Are Puth and Grande to feature on Chinese reality TV?

SPECULATION is rife that American singers Charlie Puth and Ariana Grande are set to appear in the Chinese reality TV competition Singer 2024 after their music streaming accounts were found to have been logged in from Hunan province, reported Sin Chew Daily.

Internet users with keen eyes noticed that Hunan, the location of the show’s broadcast, appears to be the IP address associated with their NetEase accounts.

The issue became a trending topic on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, on the evening of May 12 and has been viewed more than 120 million times.

“I can’t believe this is happening. I should apply for leave and get tickets to see the show live,” one person wrote.

However, others scoffed at the rumours and explained that Puth and Grande are unlikely to be in China as their NetEase accounts are likely managed by someone in the country.

It was earlier reported that American artiste Chante Moore and Canadian singer Faouzia contended in the first episode of the show last week.

> Douyin, China’s equivalent of TikTok, is rumoured to have spent T$90mil (RM13.21mil) producing several mini-interviews with Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau, reported Sin Chew Daily.

The programme is expected to be split into six episodes lasting six minutes each. It is rumoured to feature other artistes such as Tony Leung, his wife Carina Lau, and Sean Lau.

In 2021, Lau chose to sign up for his first social media account with Douyin, a deal rumoured to be worth T$440bil (RM64.6mil).

Lau garnered 50 million followers in just a week and even broke an online concert viewership record the next year after his was attended by 350 million people.

Lau has had a career in film and TV for over four decades and is known as one of the most commercially and critically successful artistes in the Chinese world.

● The above article is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with this ‘ >’sign, it denotes a separate news item.