Golden tenor

A young singer, who starred in a TV talent show, releases a much-anticipated single in the pop-opera subgenre, Xing Wen reports.

The young bel canto tenor Cai Chengyu's unexpected foray into classical singing began by chance.

During the final music class of his first year at Sucheng No 1 Middle School in Suzhou, Anhui province, his classmates egged him on to perform a song in front of the entire class. As he finished his impromptu performance, his music teacher recognized his natural ability to sing and encouraged him to consider pursuing a career in music.

Inspired by the suggestion, Cai decided to pursue his passion for singing and enrolled into the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 2015 where he nurtured his passion for classical music. Three years later, he debuted on Super Vocal, a talent show in China produced by Hunan Satellite TV for classically trained singers, where his vocal abilities led to a large following. After that he started to experiment with singing by using techniques that blend elements of both pop music and classical bel canto singing, or in other words, adopting the pop-opera singing style.