Performing a popular K-pop song on a Hunan TV reality show helped boost the Weibo followers of a relatively unknown male South Korean singer.
Hwang Chi Yeol sang a Mandarn arrangement of “Bang Bang Bang” last week at “I Am A Singer, Season 4” aired over Hunan TV. The song is BigBang’s summer hit. After that one performance, Hwang’s followers on Sina Weibo, the equivalent of Twitter in China, jumped to more than 3 million, reported Kpopstarz.
According to Korea Times, when Hwang joined the talent search "I Am A Singer" on Jan. 16, he was an unknown singer in China. Hwang was second among eight contestants. He repeated what another unknown South Korean singer, Jeong Soon-won, did in February 2015 on the same show, placing third.
The CEO of a Seoul-based music label company said what Hwang and Jeong did was amazing since they managed to break into China’s show business industry on the strength of their performance on the show.
Prior to that, it was popular Korean stars from variety shows, TV dramas and movies who were imported into Chinese TV. The CEO added that South Koreans lacking local popularity begin from rock bottom, not top. He pointed out that the two do not have global recognition, unlike BigBang or Girls’ Generation or Kim Soo-hyun, a very popular actor, or Juan Ji-hyun, lead actress of “My Love from the Star.”
Hwang was tapped in 2015 to sing “Pencil” for “Mrs. Coo,” an SBS drama, and released “Holding The End of This Night,” in collaboration with leeSA. Before joining the contest, Hwang had more than 350,000 Weibo followers. He is now the brand ambassador for YGQQ, a Chinese online shopping mall.