As like the previous seasons of I Am a Singer and Singer 2017, Singer 2018 was divided into four rounds of three stages, and seven singers performed for a 500-member audience each week. Similar to the previous series, the total votes cast from both Qualifiers and Knockouts determined which singer was eliminated from the competition. This series features a modification to the Challenge rounds, with the Challenger entering the competition starting at the Knockout rounds instead of Challenge round. Challengers must avoid last place on their first week in addition to finishing in the top four on the second week to be declared safe; failing either challenge instantly eliminates the singer from the competition. A new pre-voting introduced in the season, Pre-Audience Voting, replaces the Singer Voting which debuted in season 3. Midway after the fourth performance, the audience were asked to make early predictions on which three singers would receive the most votes after the remaining performances of that episode. Similar to Singer Voting, Pre-audience voting has no impact onto the outcome of the competition and does not count towards the audience's vote count. The announcement of results was also changed, with only the results for the top four revealed during the Qualifiers, while the remaining results would not be revealed until the Knockouts; in most cases, they could choose their performance order by ballot for the next night.
Contestants
The following Singer 2018 contestants are listed in alphabetical order : Key:
Contestant
Country
Music Partner
Status
Week Entered
Week Exited
Result
Initial singer
Initial singer
Initial singer
Substitute singer
Challenger
Initial singer
Initial singer
Subsistute singer
Initial singer
Challenger
Challenger
Substitute singer
Initial singer
Substitute singer
Future appearances
would appear as a contestant on the eighth season, which he won and making Hua the first previously returning singer to win the series.
The first challenger of the season was Juno Su. Due to Beijing's sudden ban on hip-hop culture, GAI withdraw from the competition; footage on GAI's performances from both episodes were edited out, and clips of his involvement in the competition were also subsequently removed from video-sharing websites as well. His appearance was neither mentioned nor shown in the later episodes, thus effectively confirmed his withdrawal from the competition.
The first substitute singer of the season was James Li. Normally Su was required to place in top four in a combination of both Knockout and Challenge rounds to be declared safe; however, due to GAI's withdrawal from last week, only the scores from the Challenge round determined the outcome alone.
The second challenger of the season was KZ Tandingan.
Overall ranking
Challenge
Taping Date: February 9, 2018
Airdate: February 16, 2018
Overall ranking
Third Round
First Round
Taping Date: February 10, 2018
Airdate: February 23, 2018
The third substitute singer of the season was Tengger. For this week, the results for this round was void due to Jessie J's illness on the following week.
The final challenger of the season was Henry Huo; Huo came in fourth and was temporarily declared safe. Normally, this round would have featured elimination; however, eliminations were cancelled as Jessie J was too ill to perform during rehearsal; Jessie would have perform "My Heart Will Go On", but actually performed the song the following week.
Knockout/Challenge
Taping Date: March 7, 2018
Airdate: March 16, 2018
As Jessie J was able to return after being absent in the previous week, this week featured a double elimination. Tandingan and Hua were initially going to perform 1st and 3rd, respectively, but both orders were swapped on mutual agreement after Tandingan not wished to perform first after doing so on last week and Hua volunteered in taking her place.
Overall ranking
Fourth Round
Qualifying
Taping Date: March 15, 2018
Airdate: March 23, 2018
Yisa Yu was the final substitute singer of the season.
Three of the six singers who were initial singers were exempt for this round, while the other three singers would participate along with previously eliminated singers for a chance to enter the finals. The performance order were determined through the contestant's status quo and their duration on the stage, with the three remaining non-initial singers, as well as James Li chose the performance order, while remaining singers went through ballot to decide the order. For the first time in the show's history, eliminations occur during the Pre-Audience Voting ; the singer receiving the fewest votes after each round of the Pre-Audience Voting will be eliminated immediately. The singers sang one song, and the four singers having the most votes qualified for the finals. Hua, James Li, Tengger & Huo were the top four singers who received the highest number of votes and advanced to the finals.
Ranking
Finals
Airdate: April 13, 2018
The finals were divided into two rounds, with the first song being a duet with a guest singer, and the second song being a solo encore performance. Similar to the previous season, votes cast were the sole determinant of the season's winner.
Round 1
The first round of the finals was a guest singer's duet. The order and grouping was determined through balloting and discussion as follows: Huo, Jessie J and Tengger were assigned as Group 1, Chang and Wang in Group 2, Hua and Li in Group 3. The singer with the highest number of votes on each group directly advanced to Round 2, leaving four singers eligible for the save through a re-vote; the singer receiving the highest number of votes cast will be saved and also advance to the second round.
Legend
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Had Henry Huo, Angela Chang and James Li advanced to the next round, they would've performed "被遗忘的时光", "Faded" and "再见忧伤" as their encore songs, respectively.
Round 2 (Winner of Battle)
The second round of the finals is an encore song, and the singer receiving the highest number of votes was crowned as the winner. The order for this round was determined by ballot, except for Tengger who would perform first for being the last to advance to Round 2.
Ranking
Jessie J was declared the winner of Singer 2018 with 47.49% of the votes cast, leading by a 21.84% margin ahead of runner-up Hua. Prior to the announcement, it was revealed that Hua's performance from week four won the "Most Popular Song" of the season.
