All Chinese song titles will be in hanzi in-text. The first time a song is mentioned, when you hover over it (or click on mobile) it will show a translation and a link to a video, and in the endnotes of chapters I'll include links to all new songs mentioned, along with a lyric translation if the video doesn't have it. If the artist has released an official English title, I'll use that instead of a translation. After the first time a song is mentioned, it will simply be in hanzi, no hovertext.

The one exception is 忘羡, which I'm just calling Wangxian in-text. You can imagine the tune as being as similar to or different from Wuji as you'd like.

When Chinese lyrics are quoted, they'll be in hanzi with the translation hovertext every time they appear. Translations may not always match whatever translation I link in the notes, sorry. It's whatever translation of that specific line that I like best.

I'm trying to keep all Mandarin in simplified, but song titles and lyrics are often in traditional for some reason, so a bit might've slipped in.

Whether I refer to a irl artist by their English or Chinese name is up to the whims of whichever one my brain happened to latch onto when I first heard of them.

It's a singing survival show, except only just barely. It's mostly about mentorship - there are two groups, each of which is made up of four seniors who've been in the business for decades and four juniors who are anywhere from just barely starting out to being about a decade into their career. They pair up into jr/sr pairs and perform duets together throughout the season, the seniors mentoring the juniors. While there is a "winner," by the finale usually at least half the pairs are still in the show.

They change the exact format every season, but we're going to pretend like it still works like it did the early seasons and ignore whatever the hell they were doing with S6 where they seem to have kinda given up on the mentorship thing.

The episodes alternate between the four pairs in Group A and the four pairs in Group B, until toward the end when they start mixing them up and eliminations start happening. Wangxian are in Group A, so we're skipping a lot of Group B episodes.

In reality, Xiao Zhan was in S1 of Our Song - in this universe, Wei Wuxian was in S1 instead. You can go ahead and pretend that WWX got Na Ying as a mentor just like XZ, though I never mention it.

Note that while in reality the show ended after S6 last year, this is set in S8 (so late summer to early fall 2026).

I think it's filmed in Shanghai, so that's where they are in this fic. I'm not sure, though - it's surprisingly hard information to find!

WWX - 35, tenor, debuted at age 16 with a kpop group (kinda like Yibo), went solo when the group broke up a few years later. Kind of a male Angela Chang. You can pretend his voice sounds a lot like Xiao Zhan's probably, but that's where the similarities end - he is bubblegum dance pop, not a crooner. Chin-length, kinda wavy hair (basically XZ's Faded hair).

XXC & SL - Late 50s. Both are originally from Taiwan, both became famous in the early-mid 90s, but in totally different genres—XXC in more traditional Chinese pop (very "easy listening" love songs), SL in rock. They've been together since early in their careers, which has been an open secret within the industry for a while but very few fans suspected until 2-3 years ago when they got married and came out publicly.

Mianmian - 40, I see her career and style as being very similar to Penny Tai's (possibly including the brief foray into a Taiwanese alt rock band in the late 2010s)

Bao Shan - 70, 1970s Hong Kong rock star who fronted her band Sanren. Eccentric old rock lady.

Nie Huaisang - Also 35. He trained with WWX for kpop idoldom, but washed out at the end and instead went and formed a rock-slash-whatever-else-they-feel-like band called Headshaker.

Wen Qing - A couple years older than WWX. Similar to Mianmian, but known for very bitter love songs.

Jin Guangshan - Late 60s, don't worry about him, he's not around for very long

Wen Chao - Late 40s. Unfortunately this is who replaces JGS. Dollar store Jay Chou. Not related to Wen Qing & Wen Ning.

LWJ - 30, an opera star specializing in Kunqu opera from Suzhou. A few months ago he released a pop single for a charity thing and it became a runaway success, so now he is maybe dabbling in pop music? Baritone, but has trained his upper range thanks to his opera training and so can handle countertenor parts in some of the songs they do on the show. His voice probably does not sound anything like Yibo's. Long, straight hair, a little longer than shoulder length.

A-Qing - 18, a college student who's barely old enough to be on the show, won some youth contest that got her her first single. Just starting out but likely going in a dance-pop direction.

Xue Yang - 25, a rocker who's also released some ballads on OSTs just because they sell better, but hates them.

Wen Ning - late 20s, forever in his sister's shadow which is unfortunate because he's super talented.

Lan Jingyi - early 20s, doesn't like to box himself in with things like "genres". Not related to Lan Wangji.

Ouyang Zizhen - mid-20s, love songs all the way of course, vocal style similar to Wang Sulong.

Su She - 28, also not around for very long

Wang Lingjiao - 23, has a good voice but no artistry