Finalists of the 12th National Youth Singing Contest

In 2006, the 12th National Youth Singing Contest adopted a new singing style: Aboriginal Singing (or Natural Singing, Primitive Singing). This new style adds to the existing three major singing styles (Bel Canto, Pop Singing, and Folk Singing). Abao’s (阿宝) “Xin Tian You” (信天游, literally wandering in the sky) singing style can be classified as the Aborginal Singing (see www.youtube.com ). Actually Abao has been refused to attend the National Singing Contest for 12 years simply because his singing style could not be classified into any recognized style (Bel Canto, Pop Singing, and Folk Singing). Apparently it was very ridiculous because Abao’s singing style is a typical Chinese singing style in North China and Northwest China. And his singing style is truly Chinese style. Besides Abao, many other aboriginal singers started to be recognized by the Chinese public. Another example is Qiong Li (李琼), who is an ethnic Tujia Chinese singer (see www.youtube.com ). Her voice is excellent, but she did not win any medal in the National Singing Contest. The reason, again, was that her singing style was not any of the styles listed above. In 2005, an ethinic Miao(Hmong) singer Ayouduo (阿幼朵) used Miao language to sing an aboriginal Miao song at the Chinese New Year Concert in the Vienna Golden Hall (see www.3miao.net and www.youtube.com ). Her performance was so impressive that the Chinese public and musical professionals started to realize the value of the Aboriginal Singing …