South Korea’s MBN launches first-ever metaverse-based music survival program ‘Avatar Singer’

Written by on 26/08/2022

Avatar Singer

South Korean cable channel MBN has announced Avatar Singer, a new music survival program that will see 10 top-tier musicians competing behind digital avatars.

  • READ MORE: TWICE: “Through honesty, we can protect ourselves”

Memory, Cloudy, Ian, Ran&Logi, Geumeundong, Steel, Day, Kimsoonsu, Lime and Namjafriend will compete using 3D digital avatars to conceal their identities much like the concept behind the Masked Singer series, but the program will take advantage of metaverse technology to provide the avatars with superhuman powers.

The program will be hosted by Jang Sung-kyu, with a judge’s panel that features comedian Park Mi-sun, singer Baek Ji-young, actor Choi Won-young, musical actor Kim Ho-young and singer Hwang Chi-yeul among others. A studio audience of 100 people will also determine the fate of the contestants.

According to Korea Herald, Kim Ho-Young told the outlet at a press conference that due to the virtual and augmented reality technology used to produce each episode, “each episode costs more than the most expensive sedan available.” Jang Sung-kyu added, “That means that it costs more than a billion won ($750,000) per episode which is five to ten times more than a general entertainment show usually costs.”

Avatar Singer is set to premiere this August 26 at 1030pm local time.

MBN's Avatar Singer
Credit: MBN

South Korean cable network Mnet’s own musical reality show Queendom 2 aired its final episode on June 2. The show saw six acts battling for the title of “the real number one” and saw former SISTAR member Hyolyn, VIVIZ (formerly of GFriend), Brave Girls, WJSN, LOONA, and Kep1er competing across ten episodes.

K-pop girl group WJSN emerged the winner. A Queendom 2 EP was also released featuring six brand-new, original tracks from all six contestants.

The first season of Queendom premiered in 2019. That season featured girl groups AOA, MAMAMOO, Lovelyz, OH MY GIRL, (G)I-DLE and singer Park Bom.

The post South Korea’s MBN launches first-ever metaverse-based music survival program ‘Avatar Singer’ appeared first on NME.


Reader's opinions

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *



Current track

Title

Artist