I don’t think I’ve ever stanned as many people (30+) in a competition as I have in Youth With You 2. Despite its flaws, it has really lived up to its theme of the “No definition girl group”. They didn’t try to define what a girl group should be, nor what any member should be, and as a result everyone has the opportunity to shine.

I know iQiyi disabled the embedding but this group is too sexy and powerful for me to not start with this. I especially recommend Lu Keran, Zeng Keni, and Ge Xinyi‘s focus cams because a lot of their fierceness aren’t shown in the full video since too many of them are amazing at the same time. There’s also the dance studio version here (this show has the best studio camerawork).

Huang Ling does this beautiful rendition of “Life isn’t worth it 人间不值得”. I will always love her voice. It’s not really a stage, but now that we’re all stuck home, I think her bathroom definitely counts as a stage.

Next up are performances from the Believe in the Future charity concert. The cast of City of Rock reunite for a performance of their theme song. I’m pretty sure Nazha and co. are just air-playing, but the top row of people sound great:

After Journey’s new song Bonfire Under the Grape Vines 葡萄架下的篝火 sets rap to traditional Uyghur sounds:

Youth With You competitor Chuang 2020‘s top vocals is probably this group that’s kind of similar to last year’s Problem trio. Zhong Feifei is so cute and perfect girlband material, and Curley Gao is amazing.

My favorite performance from the show so far has to be the 844 band. They could honestly just debut with performances like this. Their vocals are on point and their energy are all amazing.

My other favorite program doesn’t really have any singing. The choreography for this is a great mix of Chinese classical dance and girlband, and could work really well for a girl group if they limit the acrobatic moves a bit.

Unfortunately, the show feels a bit off-putting so far, especially compared to Youth With You. They keep having all these incredibly talented people showcase what they can bring to a group, but then diss them for not being “girlband material”. And then you have people like Zhong Feifei and Curley Gao losing to a singer-songwriter and it makes no sense. Also, it’s a bit questionable for four people who all quit their respective girl/boybands to tell people what they need to stay in a girlband.

Finally, I just wanted to share my wishlist stage. I need Zhang Xiaohan to do a full cover of Ge Dongqi’s Double Happiness 囍. It takes a special voice to be able to win in a fight against a suona.