : – Eliminated (not eligible for Breakouts) Unless otherwise stated, Surprise challenge singers were assigned with temporary music partners, either Jeffery G (round 2 and 3) or Kuo Tao (round 4 or 5). Singers who were not assigned to their partners were reflected as N/A in the Music Partner column.

New singers

The list only shows successful ''Surprise Challengers'' and other contestants with qualifying status.

Returning singers

This is the second season to feature former ''I Am a Singer'' contestants returning to the competition, after

. All four singers were given Initial singer status.

Non-contestants

The list of all contesting singers who appeared, but lost in their respective ''Surprise Challenge'', are listed in the table. All of these singers only appeared for one week and were ineligible for the breakouts.

Results

Competition details

First round

Qualifying

*Recording Date: January 3, 2020 *Airing date: February 7, 2020 The first two Surprise Challengers introduced this week were Jeryl Lee and

Huang Xiaoyun Huang Xiaoyun (; born 22 December 1998), also known as Ghost Huang or Wink XY, is a Chinese singer and actress of Bouyei ethnicity. She first gained recognition in the Chinese television talent show ''The Voice of China 4'' in 2015 and later ...

Knockout

*Recording Date: January 10, 2020 *Airing date: February 14, 2020 The Surprise Challenger introduced this week is

Lexie Liu Lexie Liu, also known as Liu Boxin (; born December 21, 1998), is a Chinese singer, rapper and songwriter. In 2015, she participated in ''K-pop Star 5'', a South Korean reality TV competition series where her group came in fourth place. In July ...

. Due to

being successful in her Surprise Challenge last week, one singer would be eliminated this week.

Surprise Challenge results

Overall ranking

had succeeded in her challenge and was given contestant status, which resulted in the lowest-ranked contestant, Mao Buyi, to be eliminated.

Second round

Qualifying

*Recording Date: February 17, 2020 *Airing date: February 21, 2020 The new Surprise challengers were Ge Bi Lao Fan and Pax Congo.

Knockout

*Recording Date: February 23, 2020 *Airing date: February 28, 2020 The Surprise Challenger introduced in this episode was Zeng Yiming.

Surprise Challenge results

Overall ranking

would have been eliminated for finishing last but due to all three Contestants failing their surprise challenge, all seven contestants were declared safe from elimination.

Third round

Qualifying

*Recording Date: February 29, 2020 *Airing date: March 6, 2020 The Surprise Challengers introduced this week are Qin Fan Qi and Summer Jike. Cai Chengyu temporarily replaced Enti Jin as Shen's manager for this round. Hsiao was not allowed to be challenged because of him being challenged twice in a row.

Knockouts

*Recording Date: March 6, 2020 *Airing date: March 13, 2020 The Surprise Challenger introduced this week was

Hu Xia Hu Xia ( zh, c=胡夏; English name: Fox Hu; born 1 March 1990) is a Chinese singer and actor. He won the sixth season of Taiwan's ''One Million Star'' in 2010 and released his debut album, ''Hu Love Xia,'' later that year. He has sung a great ...

. Due to Summer Jike being successful in her Surprise Challenge last week, one singer would be eliminated this week. Starting this week, remaining Mainland Chinese singers returned to

Changsha Changsha is the capital of Hunan, China. It is the 15th most populous city in China with a population of 10,513,100, the Central China#Cities with urban area over one million in population, third-most populous city in Central China, and the ...

to do their pre-recorded performance; the 500-member audience would still have to use the

app watch and vote on their performances.

Surprise Challenge results

Overall ranking

Both Summer Jike and Hu Xia were successful in their Surprise Challenge, which resulted in the lowest-ranked contestant,

, to be eliminated. A revote revealed Jike receiving a higher vote than Hu and replaced Huang from the competition. Since Hu was successful in his surprise challenge, he is eligible for Breakouts.

Fourth round

Qualifying

*Recording Date: March 13, 2020 *Airing date: March 20, 2020 The two Surprise Challengers introduced this week were Taiyi and Super Vocal.

Knockouts

*Recording Date: March 20, 2020 *Airing date: March 27, 2020 The Surprise Challenger introduced this week was Gen Sihan. Due to Super Vocal being successful in their Surprise Challenge last week, one singer would be eliminated this week.

Surprise Challenge results

Overall ranking

Both Super Vocal and Gen Sihan were successful in their Surprise Challenge, which resulted in the lowest-ranked contestant, Tia Ray, to be eliminated. A revote revealed Super Vocal receiving a higher vote than Gen and replaced Tia from the competition. Since Gen was successful in his surprise challenge, he is eligible for Breakouts.

Fifth round

Qualifying

*Recording Date: March 30, 2020 *Airing date: April 3, 2020 The number of Surprise Challengers in the Ultimate Round were reduced by one to two singers. Unlike previous rounds, singers who won the Surprise challenge were immediately qualified as a place in the round, while other singers were eligible for elimination. The Surprise challenger this week is a band named ''Life Journey''. Due to a successful challenge by ''The Life Journey'', the singer with a lower vote count, Summer Jike, was eliminated. Unlike previous Qualifying rounds, this round only reveal the first and last placed singers and the middle placements for the other five were not shown until the next episode.

Knockout

*Recording Date: March 31, 2020 *Airing date: April 10, 2020 The final Surprise Challenger introduced this season is Ai Re. Due to the shorter gap between airing of the last episode and taping of this episode, the episode was spoiled as it was revealed that Summer Jike was eliminated prior to the previous episode's airing (since she didn't appear on this episode) and its Surprise Challenger, ''Life Journey'' (later revealed to have ranked 6th in the previous episode), replaced Jike as a result of the successful challenge.

Surprise Challenge results

Overall ranking

Breakout

*Recording Date: April 11, 2020 *Airing date: April 17, 2020 The five initial singers,

, Lala Hsu,

Misia commonly known as and stylized in all caps, is a Japanese singer and songwriter. Born in Tsushima, Nagasaki, Misia moved to Fukuoka at the age of 14 to pursue a recording career. There, she continued her secondary education and briefly attend ...

, and Charlie Zhou, were exempt in the Breakout round. The eight participating in the Breakouts, Gen Sihan,

, Summer Jike, ''Life Journey'',

, '' Super Vocal'', and

, compete for the last two places in the Finals. Similar to the previous Breakout rounds since season six, mid-eliminations occur during the round - eight singers were each grouped into four duels of two, and while the first singer performed, any remaining singers can issue a challenge to perform; if none of the singers elected to perform, the singer have the choice to choose of his/her preference. After all eight singers have performed, an electronic vote will conduct for all four duels; defeated singers were immediately eliminated (Breakout failure), leaving victorious singers eligible for the finals (Breakout success), based on the votes received for this round. For this episode, few of the solo singers (with the exception of band members) have prepared temporary Music Partners for the performances, indicated in ''italics''.

Duel results

Total percentages of votes

Finals

The finals were divided into two rounds, with the first song being a duet with a guest singer and the second song being a solo encore performance. Similar to the finals since season six, votes cast were the sole determinant of the season's winner. The finals were conduct in a live studio using both live and online audience. *Airing date: April 24, 2020

Round 1

The first round of the finals featured a guest singer's duet. For this round, breakout-success singers (Tia Ray and Summer Jike ) will still be able to do duels to any one of the five initial singers, with the losing singer eliminated from the competition; after all the singers had performed for the round, a second vote will conduct to eliminate a third singer from the competition. Had Hsu, Misia and Zhou advanced to the next round, their encore songs were respectively "以上皆非", "

Everything Everything, every-thing, or every thing, is all that exists; it is an antithesis of ''nothing'', or its complement. It is the totality of things relevant to some subject matter. Without expressed or implied limits, it may refer to . The uni ...

", and "不想睡".

= Duel results

Round 2

The second round of the finals featured an encore song, and the singer who received the most votes (separate from the previous round's votes) was crowned the winner. The order of the round is determined by the placements from the first round.

Winner of Battle

was declared the winner of ''Singer 2020'' with 51.12% of the votes cast, leading by a 20.44% margin ahead of runner-up

Ratings

Pre-show segments, such as ''Singer Gathering'' and ''Singer Announcement'', and broadcast ratings from

China Central Television China Central Television (CCTV) is the State media, national television broadcaster of China, established in 1958. CCTV is operated by the National Radio and Television Administration which reports directly to the Publicity Department of th ...

are excluded from the rating and tally. Songs with indicate the highest-rated week for the season, and indicate the lowest-rated week. , - , 1 , , 1.951 , 5.39 , 1 , , 4.49 , 1 , Show began on 8.26pm due to overrun with ''

'' , - , 2 , , 1.804 , 5.54 , 1 , 1.27 , , 1 , Show began on 8.49pm due to overrun with ''

''
CVB viewership is 1.28，share is 2.38, ranked 1st , - , 3 , , 1.779 , 5.60 , 3 , 1.15 , 4.17 , 1 , Show began on 8.40pm due to overrun with ''

''
CVB viewership is 1.12，share is 3.96, ranked 1st
Aired with season 5 premiere of

Zhejiang Television Zhejiang Television (ZJTV, ) is a satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather for ...

's ''Trump Card'' , - , 4 , , 2.164 , 6.90 , 1 , 1.13 , 4.26 , 1 , Show began on 8.45pm due to overrun with ''

''
CVB viewership is 1.03，share is 3.77, ranked 1st , - , 5 , , 2.115 , 7.03 , 1 , 1.11 , 4.46 , 1 , Show began on 8.42pm due to overrun with ''

''
CVB viewership is 1.07，share is 3.9, ranked 1st , - , 6 , , 2.146 , 6.95 , 1 , 1.06 , 4.3 , 1 , Show began on 8.44pm due to overrun with ''

''
CVB viewership is 0.98，share is 3.65, ranked 1st on timeslot only , - , 7 , , , , 3 , , , 2 , Show began on 8.28pm due to overrun with ''

'' , - , 8 , , 2.199 , 7.24 , 1 , 1.02 , 4.11 , 1 , Show began on 8.27pm due to overrun with ''

''
CSM59 lacked

Luzhou Luzhou ( zh, s=泸州, p=Lúzhōu; Sichuanese Pinyin: Nu2zou1; Minjiang dialect, Luzhou dialect: ) is a prefecture-level city located in the southeast of Sichuan Province, China. It is also known as the "Liquor City" (). It was named Jiangyang () ...

viewership ratings, using CSM58 ratings instead , - , 9 , , , , 3 , 0.91 , 3.87 , 2 , Show began on 8.35pm due to overrun with ''

'' , - , 10 , , 2.484 , 8.43 , 1 , 0.92 , 3.78 , 2 , , - , 11 , , 2.255 , 7.91 , 3 , 0.87 , 3.8 , 2 , Show began on 8.27pm due to overrun with ''

'' , - , 12 , , 2.156 , 7.60 , 1 , 0.93 , 4.11 , 2 , Live Finals- aired live broadcast starting at 7.37pm (originally 7.30pm)

Notes

References

{{Hunan Television I Am a Singer Contestants Singer (TV series) 2020 in Chinese music 2020 Chinese television seasons Television series impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic