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Viral video of kids singing on China TV show sparks autotune debate

A viral video of kids singing on the show "China's New Generation of Sound" has sparked controversy over its perceived use of autotune.

In the video, the two child singers, Jeffrey Li, aged 10, and Celine Tam, aged 7, wowed viewers with a stunning rendition of "You Raise Me Up". On YouTube, the video has earned more than six million views, 15,000 likes and 1,300 comments.

However, the video has also come under criticism from viewers for the show's perceived use of autotune for the child singers.

The top comment on the video was by Daniel Kim, a singer with more than 800,000 subscribers, who said, "Most people who have worked with the digital manipulation of audio will be able to spot the poor, not-so-subtle pitch correction used on their voices. I'm sure their original voices would have sounded great... but it makes me wonder how much of it is all real."

 

Photo: Screengrab from Youtube comment thread
Photo: Screengrab from Youtube comment thread

Commenters were divided over the authenticity of the child singers' voices, with some stating that the autotune "is easy to spot". Others defended the authenticity of the kids voices, with one saying, "Their vocal chords are moving so they're actually singing".

Notably, Celine Tam's father runs a YouTube channel with other videos of her singing. See for yourself if she's the real deal.