Chapter 460: Officially Begins

Chapter 460: Chapter 460: Officially Begins

The five days of preparation passed in the blink of an eye, and the much-anticipated official recording day for the first season of The Voice arrived as scheduled.

Early in the morning, all engineering equipment, stage lighting, sound recording systems, and camera lenses in the studio of the New York Disney headquarters completed their final calibration and review.

All staff members were at their posts, performing their respective duties, while the costume group, makeup and styling group, on-site coordination team, broadcasting team, and sound recording team were on high alert, awaiting the initial kickoff of this brand-new, nationwide music variety show.

According to the rules finalized in advance by the production team, there would be no live audience entering the venue throughout the blind audition phase.

Unlike traditional talent shows that rely on audience cheers to build atmosphere and create camera effects, the core pursuit of the blind auditions in The Voice was ultimate purity, completely isolating external interference and preventing audience emotions and the on-site atmosphere from influencing the coaches’ judgments, ensuring that all scores and choices remained faithful to The Voice itself.

Precisely because there were no tedious procedures of audience entry, seating, and crowd control, the recording progress was greatly accelerated, and the entire kickoff process was neat and straight to the point.

Two hundred amateur contestants, who had undergone three layers of rigorous screening and stood out among 100,000 applicants, had long been numbered and grouped according to the official alphabetical order of their surnames, quietly standing by in batches within the exclusive backstage waiting area.

Everyone had undergone simple makeup and styling adjustments, stage blocking rehearsals, and song recording test-sings, which preserved the most authentic and raw texture of the amateurs while ensuring the professionalism of the stage presentation.

The production team had clearly informed all contestants and staff in advance that the entire recorded footage would not be broadcast in its original entirety.

The performance footage and stage segments of the two hundred contestants would uniformly enter the post-production editing library, where the production team would prioritize collecting, editing, and broadcasting high-quality stages where contestants won coach turns, successfully advanced, possessed distinctive timbres, and delivered highly infectious performances, while retaining special footage with unique styles, strong controversy, and full stage stories to enrich the show’s highlights and generate topic heat.

Ordinary performance segments devoid of highlights, bright spots, or memorable points throughout the process would be reasonably trimmed, which most trainees could understand.

In the core control room of the entire studio, Irene sat upright in the main control seat, overseeing the first recording kickoff from start to finish.

Compared to the lively and glamorous front-of-house stage, the control room was the brain and center of the entire recording, with dozens of high-definition split-screen monitors displaying the stage panorama, close-ups of the four coaches, close-ups of the contestants, side camera backup footage, sound recording waveforms, and lighting rhythms in real time, bringing every single detail clearly into view.

With a calm gaze, Irene scanned every screen, calmly controlling the overall rhythm of the premiere recording.

Violet was stationed on the side throughout the entire process, synchronizing on-site conditions at any time and liaising with various teams, taking on all the miscellaneous sudden problems for Irene to allow her to focus on controlling the overall texture of the show.

"All departments pay attention, cameras in position, lighting ready, sound recording at full bars, signal transmission stable, the venue is ready, and we can start recording at any time."

Holding a walkie-talkie, the head of the control room spoke in a steady and clear voice that slowly echoed in the quiet control room, simultaneously connecting with all execution teams in the front of house.

After confirming that all links had zero errors, zero loopholes, and no hidden risks, Irene nodded slightly and softly uttered two words: "Rolling."

Once the order was given, the entire recording officially commenced.

The main stage lighting of the studio hall lit up one after another, with soft and bright top lighting flooding the center of the stage while the rest of the areas darkened completely.

With distinct layers of light and shadow, it instantly focused all visual centers of gravity.

Host Carson Daly, dressed in a minimalist yet formal suit and holding a wireless microphone, walked calmly to the center of the stage.

Having experienced two days of thorough integration, Carson had long fully understood the core and rules of this brand-new show.

His voice was transparent and comfortable, with a relaxed and well-paced rhythm, slowly opening the premiere using a tone best suited for American nationwide variety shows.

He first comprehensively introduced the core of the original competition system of The Voice to the camera and backstage audience, clearly clarifying the essential difference between the show and all current talent shows: this was not a talent show competing on facial features, appearance, outfit styling, persona, or stage packaging, but a music competition that purely determined victory and defeat based on The Voice.

Carson explained the complete rules of the blind auditions in an organized manner: all participating contestants would take the stage in turn to perform a one-minute a cappella or accompanied song; the four music coaches would sit facing away from the stage throughout the process, strictly forbidden from turning their heads to look, completely shielding all visual information, with the only evaluation criteria being the contestants’ voices, vocal skills, rhythm, and emotional expression.

Within the one-minute singing time limit, if a coach was moved by a contestant’s singing, they could press the exclusive button in front of them at any time, causing the chair to automatically rotate 180 degrees to face the stage directly and lock in the contestant, representing that the contestant was incorporated into their own team.

If no coach turned around by the end of the performance, the contestant would be regrettably eliminated directly.

If multiple coaches turned around at the same time, the contestant would have reverse-selection rights, freely deciding to join the team of any turning coach.

The simple, straightforward, and easy-to-understand explanation of the rules perfectly matched the viewing logic of ordinary viewers, allowing everyone in front of the screen to understand it at a glance and get into the show instantly.

After the rules were introduced, Carson’s tone rose, officially bringing out the show’s biggest highlight—the top-tier lineup of four music coaches.

Sorted by age, the production team invited the four coaches to take the stage in turn, which not only reflected respect for senior figures in the music industry but also allowed the rhythm of their entrances to progress step by step, fully maximizing their aura.

The first to take the stage was the music legend with the deepest seniority in the entire house, Steve Winwood.

As a palace-grade musician who had deeply cultivated the fields of rock and blues for decades, Steve Winwood had witnessed the golden and prosperous era of European and American rock music.

His voice naturally carried the vicissitudes of time-tested texture; his musical style was heavy with long-lasting foundations, and he excelled at perfectly blending blues storytelling with rock tension, serving as an enlightenment benchmark for countless younger generations in the music industry.

Having deeply cultivated the industry for decades, he firmly established his status in the music industry solely through solid works and ultimate stage strength, with his professionalism, credibility, and industry status steadily ranking first in the entire house.

As he walked slowly onto the stage, his steady and refined aura instantly flooded the entire venue, naturally carrying the heavy-duty foundation of a veteran musician.

The second to take the stage was the powerful rock-pop female singer Bonnie Raitt.

Compared to the traditional veteran rock of Steve Winwood, Bonnie Raitt’s rock style was more delicate and gentle, possessing a lyrical texture.

She opened up the boundaries between rock and pop, with a musical style combining strength and tenderness.

She could control explosive stage rock as well as interpret healing lyrical slow songs, covering audiences of all age groups.

Her stage style was steady, grand, and possessed extremely strong empathy.

She excelled at uncovering the emotional core behind songs and moving people’s hearts with music, making her a recognized powerful female general in the music industry who possessed both strength and public appeal, perfectly filling the blank track of gentleness and delicacy in the coach lineup.

The third to take the stage was the nationwide pop diva Britney.

As a pop music benchmark that swept across the United States, Britney was the youth memory of countless young people and the absolute top traffic in the pop track.

Her musical style was brisk and agile, with extremely strong stage performance.

She excelled in both singing and dancing with maxed-out infectiousness, proficient in pop arrangement and stage rhythm, and was best suited for discovering mainstream market-compatible, mass-appeal singers capable of breaking out and becoming massively popular.

Her appearance instantly injected youthful vitality and nationwide popularity into the professional and weighty coach lineup, covering young audiences, the pop market, and mass aesthetics, allowing the show to completely shake off the limitations of niche professional circles and possess the potential to become a nationwide sensation.

The final grand finale to take the stage was the new-generation hip-hop leader Kanye West.