SPOP Sing! season 1

SPOP Sing! is a Chinese singing reality competition broadcast by Mediacorp Channel 8. Season 1 premiered on 9 August after the broadcast of National Day Parade and ended on the live finale on 4 November at Padang.
During the live finals, 18-year-old Singapore Polytechnic student Jarrell Huang was announced the winner of SPOP Sing!, and 21-year-old LASALLE College of the Arts student Marcus Tay was declared as a runner-up.

Development

The show was first revealed to the public on 22 April 2018 during the broadcast of Star Awards 2018 with a teaser clip uploaded to Toggle, aimed to promote the Chinese culture, the music genre of mandopop and xinyao, and paying tribute to local singing talents of Singapore. This is also the first S-Pop themed competition in more than a decade, since SPOP Hurray! in 2008. The grand prize for winning SPOP Sing! is a cash prize of S$30,000, and the winner's own debut single, titled "逆风飞翔" released under a recording deal.
Former Sing! China finalists Nathan Hartono and Joanna Dong, as well as songwriter Boon Hui Lu, were appointed as the show's ambassadors, while Lee Teng, Bonnie Loo and YES 933 DJ Gao Meigui hosted the programme.
The show premiered on national TV with the prelude episode "" on National Day 2018 at 9pm on Channel U. Apart from the top 20 contestants, judges and ambassadors, Jim Lim was revealed as the music director, and Serene Koong was revealed as the vocal and performance mentor.

Auditions

The auditions were announced on 17 May 2018, along with a list of the 200 shortlisted mandopop/xinyao songs published on the Toggle website, participants were required to sing any one of the 200 songs during the audition. Auditions were held at nine different locations, which were either open to public or held privately. Similar to Campus SuperStar, auditions were open to students studying on a local institution with an age limit between 13 and 25 years old, and in a change to the former, Polytechnic and University students were also eligible to participate as well. Lee Teng did not appear after the Cineleisure open auditions onwards.

Date	Venue	Ambassador
21 May 2018	ITE College Central	Nathan Hartono
9 June 2018	Cathay Cineleisure Orchard	Nathan Hartono
16 June 2018	The Cathay	Joanna Dong

Date	Venue	Ambassador
30 May 2018	Temasek Polytechnic	Joanna Dong
23 June 2018	Victoria Junior College	Boon Hui Lu
27 June 2018	Evergreen Secondary School	Joanna Dong
28 June 2018	Anglican High School	Boon Hui Lu
30 June 2018	Nanyang Junior College	Boon Hui Lu
7 July 2018	Pei Hwa Secondary School	Joanna Dong

The auditions required singers to enter an egg-shaped karaoke booth to perform a song of their choice. Their performance was recorded under video surveillance, which would be reviewed by the panel of judges after the auditions.

Short episodes

Several short videos of audition highlights were uploaded on Toggle starting on 7 June 2018. Another short episode, Fun With SPOP Sing! was broadcast on Mediacorp Channel 8 on 5 June 2018 at 9.50pm, right after the finale of Babies On Board. A Toggle-exclusive six-episode spin-off of the show, All About SPOP, premiered on 27 July, featuring celebrities and composers sharing their knowledge on Mandopop/xinyao music genre.

Marketing

The Committee to Promote Chinese Language Learning, a committee which promote Mandarin Chinese to Singapore, was the supporting partner of the show. Ambassador Hartono was among the ambassadors of CPCLL since 2017. Other sponsors include Bonia, Huawei, KFC, Mitsubishi Electric, Win2 Crackers and Simmons.

Revealing of the Top 20 contestants

On 16 July, the judges confirmed the Top 20 contestants who would advance to the live shows. The identities of the top 20 were revealed to public for the first time in a meet-and-greet session on 21 July at Cathay Cineleisure Orchard. The broadcast was streamed live on Channel 8's Facebook page.

SHINE Festival

The Top 20 contestants appeared at Shine Festival at OCBC Square on 4 August, where they sang "无底洞", "幸福不难", "王妃" and "不为谁而作的歌" in groups.

Non-competition episodes

Three non-competition episodes were aired during the season. A half-hour episode titled Prelude was broadcast on 9 August on Mediacorp Channel 8 and Channel U after the 2018 National Day Parade, and re-ran on 19 August after the 2018 National Day Rally. It featured interviews from singers, songwriters and producers in Singapore's music industry, as well as the competition's ambassadors, and provided a brief introduction to each of the 20 contestants. The music video for the theme song, "听我唱响", as well as the show's new title card, premiered during this episode.
Two more were aired before the semi-final and grand finals on 28 October and 3 November, respectively. A half-hour episode aired before the semi-final, titled The Final 10, featured the ten contestants on their preparation leading up to the semi-finals. A two-hour special aired the day before the grand finals, which features a compilation of performances, was titled Non-Stop Music. Unlike the regular episodes, Non-Stop Music was not available for catch-up.

Pop-up Store Promotion

A SPOP Sing! promotional pop-up store appeared on Bugis Junction on 29 and 30 September 2018 in promotion of the show. Hosts Lee Teng and Gao Meigui appeared on the 29th, and YES 933 DJs Henry Law and Hazelle Teo appeared on the 30th.

Semi-finalist Meet-and-Greet

A second pop-up store was held on orchardgateway on 27 October and the semi-finalists appeared in a meet-and-greet session. The semi-finalists also appeared in Ngee Ann Plaza for guest performances in the Mediacorp Subaru Car Challenge.

Grand Finals Pre-show Showcase

A non-telecast pre-show music showcase was held at the Padang on 4 November at 4.00pm and featured local musicians Derrick Hoh and Trouze, Kelvin Tan, Desmond Ng, AL4HA, Kelly Poon, StellaVee, The Apex Project, and Elton Lee.

Contestants

After rounds of auditions, on 16 July, the judges selected and confirmed the final 20 finalists and revealed on 21 July. The 20 finalists, along with their Instagram handles, are as follows:
Key:

Name	Twitter Handle	Age	School	Quarter-Finals	Result
	@jarrellhuang	17	Singapore Polytechnic	1
	@XXMXRCS	21	LASALLE College of the Arts	2
	@darylannjansen	20	Temasek Polytechnic	4
	@kandakwon	21	Murdoch University, Kaplan Singapore	4
	@downtowncelinee	20	Ngee Ann Polytechnic	1
	@rongtinn	19	Hwa Chong Junior College	2
	@_yanxin_	21	University of Buffalo, Singapore Institute of Management	2
	@Shermainesaw	14	Anglo-Chinese School (International)	3
	@ally_teo	13	St. Anthony's Canossian Secondary School	4
	@shermanzachary	22	Singapore Institute of Management	3
	@babytobeat	16	Temasek Junior College	1
	@qiaohannn_	22	National University of Singapore	1
	@bunnychap	23	Singapore Management University	3
	@iamseekayyz	25	Management Development Institute of Singapore	3
	@claysings	21	Temasek Polytechnic	1
	@pohhhhhh)	24	University of London, Singapore Institute of Management	4
	@darwinshia	24	Nanyang Technological University	2
	@kennethtohke	22	National University of Singapore	2
	@w.renee_	20	Singapore Institute of Technology	3
	@BC_Bochun	18	Serangoon Junior College	4

Live Shows

The series consist of seven episodes, with the first episode first aired on Toggle via Toggle-It-First service on 21 September and on Mediacorp Channel 8 on 24 September, and ending on 4 November for both Toggle and Mediacorp Channel 8. Episodes rerun on Sundays at 2.30pm the week after the episode broadcast. The quarter-finals were taped and pre-recorded at the open field near *SCAPE, the semi-final episode was taped inside Capitol Theatre, and the grand finals at the Padang.
In a competition format which was previously seen on the fourth season of Campus Superstar, it was mandatory for contestants to perform renditions of songs performed or composed by homegrown talents for the entire competition, hence the theme of the competition.
In contrary to most reality competitions involving public voting, the judges and the audience themselves made the decision to eliminate contestants from the competition, while members of the public were only allowed to cast their votes when the competition was left with the final two contestants to decide on the winner. This format was previously seen on another Singaporean singing competition, the second season of The Final 1.
Color key:

	Contestant was advanced by judges
	Contestant was saved by audience
	Contestant was saved by judges
	Contestant was eliminated
	Contestant was eliminated without facing the audience's save

Week 1: Quarter Finals 1

air-date: 21 September 2018 ; 24 September 2018

For the first four quarter-finals, five contestants compete each week to vie for a place in the semi-final. Prerecorded performances of each contestant's performance aired, as did the judges' selection of two contestants from each group to advance to the semi-final. The remaining three contestants who were not chosen by the judges were placed under the "elimination zone" and were in risk of elimination. After the judges' decided on the first two contestants, the open field audience will then cast their votes via their remote device to save one contestant from the "elimination zone" and that contestant had to compete again in the wildcard round. A new competition element, "popular index", was introduced, which is the open field audience's evaluation for a contestant's performance, though this does not necessarily influence the outcome of the competition, as the judges themselves select which contestants were to advance and which contestants were to eliminate.
For all episodes, Billy Koh and Peter Lee were the first two judges, while the third judge was rotated in each quarter-final, with singer Joi Chua taking on the first and third quarter-finals, and Jimmy Ye on the second and fourth quarter-finals; both singers joined as judges on the wildcard round.

Order	Contestant	Song	Popular index	Result
1	Clayton Oh	"那些你很冒险的梦"	65	Eliminated
2	Charlene Chua	"想着你的感觉"	87	Audience's save
3	Fu Qiao Han	"接受"	70	Eliminated
4	Jarrell Ng	"明知道"	79	Judge's choice
5	Celine Wong	"十万毫升泪水"	76	Judge's choice

Order	Performers	Song
1.1	Joanna Dong	"恋之憩"

Week 2: Quarter Finals 2

air-date: 28 September 2018 ; 1 October 2018

Order	Contestant	Song	Popular index	Result
1	Marcus Tay	"逆光"	82	Judge's choice
2	Kenneth Toh	"遗憾"	69	Eliminated
3	Lim Yan Xin	"天黑黑"	68	Judge's choice
4	Darwin Shia	"末日之恋"	66	Eliminated
5	He Rong Tin	"爱笑的眼睛"	84	Audience's save

Order	Performers	Song
2.1	Boon Hui Lu	"给我一个"

Week 3: Quarter Finals 3

air-date: 5 October 2018 ; 8 October 2018

Order	Contestant	Song	Popular index	Result
1	Renee Wang	"我恨我爱你"	68	Eliminated
2	Shermaine Saw	"爱是怀疑"	72	Judge's choice
3	Pheron Lim	"会有那么一天"	69	Audience's save
4	Jessica "Bunny" Lim	"踮起脚尖爱"	67	Eliminated
5	Sherman Toh	"身后"	89	Judge's choice

Order	Performers	Song
3.1	Nathan Hartono	"讨厌"

Week 4: Quarter Finals 4

air-date: 12 October 2018 ; 15 October 2018

At the end of the fourth quarter finals, it was announced that all judges agreed to bring back one further act who they felt should not have been eliminated on the quarter-finals; the singer was later revealed to be Karena Yeo.

Order	Contestant	Song	Popular index	Result
1	Karena Yeo	"不值得"	72	Judge's save
2	Poh Wei Jian	"柠檬草的味道"	65	Audience's save
3	Raymond Wang	"我感觉不到你"	81	Eliminated
4	Ally Teo	"我要快乐"	71	Judge's choice
5	Daryl-Ann Jansen	"幸福不难"	84	Judge's choice

Week 5: Quarter Finals 5- Wildcard round

air-date: 19 October 2018 ; 22 October 2018

The five contestants who were recipients of the "audience's save" and "judge's save" from the first four weeks returned to the stage to perform for the wildcard round. Like the previous quarter-finals, judges decide which two contestants advanced to the semi-finals. The "popular index" was discontinued from this round onward and was replaced with a scoring system, in which the top two scoring contestants advancing to the semi-finals, while the other three contestants were eliminated.

Order	Contestant	Song	Score	Result
1	Poh Wei Jian	"最近"	78	Eliminated
2	He Rong Tin	"同类"	86	Judge's choice
3	Karena Yeo	"可惜没如果"	85	Judge's choice
4	Pheron Lim	"开始懂了"	72	Eliminated
5	Charlene Chua	"担心"	73	Eliminated

Order	Performers	Song
5.1	Bonnie Loo	"听我唱响"

Week 6: Semi-Final

air-date: 25 October 2018 ; 28 October 2018

Ten contestants performed two songs in this semi-final, one with a group and another with a solo.
After each performance, two different set of scores were shown; one after the group's/every two solo performance, and another after all the contestants have performed, with the latter accounted to the overall score. After the first round scores are revealed, each judge then picked one contestant from each group to receive a bonus score for their individual performance as a group. The first round has a 30% weightage towards the overall score, and the second round covered the remaining 70%. Only the scores for the top five contestants were revealed ; contestants with the three highest combined scores will directly advance to the grand finals, while the two remaining contestants will compete for the fourth and final finalist via the "audience's save".
Mediacorp host Quan Yi Fong was officially introduced as the fourth host of SPOP Sing!, and Joi Chua served as the episode's third judge. Before the start of the second round, group performances were made to pay tribute to the late-xinyao singer Dawn Gan, who died on 22 September 2018.

Order	Performers	Song
6.1	Billy Koh and Peter Lee	"毕业以后"
6.2	Jim Lim, Serene Koong and all 20 SPOP Sing! finalists	"水的话"/"月色同行"

Week 7: Grand Final

air-date: 4 November 2018

Four finalists performed up to four songs in the live finale. Liang Wern Fook and Eric Moo were brought in as guest judges for the grand finals at the Padang. Unlike regular episodes, the grand final does not have captions, as it was a live broadcast.
Eliminations occur at the end of each round starting from round two, in which one contestant who received the lowest judge's score was eliminated. In round one, the contestant with the highest judge's score was exempt from performing round two. During the fourth and final round, online votes cast from the public decide on which contestant will win SPOP Sing!.

Order	Performers	Song
7.1	Liang Wern Fook and Karena Yeo	"麻雀衔竹枝"
7.2	Joanna Dong	"喜欢你"
7.3	Joanna Dong and Daryl-Ann Jansen	"城里的月光"
7.4	Boon Hui Lu and Marcus Tay	"他来听我的演唱会"/"纸飞机"
7.5	Nathan Hartono	"无底洞"
7.6	Nathan Hartono and Jarrell Ng	"翅膀"
7.7	Liang Wern Fook and SPOP Sing! ambassadors	"细水长流"
7.8	All SPOP Sing! ambassadors and finalists	"听我唱响"
7.9	Eric Moo and Joanna Dong	"邂逅"
7.10	Jarrell Ng	"逆风飞翔"

Elimination chart

'''Color key:'''

Contestants' appearances on earlier talent shows

Charlene Chua and Fu Qiao Han both participated in the second season of tvN's K-Pop Star Hunt and were chosen as top 16 contestants in the Singapore leg; both singers were eliminated in the regional finals and did not advance to the final 16.
Jarrell Ng was a contestant on four shows prior to SPOP Sing!: in 2007, Ng won the singing competition segment on the inaugural season of The Sheng Siong Show. In 2009, he was among a child cast in the 2009 drama Together. In 2011, he participated on the first season of Chinese Million Star, where he finished in ninth place. In 2017, he appeared on the second season of Sound Of My Dream, but failed to receive mentorship from guest mentor Fish Leong.
Celine Wong was a contestant under team Gary Chaw in the first season of The Voice Jue Zhan Hao Sheng, where she was eliminated during the battle rounds.

Reception

SPOP Sing! had a viewership of more than 1.7 million throughout the season broadcast, which include 816,000 viewers watching from Toggle viewing service. The finals episode was met with critical reception as the live finale won the Star Awards for Best Variety Special during the 2019 Star Awards ceremony.
A spin-off, SPOP Wave! was aired in 2021.