YES 993 presenters Zhong Kunhua and Chen Ning are set to host a new singing competition premiering on Mediacorp in November. This is no ordinary contest, though: the contestants are your favourite local personalities.

Slated to drop on Nov 2, SPOP WAVE! pits eight public figures against one another in a team-battle format with knockout elimination rounds.

So who are the eight celebs? Well, here’s the thing: it’s a secret. The competition will kick off with two preliminary or ‘Masked Singer’ rounds where the contestants’ identities are concealed until the end of each episode.

With singer-composer Hong Jungyang and singing duo The Freshman as mentors, the two groups will then move on to other challenges — like a duet with a mystery singer — and face potential elimination before the last three standing face off in the Grand Final on Dec 21.

Throughout SPOP WAVE!, contestants will perform local songs and be judged by a panel of homegrown and international musicians and singers for their vocal quality, pitch, rhythm, expression ability as well as stage presence.

The public can also play a role on the show as well — by voting for their favourite local tunes from among 50 shortlisted songs. The Top 20 chosen songs will be performed by contestants during the preliminary rounds.

Online voting begins Friday (Oct 15), 10pm, at melisten.sg/spopwave, and will end on Oct 20, 11.59pm.

SPOP Wave! is part of Mediacorp’s SPOP initiative that was first launched in 2018 with SPOP SING!. Its objective: to celebrate Singaporean music and shine a spotlight on local talents, while offering them the opportunity to showcase their music passion through Mediacorp’s media network.