'Fantastic Duo' to open new genre
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Kim Young-wook
By Kim Jae-heun
Kim Young-wook, producer of Seoul Broadcasting Station’s (SBS) entertainment shows, promised that his new television series “Fantastic Duo” will open a new genre of music show that presents a duet sung by a popular singer with one of his or her fans chosen from online.
The show takes its inspiration from a one-off show aired on Lunar New Year’s Day, Feb. 9.
Each week three singers will be invited to sing a duet with a fan selected through posting their duets recorded with the karaoke application “Everysing” on their smart phones. The three will then compete with each other to earn the right to challenge the champions of the one-off show, Kim Bum-soo and Kim Da-mi.
“I was inspired by the British singer Jessie J on a YouTube video where she was singing a duet with one of her fans on Everysing as part of a promotional event,” Kim said during a press conference at an Italian restaurant in Yangcheon-gu, western Seoul, Monday. “It was a great success and I am taking my show’s concept from that.”
Kim emphasized that Fantastic Duo is different from many existing music shows as it focuses more on singers from the human perspective, where other shows only judge the participants on how well they sing.
“In the one-off show, singer Jang Yoon-jung and her 74-year old taxi driver fan sang a duet that turned out to be the biggest hit of the show. Although the series adopts a contest format, we look at a person’s story first,” chief producer Choi Young-in said.
Many foreigners, especially from America, participated in the auditions as they were presented online. According to the series producer, most of them covered boy band EXO’s hit “Growling.”
In the first episode, veteran singers Lee Sun-hee, Lim Chang-jung and Taeyang of YG Entertainment’s Big Bang will appear to win the prize of 10 million won ($8,729). One team can win up to five consecutive times.
Lee and Super Junior singer Kyuhyun will make a special collaboration, singing the veteran’s celebrated hit “Fate,” while Kim Bum-soo, Lim and Taeyang will sing together the idol’s solo hit “Eyes, Nose, and Lips.”