On the program their song was the lowest score in the room by one hundred netizens, but under the program their adapted version of the "seabed" became a hit on the music platform, breaking through 300 million plays in one day.
Since the Phoenix Legend debuted, the song's big hit and the audience's dislike have become a harmonious but contradictory presence around them.
At some point, it became clear that Phoenix Legends' songs were something everyone could do with their mouths open, but they rarely appeared on the list of people's favorite singers.
"Earth" became the reason for their rejection, but they smiled and labeled themselves as "agricultural heavy metal", and since then, Zeng Yi and Linghua, the "phoenix + phoenix" duo, have been destined to become legends.
Chen Ming talked about the Phoenix Legends' music on "Song and Praise", saying that the Phoenix Legends' songs do not depict much agriculture, nor do they talk about farming, but people will subconsciously label them as "agricultural heavy metal", just because they heard the primitive, rustic, straightforward and heroic sound from their songs.
Undeniably, this is the unique singing style of Phoenix Legends, so much so that after their cover of "Under the Sea", many people felt that the song was too un-Phoenix Legends.
In the end, what created the Phoenix Legends today, can only say that everything is the best arrangement.
Time back to 1997, 17-year-old Linghua is still in her hometown of Ordos, selling home appliances, but far away from Hunan Yiyang 18-year-old Zeng Yi has quit his job and is ready to go to Shenzhen, to the place that carries a lot of people's music dreams.
Zeng Yi came to Shenzhen for a very clear purpose, he got off the bus and came to the Golden Age cabaret where his friend was, and this is where his dream began.
Before he became the idol of the square dancers, Zeng Yi was also a teenager, nicknamed "Yiyang Zhang Guorong".
The song and dance hall is not a hard workplace for him, but a dream stage for him to dance recklessly. He relies on the advanced experience of running a nightclub when he was in school, and he sings and dances on the stage, and after the show, he can also be a host for himself.
He quickly became a pillar of the stage, and 1 year later he became the music director of the cabaret.
This year, he also met a loud Inner Mongolia girl, Linghua, at a cabaret job fair.
Like Zeng Yi, Linghua came to Shenzhen to pursue her musical dream.
She has taken the exams for the Window of the World, Folk Village and other arts and cultural organizations, and her successive failures have made her want to come to the cabaret to give it a try, but she didn't expect that this time she would really be admitted, and also become Zeng Yi's colleague, and the encounter between the two of them signaled that the establishment of the Phoenix Legends was just around the corner.
Zeng Yi, the phoenix, met Linghua, the phoenix, but they have not been in a hurry to write their own legend.
In the days before Phoenix Legends, Zeng Yi and Linghua's group was called "Cool Fire" because they both loved the Korean group Cool Dragon.
In addition to the name, the Cool Dragon's bald head, sunglasses, and gloves were the model for their early look.
In addition to "Cool Fire", Linghua and Zeng Yi also formed a trio, which they named "Hair Nerve" to attract people.
But as the name suggests, the third person in the group had a nervous breakdown because he couldn't cope with the pressure of work, and left the group not long after.
Zeng Yi and Linghua around the coming and going of a lot of people, they have witnessed in the passing of the years in each other's tacit understanding, Linghua is good at high pitch to show the magnitude of the grassland, Zeng Yi on her side with fast-paced rap to make the song more rhythmic.
They have a good understanding of each other at work, and they have a good understanding of each other at life.
As Linghua's bole and leader, Zeng Yi knows that Linghua is just a big talker on the surface, but inside she is a little girl who needs to be taken care of.
Besides singing, Zeng Yi doesn't need to let Linghua worry about almost anything, he does it all by himself, and Linghua sees it all.
In 2003, SARS ravaged the country and put the whole nation on edge. Composer He Muyang wrote a public service song for the epidemic, and he wanted a singer with power in his voice to sing the song.
While he was thinking about who would sing the song, he heard Linghua's loud and clear voice on TV, and in that moment, he decided that the song was not Linghua's.
When the song was released, Linghua's voice was heard on TV, and the song was sung by the singer.
When he came to Golden Age to look for Linghua, he saw Zeng Yi standing beside Linghua, singing rap.
As he watched the duo working together on stage, he had the idea to add a rap to the song, and "Over the Moon" was born.
With the widespread popularity of "Above the Moon" in Guangdong and Shenzhen, Cool Fire really caught fire, and they caught the attention of Chen Rentai, the owner of Guangdong Peacock Records.
This man was Zheng Yuan's uncle, the leader of Guangdong's record industry, who helped him create the hit song "Ten Thousand Reasons".
Chen Rentai decides to sign the group Cool Fire and contributes millions of dollars to make them the hottest group on the mainland.
I don't know whether it was the suddenness of happiness, or the fact that they had spent so much time in the dance halls that they had long felt that there was no hope for them to make a debut.
Until the signing of the contract, Zeng Yi still felt that they were signed because the boss of Peacock Records had his eye on Linghua, and Linghua repeatedly told Zeng Yi to save her if anything happened to her.
In 2004, Cool Fire signed with Peacock Records and changed their name to Phoenix Legends. Phoenix represents a male and a female group, and Legend is one of Zeng Yi and Linghua's favorite games at the time.
At the time, no one dared to think that a group with such a playful name would leave their legendary story in the Chinese music industry in the future, and the beginning of this story was definitely in 2005.
That year, the Phoenix Legends followed the wave of talent shows, and when all the girls in the country were eager to become superwomen, Linghua took Zeng Yi straight to the stage of "Avenue of Stars", a stage for grassroots.
After nearly 1 year of competition, they passed through five hurdles and defeated six generals, but in the end, they still failed to win over Po, who was even more original than them, and only won the annual runner-up.
Looking at the immediately on the CCTV Spring Festival stage A Bao, Phoenix Legends can only be resigned to fate, who called people only remember the champion, the runner-up does not even deserve to have a name it!
What makes Phoenix Legends even more embarrassing is their hit song "Above the Moon", which they obviously sang, and Ji Minjia's reinterpretation of it on the Supergirl stage made the song a hit again.
But no one recognized the Phoenix Legends, even though the streets were filled with the song "I'm looking at the moon".
In the first two years after their debut, the Phoenix Legends didn't make much money at all, and they relied on Zeng Yi to borrow money for their daily expenses, borrowing 100 to 50, and 1,000 to 500.
Though it wasn't easy to borrow money every time, Zeng Yi never thought of disbanding the group because he knew that Phoenix Legends could come to the present day, and that was all due to the fact that Linghua didn't abandon him.
Peacock Records only wanted to sign Linghua, but Linghua insisted on tying up with Zeng Yi before signing the contract, and Zeng Yi became a buy-one-get-one-free gift.
If it weren't for Linghua's insistence, there would be no Phoenix Legends today, and if it weren't for the Phoenix Legends gritting their teeth and continuing to chase their musical dreams, they wouldn't have come across the era that belongs to them.
In 2006, when cell phone ringtones were all the rage, "Above the Moon" became a colorful ringtone hit, and by 2007, the ringtone had been downloaded more than 79 million times.
The popularity of the ringtone made people finally remember the name of Phoenix Legends, and they finally received an invitation from the CCTV Spring Festival Gala program two years after they won the runner-up spot on the Avenue of Stars.
But how could the legend go so smoothly? Just a few days before the official broadcast of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, the song they were going to sing, "Above the Moon," was suddenly dragged into a plagiarism controversy by a report.
Although there was no substantial evidence of plagiarism, the Spring Festival Gala's practice is never to use controversial songs, so the Phoenix Legends were not able to fly freely on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala, which they desired, and this became their most painful memory in 2007.
Life is like this, when all the trials and tribulations are concentrated, sooner or later, the day will come to the bottom of the rebound, Phoenix Legend is the same.
Dry your tears, life goes on, and Phoenix Legend still sings the most uplifting songs, with a song called "Freedom to Fly" taking over from "Above the Moon" as the latest ringtone hit.
"Above the Moon" was also confirmed by experts that there was no plagiarism, and they finally straightened up and took the famous song to the stage of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala.
From then on, the story of the Phoenix Legends is only the word "legend", and they became a regular guest at the CCTV and major TV shows. From "The Most Dazzling Ethnic Wind" to "Moonlight in the Lotus Pond", one of the most popular songs every year, the Phoenix Legends became the most popular group in the country.
When their music resonates in all corners of the square and becomes the favorite rhythmic beat of the grandparents, their songs have indeed become a cross age, through the urban and rural areas of the existence of the "earth" has also become synonymous with them.
But the Phoenix Legends, who have experienced the ups and downs of life, have long since lived a life of sobriety on earth, and they have never resisted being called "dirt".
One of them grew up in the countryside of Hunan province, and the other one ran in the grassland of Inner Mongolia, and the smell of the countryside and grassland on their bodies is their root, which will accompany them for the rest of their lives.
And the producer Zhang Chao, who customized the song for them, his creative concept is to make it accessible to all.
But people have to interpret universal popularity as "dirt", which is not the original intention of Phoenix Legends and Zhang Chao, but their aim has been achieved, because their songs have been sung into the hearts of the people.
But there are times when we've been hit in the face, when Phoenix Legends embraced the jitterbug era on the stage of "Praise for Songs", when they sang the lonely, depressed version of "The Bottom of the Sea" into a sunny, healing version of "The Bottom of the Sea", and when it's time to tear off the label of "Country Heavy Metal".
It turns out that "country" has always been their own choice, they just want to sing songs that uplift the people of China, but their songs, while trekking across the country's landscapes, are also tainted with the smoky atmosphere of the marketplace.
"Earth" is just the coat of their songs, the vulgar that is elegant is the connotation of their songs, their legend is also because of this "earthy", and ultimately stayed in the chapter known as the People's Artist.