Na Ying rocked her heart out in all-white for the finals of Singer 2024 and, unsurprisingly, won. But it was not as pure as it seemed with allegations of rigged results

Winner of Singer 2024 Na Ying in Schiaparelli

That Na Ying won hardly surprised anyone, but that her win would stir up so much controversy or annoy so many did. This was not the first time Ms Na has won a competition. 浪姐5 or Sisters who Make Waves (season 5) comes to mind. But mere days after the finals of the Chinese singing match for professional vocalists 歌手 (Ge Shou) or Singer (formerly known as 我是歌手 or I am a Singer), the discontent is rife, including accusations of the show being a MAGA-sounding “rigged”. Followers of the reality series, including those outside of China, are saying that Na Ying was picked as the winner because she is Chinese. The competition welcomed foreigners (including, this season, the Kazakh with wide vocal range Dimash Qudaibergen—a revisit to Singer), and while in the beginning, viewers thought that this meant “内娱歌手和海外歌手的差距就一目了然” or the disparity between domestic and overseas singers are clear to see, Ms Na’s win stirred collective dismay, as well as nationalistic pride.

Even Macau-born, Taiwan/Hong Kong-based Jenny Tseng (甄妮 or Zheng Ni) did not resist commenting. She weighed in on her socials: “I really guessed it right. Paid the foreigners to be teased and tricked.” And then she did not hold back on the winner: “那英，自己听听妳唱得如何？ 好意思赢吗? Have you heard how well you sang? Are you not embarrassed that you won?” Ms Na does have better singing days. Unfortunately, it was not during the entire run of Singer, less so on the night of the finals. Rabid fans have defended her, saying that she did sing reasonably well on “some” episodes. But is consistency not crucial in a protracted competition? To many, consistency was American Chanté Moore and Moroccan-Canadian Faouzia. Sure, even the usually reliable Mr Qudaibergen did not offer his best performance, but is it not rather curious that Ms Na so easily beat the classically trained singer using a voice that, in her desperation to impress and out-power the other contestants, was strained?

Ms Na does have better singing days. Unfortunately, it was not during the entire run of Singer, less so on the night of the finals. Rabid fans have defended her, saying that she did sing reasonably well on “some” episodes. But is consistency not crucial in a protracted competition?

The rumour off rigged results intensified when a snippet of a video was shared online, showing Mr Qudaibergen backstage telling Faouzia in a near whisper picked up by an open mike: “They said, it must be Chinese before you.” There was no ambiguity who the people he was referring to, nor that Faouzia should not expect to be placed first. Curiously, Faouzia looked unfazed, and offered the strange rejoinder: “It’s okay. No problem.” Was she already expecting something viewers were not? Similarly, did Mr Qudaibergen come to some information beforehand? Was he warning Faouzia from experience? Even more mysterious was the sudden appearance of the Chinese singer Jason Zhang (張杰, Zhang Jie), who conveniently placed himself between the two guest competitors after giving Mr Qudaibergen a hug.

In the end, Faouzia came in fourth, and, as predicted, after Chinese singers. Ms Moore was in fifth place. Mr Qudaibergen received no ranking. It didn’t matter that the guest competitors handle vocal challenges that totally stood them in good stead. This is disappointing to many fans who thought, for example, that Ms Moore’s first song for the competition, Alicia Keys’s If I Ain’t Got You, was stupendously sung, so much so that it appeared that she was performing a song for the finals. It was a masterclass act. This year’s Singer drew record viewership in China because it was sold to the audience as a truly live competition: viewers got to hear the competitors’ true voice, without any pre-recording or digital enhancements, during a live recording. And Na Ying was without doubt, for those with a discerning ear, below par. She was, in the face of clearly intense competition, dubbed “五旬老太守国门”. Or, “a fifty-year-old woman guarding the country’s gate.”

Still in rock mode, Na Ying in Undercover

For the Singer finals, Na Ying wore two white outfits on stage. When she sang with 回春丹 (Hui Chundan or the band Young Dan, name after ancient Chinese rejuvenation elixirs) the latter’s song 鲜花 (Flowers, not to be confused with the Miley Cyrus’s hit of the same name), she wore a sheer, oversized Undercover double-breasted jacket and a long skirt, festooned with blooms. Flowers for Flower must have screamed stylistic genius to her, just as out-belting lead singer 刘西蒙 (Liu Ximeng) was artistic brilliance—the arrangement was already made heavier to suit her rock preference. For her second song, a solo of Wang Feng’s (汪峰) 2011 single 像梦一样自由 (Free as a Dream), she picked a Schiaparelli suit of a trucker and five-pocket carpenter jeans, worn with a metallic singlet, to superficially augment her reputation as China’s “摇滚天后 (Queen of Rock)”. But, was she really rocking it or merely looking cool, even when she is not associated with coolness?

On the style front, Ms Na has, in the course of her career, been inconsistent at best. Hard it is to say what exactly defines her. Not quite moving on the Singer stage and can’t raise her voice further than the other contestants, she chose rock anthems sung by men to put shrill in place of nuances, in a lame mixed voice with weak lower registers. The two outfits showed that she preferred not to be a balladeer, but, sadly, both wore her. It is not clear what the 56-year-old needed to prove. Her friend 王菲 (Wang Fei, Faye Wong), a bigger success story nationally and globally, is mostly retired from stage and singing, avoiding competitions totally. Na Ying, by contrast, continues to assert her presence on the 舞台 (wutai, stage) as 大姐大 (dajieda, or big sister). Singer this time showed her going up and down vocally, just like her episodic ranking. She sounded out of tune more than once and even appeared to have forgotten her lyrics. Perhaps, she would, as she sang in 2001, 一笑而过 (Yixiao Erguo). Laugh and let it pass.

Screen shots: chinahunantvofficialchannel/YouTube