December 23rd, afternoon, Songjiang Prefecture, Shanghai County.

  Inside the No. 1 studio of Oriental Star Satellite TV's headquarters building, a busy scene unfolds.

  More than 20 cameras were mounted on individual booms stretching out, all trained on the large central stage. In addition to these, there were four track-mounted camera positions on the stage and a dozen or so people below carrying handheld cameras ready to capture various shots at any moment.

  The stage has been fully set up, except for a few big shots, the vast majority of singers, actors, dancers and hosts are already waiting in the wings, the audience seats are sparsely populated with people sitting or standing, mostly staff members, a small number are reporters from Oriental TV's internal news channel and entertainment channel, but there is not a single audience member.

  That's right, this is the rehearsal site of Oriental Star Satellite TV's annual New Year's Eve concert.

  In the domestic entertainment and variety circles, there are four major annual gala events.

  Among them, the Spring Festival Gala of Huaxia TV has the largest coffee position, the highest style, and the ratings are unmatched. However, it is a comprehensive party with strong official nature. The actual time left for popular singers is only 40-45 minutes. Even at that party, military singers have more status than these people in the pop music scene, because they play the main melody, closely following the government's tone.

  So this evening party is hard to get on.

  Either your work was really hot in the past year, and if not, people all over the country would have an opinion about it. Or you had a great work that conformed to the national propaganda needs of positive energy, otherwise, just honestly mix up the inner circle first, when you mix to the level of Liu Mingliang and Zhen Zhen, even if you want to release new songs and borrow the Spring Festival Gala stage for promotion, the other party will also be very welcome.

  The Spring Festival Gala left about 40 minutes for popular music, roughly divided into two blocks of around 20 minutes each. The first block was reserved for big-name singers' solo performances, with about six or seven songs, usually three or four male singers and two or three female singers - this spot is something ordinary singers can only dream of.

  As for the remaining part, it's a grand medley of popular songs, with each song lasting about one minute. The 20-minute time is divided into three segments, with five to six songs in each segment, adding up to around fifteen to seventeen people - this is where most record companies focus their efforts on PR, and also an important battlefield for ordinary second- and third-tier singers.

  As long as the song is good and you're on this stage, you don't have to worry about becoming popular!

  It can be inferred that there are only so many positions available, and even if people scramble to get them, in the end, only a limited number of people will succeed.

  And those who are left can only think of borrowing this national attention-grabbing grand evening party to promote themselves, so they can only take advantage of the remaining three families.

  After the Spring Festival Gala, it's Hunan TV's Dragon Boat Festival Gala. This gala ranks last in terms of ratings among the four major galas. However, it shouldn't be underestimated because the arrival of the Dragon Boat Festival in May coincides with the start of the annual summer sales season, so those who want to promote their movies, new songs and albums will also flock to it.

  After the Dragon Boat Festival Gala, it is the Mid-Autumn Festival Gala of Shenzhen Satellite TV.

  The party had a high tone, but the ratings were only slightly higher than those of the Dragon Boat Festival Gala. So for most singers, it's just a bit of a chicken rib: it has high requirements for the song's atmosphere, standards and whatnot, which is not easy to meet, and even if you do make it on, the promotional effect may not be that great either.

  Of course, it also depends on who you ask.

  For folk singers, this tone of the Mid-Autumn Festival party is simply to their taste, no need to say, they squeeze up in a heap!

  After the Mid-Autumn Festival Gala, it's the New Year's Eve Concert of Dongfang Satellite TV.

  Unlike other three galas, this New Year's Eve concert is purely a singer's gala. Moreover, more than 90% of the performance time will be absolutely left to the pop music scene!

  So, although it has always been considered too lowbrow in mainstream media, it must be said that since its first session, it has always been the most popular and sought-after evening party among young people, and also ranks second in ratings!

  It's no wonder that there are new songs to be released, new albums to be promoted, and after the album has been on sale for a few months, they need to come here to brush up their presence and strive to sell more. This includes those who haven't appeared in public recently but will release an album and new song soon, so they come early to get familiar with the scene... All sorts of things like this, almost the entire pop music scene will be stirred up.

  To a certain extent, those who appeared on this year's Spring Festival Gala have largely determined the direction of China's music scene for the next year!

  And now on December 23rd, it is the first dress rehearsal for this New Year's Eve concert.

  At this time, in the dozens of preparation rooms behind the stage, almost all the living forces of the domestic music scene at that time were gathered. Among them, there was a preparation room that belonged to Wu Xing Yu Suo.

  Twenty minutes before the dress rehearsal, according to the program schedule, they will appear at 2:20, so actually there is still plenty of time, but at this moment, several girls have already finished their makeup and styling, just waiting for the performance time to arrive——on this stage, they are nothing, during the dress rehearsal, big stars can choose not to wear makeup or style their hair, and even bigger stars may not attend the first dress rehearsal at all, but they must be fully armed, fearing to leave any bad impression on anyone.

  At this moment, it has to be said that all five girls are very nervous.

  In the Oriental Star Satellite TV's waiting area, there are dozens of rooms separated by partitions. The sound insulation is not good, and even if you hide in your own waiting room, you can still hear various noises coming from all directions - there are voices, laughter, footsteps, and of course, guitar sounds and singing practices.

  In short, it's like a big vegetable market, with everyone shouting their own prices.

  In such an environment, the five girls who came to Dongfang Star TV for the first time were naturally twice as nervous.

  The dress rehearsal is about to start, as a singer, common sense is not to eat anything before the performance, not allowed to drink water, even if your throat is dry, you can only take a few small sips to moisten your throat.

  If he's an experienced old singer, he can hold his guitar and sing a song or two to loosen up his vocal cords, or chat with his agent or producer to relax. Or, you can even go visit other singers you know, sit together and chat for a while, reminisce about the past, and before you know it, time has passed.

  But I have never practiced the Five Elements.

  Although they have already released an album, they are not considered newcomers anymore. However, they haven't achieved anything significant yet, so their status is not high enough, and they can't make any decent friends in the industry. To be honest, they're all very tense right now and don't even feel like chatting with each other - the five of them, plus their manager Wu, are all cooped up in a small room of just over ten square meters, and none of them want to speak up, let alone go talk to outsiders?

  So outside is very noisy, inside is very quiet.

  It was fine in the morning, and everyone seemed relaxed before arriving. But when they really got here, Zhou Pingping was tense with stomach pain, running to the bathroom several times but to no avail. Sun Ruoxuan just kept swallowing saliva, and when you asked her, she said her throat was dry, but after taking a few sips of water, she still had a dry throat.

  Simada Duo is a bit better, but she's sweating profusely. On this cold day, although the air conditioner is on in the room, it's only around 17 or 18 degrees Celsius. She's wearing thin performance attire and her forehead is constantly beading with sweat. Every few minutes, she uses a towel to wipe her hands, and if you hold her hand, you can always bring back a palm full of cold sweat...

  Xie Bing is a bit better than her, she doesn't say anything or make trouble, just wearing headphones and muttering to herself with her lips opening and closing constantly, but the volume of those headphones is so loud that you can hear it even from several meters away.

  As for Wang Jingxue... well, she's probably the only one who can still keep a calm surface. After discovering everyone's tension, she chose to sit alone on the sofa in the corner and closed her eyes to meditate.

  Actually, they all understand in their hearts that there is no need to be so nervous. This is just a dress rehearsal, and there will be another dress rehearsal and two formal recordings later! Moreover, this evening party is not live, theoretically speaking, as long as they can have one performance during the two formal recordings, when the evening party is broadcast, the audience will see their best side.

  But... it's no use, everyone just can't help but feel tense.

  Because of the new album, and because of this evening party.

  Their second album "Sisters Stand Up" will be officially released nationwide on December 26. As for this album, whether it is the attitude given by the company internally after listening to it, or the self-feeling of the five girls from Wu Suo, they all have great confidence in its future market sales prospects.

  Starting with "Sisters Stand Up" and "Happy Baby", several fast songs are not to be mentioned, in the words of producer Li Jinlong, the domestic market has never had fast songs and dance music, but no one has ever produced a work that can truly win the recognition of the market. Now, hearing these few songs, I think the market for fast songs is about to open up!

  It can be seen how much he trusts those few songs!

  Even those few slow songs, which are the ones that can get them recognized by mainstream media and music critics when sung by Li Qian, after the company's internal listening meeting for the album ended, the company's music director Du Xiaoming was also excitedly telling them: Being able to get a song like "Farewell", being able to sing this work for the first time, probably in fifty years, your names will still be remembered by many people!

  You think, it's like this, Li Qian's work, plus the company's many authoritative musicians' high recognition and praise, even if they were not very confident at first, wouldn't their confidence increase a lot now?

  However, the company said that although they highly value this album and have great expectations for its market prospects, considering their past market position, the company cannot directly invest a lot of money in promotion as if they were first-tier stars. After internal discussion, the company decided to allocate all the budget for promoting and releasing the new album to the Oriental Satellite TV New Year's Eve concert...

  So, they, who were originally not qualified in any way, managed to get performance time for two songs at this evening party, adding up to more than seven minutes, and it was also broadcast at around 10 o'clock at night, a relatively good time slot.

  But this all-or-nothing publicity strategy also means that they only have this one road to Huashan. If they can make a splash with the New Year's Eve concert, then there's nothing more to say. But if it doesn't work out, then they'll be worried sick about what comes next.

  Should the company continue to spend money on publicity? It's not entirely impossible! But the problem is, before and after New Year's Day, what kind of publicity can compare to singing for seven minutes at the Oriental Satellite TV's New Year's Eve concert?

  And as is well known, after the New Year's Eve party, if you're popular, you're popular; if not, then not. As long as you're not popular, nobody pays extra attention to you. Then, when the whole country and society start getting into the rhythm of celebrating the new year after New Year's Day, even if you're a top-tier celebrity, it's still very hard to get good sales performance during this time period. And then, right after Chinese New Year, it's again the turn of those songs that became popular on the Spring Festival Gala to dominate every street and alley!

  So, it's a last-ditch battle!

  Time is passing slowly and quickly, outside the corridor is still noisy, it seems that a visitor has come to the next room, two male singers are talking about happy things, haha laughing...

  Finally, the dress rehearsal officially began.

  Then, finally, the program team knocked on the door to remind them that they still had half an hour before it was their turn to go on stage, and they should get ready immediately and wait in the wings ten minutes later.

  Then, the sisters suddenly stood up one after another, with a stiff face and an expression of going to the battlefield as cannon fodder - Zhou Pingping still had stomach pain, Sun Ruoxuan still had a dry throat wanting to drink water, Sima Duoduo continued to sweat.

  The agent, Wu Jie, comforted them for a while, and then their producer, Li Jinlong, happened to arrive and also comforted and encouraged them, which made the five girls' condition slightly better and their tension eased somewhat.

  Just before going out to wait for the performance, Xie Bing finally plucked up the courage to speak, "Sisters, don't be nervous, let's sing well and not waste the hard work of the past few months, and not waste the efforts made by Teacher Li Qian for us!"

  Simada Dodo clenched her fists tightly, "Hmm, don't be nervous! We will shine! Our song will be well-received by everyone!"

  Even Wang Jingxue calmly spoke up, "Liao Liao took five songs from Li Qian, each one was a huge hit. In our new album, eight of them are his works! We must believe in ourselves and believe in him!"

  Then, the five sisters stretched out their hands and grasped them together solemnly, shouting in unison: "Come on!"

  …………

  After all, when the program team staff came to inform them that "the next group is yours", the five girls were still extremely nervous. Sun Ruoxuan's throat was almost too nervous to speak, and Zhou Pingping even showed a look of being on the verge of tears. The sisters held hands, grasped each other tightly, as if they could pass on their strength in this way!

  Then, the time arrived.

  The music of the previous song stopped, the host came on stage and began to introduce their five-element Wu Su combination. Then, they saw the staff waving at them and pointing to the stage.

  They're on stage now.

  ***

  Let's start with one chapter first, there should be more at night!

  With sincere updates, I'm asking everyone for a guaranteed monthly vote! (.)

  PS: Here comes one chapter, and there should be another one tonight!

  With sincere updates, I'm asking everyone for a guaranteed monthly vote!