Folk group falls early, but wins hearts of reality show audience

"The moment we started, we felt it was the right song to sing."

Their spontaneous move, despite being considered as "reckless" by the show's production team, touched many fans, many of whom were not familiar with the band, which has a unique, niche style, and their curiosity was aroused.

"Though I couldn't understand the lyrics because they sang in their rare local dialect, I enjoyed the song very much," says Mu Xiaodi, a music lover, who was just introduced to Wutiaoren for the first time through this show."Many lesser-known bands try to stay on the show as long as possible, so that they can get lots of exposure. However, Wutiaoren took the risk of failing to just play its music on the stage. It tugged my heartstrings. So powerful."

Maotao fell in love with rock music during high school. Some 15 years ago, he met Renke, whose family ran a small karaoke bar in a small town in Haifeng county, in 2004 when they both failed at gaokao (the college entrance examination).

The following year they began to sell cassettes and CDs on the streets of Guangzhou, the provincial capital of Guangdong. During their spare time, they started to write their own music.

"We were broke when we first played as a band," Maotao recalls."We used everything that we had as musical instruments, such as plastic trash cans and steamers that were made of stainless steel.

"The humidity in the air, narrow lanes, the small restaurants, hair salons and people around us all became inspirations for our songwriting. We enjoyed our lives even though our living conditions were harsh."

They named their band Wutiaoren because in the beginning there were five members in the band. However, by the time they releasing their debut album, titled Xiancheng Ji, or "small town story", in 2009, only Maotao and Renke remained.

In 2014, Wutiaoren got a contract with Modern Sky, one of the largest indie record labels in China, and started to release more albums and perform on nationwide tours. So far, it has released seven full-length albums.

In 2019, it embarked on its debut European tour, which inspired the band to released its latest album, titled Last Night I Dreamed of Wandering Alone.

Now, the band has two more new members: bassist He Junni and drummer Miao Changjiang.

Although the quartet failed to make the next stage of the competition, many fans expressed a wish that they could see the band perform again later on the show. And with fans' votes in the later period of the competition, the group may "be reborn on stage". But, before the band appears again, Wutiaoren has provided its music fans with a small entree by releasing a new song, titled The Globes, on July 31, which is also the titular song of－and the first the band has recorded for－their upcoming eighth studio album.