A 27-year-old Russian has become an accidental pop sensation in China for his reluctant performances on a boy- band selection show.
Vladislav Ivanov from Vladivostok, Russia, is one of 25 finalists on Chinese tech giant Tencent’s Produce Camp 2021, and was selected from 90 local and overseas contestants. The 11 eventual winners will go on to become part of an international boy band.
Calling himself Lelush – after Lelouch Lamperouge, a character from his favourite Japanese anime series, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion – Ivanov’s nonchalance about his potential stardom has won him legions of fans since the Chinese show began broadcasting in February.
He has repeatedly said that he doesn’t want to be on the contest and has implored the audience to stop voting for him so that he can go home.
“Becoming a member of a boy band is not my dream as I can’t sing and dance,” he said in Chinese on the show.
“I hope the judges won’t support me. While the others want to get an A, I want to get an F as it stands for freedom.”
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While most of the pop idol wannabes have been pulling out all the stops to impress the audience and judges, Ivanov gave a perfunctory, clumsy performance of Russian rap song Jackpot in the first round of the competition.
The audience lapped it up, seemingly finding the laid-back charm of a reluctant, bored, sometimes angry Ivanov a welcome change from the industry’s typical cookie-cutter youth idols. The public votes have sent him into the final round of the competition, which is slated for broadcast on April 24.
Chinese internet users have turned Ivanov’s angry, withering expressions on the show into viral social media emoji.
Ivanov, a part-time model and translator fluent in English and Chinese, joined the show after his friend Ivan Wang (the chief executive of star agency King Enterprises Group) asked him to be a chaperone and Chinese translator for the firm’s two Japanese artists on the show.
Produce Camp 2021 is filmed on an artificial island off the coast of Hainan, China’s southernmost province. When Ivanov arrived on the island with the two Japanese entertainers, he was often mistaken for a contestant by staff. Ivanov has made it clear on-screen that he had been persuaded to take part by the show’s director.
“I originally came here to help my two Japanese friends learn Chinese. The director knew that I can speak Chinese and my appearance is OK,” he said. “So he asked me whether I wanted to try living in a new way.”
Ivan Wang told Chinese entertainment blog yuci-er that Ivanov has refused repeated approaches from several agencies because he doesn’t like to be on screen.
“One time, I got him a modelling job in Hong Kong, he sent me a SOS message saying he couldn’t stand it five minutes after arriving on set,” Wang said. “He declined repeated participation requests by the director of Produce Camp 2021. He said yes after getting bored on the island. He thought joining the show could also help change his introverted personality.”
As the show progressed, and fed up with the endless rounds of singing and dancing, Ivanov wanted to withdraw – but did not want to pay the exorbitant penalty fee to break the terms of his contract.
To convince audiences to vote him out, Ivanov sports a messy hairstyle and often fluffs answers to questions put to him on the show. To his dismay, his fan base kept growing, and he now has more than 840,000 fans on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform.
Billboards in support of him have started appearing in shopping centres across China.
Social media personalities in Russia have started a “free Lelush” campaign, castigating China and Tencent for holding him hostage.
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After reaching the final, Ivanov said on Weibo that he is afraid of the outcome and of potentially being trapped in a life he doesn’t want.
“I know how much they want to see me,” he said. “But appearing on the show [and] being in a boy band are two different things. I still believe the judges will respect my choice.”
