Popular music show 'Hidden Singer' returns for 5th season

Jeon Hyun-moo, right, speaks in this still cut from the first episode of “Hidden Singer” to be aired on JTBC on Sunday. He is the host of the TV show. Next to him is Kangta, a former member of the now-disbanded boy band H.O.T. / Courtesy of JTBC

By Park Jin-hai

JTBC's popular reality show “Hidden Singer” has returned with a new season after a nearly two-and-a-half year hiatus.

“Hidden Singer,” hosted by Jeon Hyun-moo, is the broadcaster's longest-running show. The shows concept is to have a famous singer and several imposters of the singer sing parts of a song behind blinds for four rounds and the audience of 100 people vote each round to eliminate the person they think is not the real singer.

“There were times when many broadcasters aired multiple music shows almost simultaneously, but it seems their number has shrunken in recent years. I was worried my new show could fail to appeal to viewers under the changed broadcasting environment,” chief producer Cho Seung-wook said during a press conference in JTBC headquarters in Seoul, Friday.

“Instead of making major chances in our program, we decided to focus on what we can do best with our new season ― the musicians' songs and life and the touching stories of their fans who emulate the singer.”

Since it was debuted in 2012, “Hidden Singer” has become one of JTBC's flagship shows, where so many ordinary but talented contestants impeccably imitate original singers' voices and singing styles, surprising viewers until it aired the final episode of its fourth season in January 2016.

In the past, however, Cho admitted the difficulties of finding a fresh pool of singers and their imitators and its new season had to wait for nearly three years.

The popular music show's format has been exported to countries like the U.S., Italy, China, Vietnam and Thailand. Cho Hyun-min, a welder who sang Im Chang-jung's songs in season 2, garnered record votes in the episode and became a professional singer.

The lineup for the fifth season of “Hidden Singer” will include iconic singers Kangta of H.O.T, Jeon In-kwon and Psy. And currently the show's homepage is recruiting impersonators of singers like Kim Dong-ryul, Naul, Rain, Lyun, Park Hyo-shin and many more.

Kangta will kick off the new season. “I looked for singers whose songs can provoke some shared nostalgia in viewers. In that sense, Kangta is the most fitted headliner,” producer Kim Hee-jeong said.

“As a person who spent school years listening to H.O.T's music, I wish the legendary boy band could bring up good memories to our viewers as well,” the show's host Jeon said.

Cho emphasized that “Hidden Singer” sheds light on musicians' songs and what they can mean to others. “Unlike other music shows that highlight musicians as stars in a sky, we feature them as a lamp in one's heart that beams warm light to others,” he said.

The fifth season will begin at 10:30 p.m. Sunday.