The Voice, a singing competition well known for its blind judging, is coming to Singapore soon. However, it has received a lot of flak for its eligibility criteria which states that participants need to be “fluent in Mandarin, and able to perform Mandarin songs”.
There are three camps of thought. The first camp (which is the majority) thinks that what The Voice Singapore/Malaysia is doing is discriminatory and unfair. The second camp feels that this is not an issue to begin with and believes that people should move on.
The last camp believes that though this situation seems unfair, it is probably a strategic move for The Voice to appeal to the large audiences in China. Which camp do you belong to? Let us know in the comments!
The show will be aired on StarHub’s Hub E City in Singapore and Astro AEC in Malaysia — channels that primarily air shows in Mandarin.
The judges have yet to be chosen for the show, but the producers are looking for candidates from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, in addition to Singapore and Malaysia.
With this Asian version of The Voice clearly being targeted at Chinese speaking audiences, perhaps Singapore and Malaysia are not the best countries to be associated with the show, given our diverse populations with different ethnicities and languages.
Auditions end this 31 May 2017 though, so I guess I still have two weeks to learn Mandarin.
Dates: Online auditions end 31 May 2017