After nearly 40 years, the CCTV Spring Festival Gala has obviously become a complex in the hearts of every Chinese.
Not only a vigorous party, but also a symbol of reunion, a sense of ceremony to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new.
On the stage of the Spring Festival Gala, countless people came and went, and countless classic works were shaped.
Sketches, crosstalk, operas, magic, songs... Accompanying us year after year, often forgotten, but often remembered.
I don't know if you remember the Spring Festival Gala in 1999, 21-year-old Li Qiong wore a red national costume, carrying a small bamboo basket, she was small but singing loudly, with a song "Eighteen Bends on the Mountain Road", overnight, she became a well-known singer.
Since then, Li Qiong, who should have gone to the peak of her career, has slowly faded out of the public eye, and her former glory has gradually been covered up by excellent descendants.
So, what really happened that year, so that Li Qiong did not hesitate to miss the brilliant future?
Today we will talk about the beginning and end of her "snow hiding" in the past.
01 Born for art
Due to Li Qiong's unique singing style and singing style, many people believe that she comes from a remote mountainous area.
In fact, Li Qiong was born into a musical family, and his father was a famous Chu opera actor in Hubei Chu Theater and an inheritor of intangible cultural heritage.
Not only has such a family environment, Li Qiong is also born with a good voice, and has shown outstanding musical talent at a young age.
At that time, the number of cartoons on television was very limited, and one of them was called "Nils's Journey on a Goose", and the songs in it were sung without listening to them a few times.
She also liked Teresa Teresa very much, and at that time, Teresa's songs were not only popular, but also had a strong national flavor, and Li Qiong often imitated them on stage.
When she was four or five years old, her father often took Li Qiong to participate in various competitions in order to exercise her guts.
In order to exercise Li Qiong's lung capacity, her father actually let her practice blowing rice grains!
Put a bowl of rice on the table and let Li Qiong blow hard to see if she can blow it to the specified position. Li Qiong, who is still young, is just when he is playing greedily, often blowing a bowl of rice and squatting on the ground so tired that he can't get up.
Father would shout sternly: Get up and continue!
Little Li Qiong had no choice but to dry her tears and continue to blow the grains of rice desperately.
The natural voice advantage, coupled with the strict training of the day after tomorrow, has allowed Li Qiong's musical potential to be developed.
At the age of 14, Li Qiong was admitted to the Hubei Provincial Music School under her father's arrangement, becoming the youngest student in the class.
After graduating from Hubei Provincial Music School, Li Qiong entered Wuhan University and continued to study vocal music.
In the era of radio popularity, Chutian Music Station was deeply loved, especially Zhang Chi, who hosted "The Radio That Can't Be Turned Off", and became the idol of Li Qiong's sisters in the dormitory, and Li Qiong was no exception.
Unexpectedly, later Chutian Music Station went to Wuhan University to recruit a host.
With the wish to have close contact with the idol, Li Qiong immediately went to the interview.
What is more coincidental is that it was her idol Zhang Chi who interviewed Li Qiong, and with solid skills, Li Qiong really successfully interviewed and became an intern of Chutian Music Station.
Unfortunately, in just half a month, she was expelled.
And all this is because of her confusion, once when the weather forecast was reported, she actually read 28 degrees to 58 degrees.
Just happened to encounter the director of the trial, such a serious slip of the tongue, so that the station director was angry, directly called the phone to the live broadcast room, Li Qiong's short internship career ended.
Unable to continue working with idols, she was laid off after less than 15 days of internship, and just when Li Qiong felt lost for this, the gears of fate turned again, opening another door for her.
A few days later, the Chutian Music Station held a military-civilian party with a local unit, and Li Qiong sang a song "China's Moon".
As soon as she opened her mouth, she was amazed, and the next director of the stage immediately took a fancy to her talent, and after the performance, he directly found Li Qiong and asked her if she would like to come to the army?
The director also said that Li Qiong is a high-achieving student at Wuhan University, and according to the regulations, as long as she enters the army, she is "one dime and two stars" (one bar and two stars).
When Li Qiong told his father the news, his father was very happy.
With her father's affirmation and support, Li Qiong stepped into the door of the army and became a literary and artistic female soldier.
However, after entering, Li Qiong found that the rules had changed, and she could only hang up the student card and became a small warrior.
Cleaning dishes and helping the cook has become Li Qiong's daily life, not only that, but she needs to run at least three kilometers a day.
Li Qiong's confused nature was played again, and when she washed the dishes once, she threw a large number of bowls on the ground with a slip of her hand, and lost all the allowances.
For an instant, Li Qiong only felt that her life was gray and her future was uncertain, and she even had the idea of escaping.
But in the end, she still endured, in order to improve the work, Li Qiong made many efforts, but after waiting for year after year, her student card was still not taken off.
In desperation, Li Qiong had to run to ask the director who recruited her that year, and the director told her: You go to the competition, if you win the award, you can do it immediately.
02 Rewrite the first person in the format of the Youth Song Contest
Unlike today, there were very few vocal competitions in that year, and the most famous in the country was the CCTV drama version of the Qingge Competition.
In order to think of the "one dime and two stars" (one bar and two stars), Li Qiong thus opened the road of the Green Song Competition.
Li Qiong first won the gold medal of Hubei Television Station with a song "Qinghai-Tibet Plateau" in the local area, and also won a pass to participate in the national competition.
"Even if it's just a stomp on the floor of the central platform!"
With such a simple idea, Li Qiong came to Beijing and entered the Youth Song Competition.
At that time, the youth song competition was divided into three groups of ethnic, bel canto and popular competitions, and Li Qiong registered for the popular amateur group.
The contestants who participated in the previous youth song contest were the top few winners pushed by various local TV stations, most of whom were singers from professional colleges.
However, in that year's Youth Song Competition, the old format of sending audio tapes to participate in the competition was changed, and the singers directly entered Beijing in the form of a team.
Not only that, but also increased the comprehensive quality assessment, that year's judges included Li Guyi, Li Shuangjiang and other famous singers and musicians.
The atmosphere of the competition was solemn and serious, and in order not to interfere with the judges' listening to the songs, the audience habitually kept quiet.
Unexpectedly, as soon as Li Qiong appeared, a song "Three Gorges My Hometown", the high pitch soared out, shocking the audience, and could not help but applaud her.
Li Qiong, who is three degrees higher than the average person, was once praised by the media as a "top golden voice" li qiong, and for a time became a big hit for gold award winners.
Li Guyi, one of the judges and the head of the Oriental Song and Dance Troupe, said to her: Whether you win the prize or not, the Oriental Song and Dance Troupe wants you.
Unexpectedly, what was unexpected was that Li Qiong, who had such a high voice, finally won the Excellent Award, what was the situation?
Originally, many judges at that time thought that Li Qiong's singing was neither ethnic nor popular, similar to the original ecology, but there was no such award. If any award is given to Li Qiong, it may bring a bad example to the teaching of the college in the future.
Therefore, on the day of the rematch, Li Qiong's score was seriously polarized, the high was particularly high, the low was particularly low, and finally he could only take a consolation prize.
As soon as the results of the competition were announced, the audience on the stage all fried the pot, and Li Qiong, who sang better than everyone on the scene, but failed to enter the top three, was uneven.
The next day, the major newspapers questioned the fairness of the game, and even many called the central station to complain.
Many reporters gathered around Li Qiong's door, and in order to avoid reporters, the father and daughter could only wander aimlessly on the street.
Just when Li Qiong was discouraged by this, a notice from the Central Station reversed her fate again.
It turned out that the Central Station decided to let Li Qiong and the other six award-winning singers compete again to determine the grand prize.
This award is said to have alarmed the big leaders in the stage, and the format of the competition was temporarily changed, without the judges scoring, but for the first time using the method of audience voting.
This time, Li Qiong's results shocked the audience again, and she actually got a full ticket!
In this way, Li Qiong won the only "special prize" in the history of the Qingge Competition, and also became the first person to rewrite the format of the Qingge Competition.
Because since then, the Youth Song Competition has not only added the "original ecology" category competition, but also added the "National Audience's Favorite Singer" award.
Soon after, Li Qiong took a phone call, which also completely changed her fate.
03 Board the Spring Festival Gala
One day, Liu Tiemin, the director of CCTV, called Li Qiong and asked her if she had any good works recently.
Li Qiong said casually, and recently sang a Tujia song "Son of the Sun".
After that, according to Liu Tiemin's request, he sent him a sample.
At this moment, Li Qiong did not know what kind of surprises would be waiting for her in the future.
A few days later, Liu Tiemin called again and asked her to quickly pack up and go to Beijing to attend the Spring Festival Gala of CCTV.
Li Qiong originally thought that as a winner of the Youth Song Competition, she sang a chorus with everyone to shine a picture.
Unexpectedly, after arriving, the director actually told her that she was a soloist!
Therefore, at the Spring Festival Gala in 1999, Li Qiong, dressed in red ethnic minority costumes and carrying a small bamboo basket, conquered countless audiences with a high-pitched and loud song "Eighteen Bends on the Mountain Road".
If you want to step onto the stage of the Spring Festival Gala, the process is not easy.
Especially for a newcomer who has no reputation, Li Qiong's spring festival gala road is not smooth.
In 1998, Li Qiong and her father borrowed a friend's house in the Chongwenmen Vegetable Market, and every day before dawn, his father would go to the vegetable market to buy vegetables, not only the food of the father and daughter, but more importantly, in the small bamboo basket behind Li Qiong's back when he came to power, fresh vegetables had to be prepared.
Every day at three o'clock in the afternoon, her father would send her to CCTV for rehearsals, which would not end until ten o'clock in the evening.
At that time, the preparation for the Spring Festival Gala had to go through several months, and after countless political audits and rehearsals, it was necessary to record 8 times just with makeup. Every time there is a rehearsal, there will be a show that is taken down. If you don't receive a notification the next day, it means you've been eliminated.
Moreover, that year's Spring Festival Gala was the first time to use real singing, if there is a singing out of tune, there is no need to go again.
After several months of suffering, there was the classic song sung by Li Qiong in the spring evening of 1999.
Overnight, this small girl in red became a singer who attracted everyone's attention, and the high-pitched "Eighteen Bends of the Mountain Road" also spread through the streets and became a song that everyone would hum in their mouths at that time.
04 Disappearing?
This time, Li Qiong's long-cherished "one dime and two stars" (one bar and two stars) was finally achieved.
Soon after, Li Qiong, who had just turned 24, was transferred to the Armed Police Cultural and Labor Troupe and directly became a soloist, and together with Jiang Tao, who sang "Often Go Home to See", became the "pillar" in the troupe.
Because she became famous on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala, Li Qiong not only enjoyed the highest level of treatment in the troupe, but also many famous songwriters competed to write songs for her.
For a time, Li Qiong, who became famous at a young age, had unlimited scenery and a small expansion in her heart.
But just as Li Qiong was walking towards the first peak of her life, a game pushed her into a high valley, making her almost trapped in it and unable to get up!
In 2000, Li Qiong received a task from the regiment to let her participate in the 10th Youth Song Competition, giving her only 10 days to prepare.
This is indeed a bit hasty for Li Qiong, so she chose the song "Boatman's Trumpet".
As the first girl to shout the trumpet, even the original singer Li Shuangjiang applauded her.
Unexpectedly, this song did not get the approval of the judges, and even did not enter the semi-finals!?
Sure enough, the next day, the newspaper once again described Li Qiong's exit as having a black screen, and thousands of viewers called CCTV, and they couldn't figure out how Li Qiong's so touching singing only got such a low rating.
Some newspapers even attributed Li Qiong's outing to the "hat incident".
It turned out that the host at that time was Zhu Xun, who had just returned from studying in Japan, and because of a slip of the tongue, he mistakenly reported "Li Qiong of the Armed Police Cultural and Labor Corps" as "Li Qiong of the Cultural and Labor Corps of the Armed Police."
Because of the difference in words, Li Qiong, who was waiting for the stage, had some hesitation, and she was only a few seconds late on stage, but it disrupted the rhythm of her singing, which led to the occurrence of the "hat incident".
In fact, for the sake of stage effects, the director helped Li Qiong design a hat throwing action during rehearsal, which was previously set to throw at the cameraman.
As a result, after Li Qiong finished singing, because the rhythm was disrupted, and the spotlight was a little blind, she threw her hat directly to the judges.
On such a solemn stage as the Youth Song Competition, she actually made such a disrespectful move, which led many judges to give her the lowest score.
Li Qiong, who participated in the Youth Song Competition for the second time, was once the grand prize winner, and even lost the second round.
In addition to a large number of audiences for Li Qiong, thinking that the competition has a dark curtain, at that time there was still such a voice in the outside world, saying that the former golden voice was just a vain name, Li Qiong would only rely on shouting, there was no singing technique at all, and there was no comparison with the academic school.
And the teachers who have always cared for her and loved her have advised her that it is better to go to the conservatory to study well, so that your singing style will be authentic.
In this way, Li Qiong, who was born in the class, felt helpless, learned the national singing method for 7 years, according to the characteristics of his voice, integrated a variety of singing methods, and his own singing voice was actually said to not be able to sing?
Under multiple blows, Li Qiong began to question herself, and without the courage to sing, her career also plummeted.
In recent years, whether it is a CCTV Spring Festival Gala or a large-scale party, there is no longer a figure of Li Qiong.
So, where did she go when she gradually faded from the public's vision?
In fact, over the years, Li Qiong still insists on making music, is still a singing actor in the literary troupe, and is still busy with condolence performances at the grassroots level and in the army.
Last year, in Mango Stage's "Every Day Upward", Li Qiong, who had "disappeared" for nearly 20 years, took the stage again and sang "Eighteen Bends of Mountain Road".
In the show, Li Qiong also calmly said that although she is over 40 years old, her love for music has never been reduced by half a point.
It even took more than 3 years to create a women's rock band and become a musical mentor for digging up and cultivating young people.
Although the popular pole has become a thing of the past, whether it is the girl in red who sang "Eighteen Bends of the Mountain Road" or Li Qiong, who rarely appears on the screen now, I believe that her attitude towards music has never changed, she just changed her way to continue to love her career!