330 A chance to show up in front of an audience of hundreds of millions of fans around the world
After playing football, the players from both teams gathered together, and then gathered in private in their own small circles.
Cheng Long held on to Cao Xuan and took him to see a group of celebrities in Xiangjiang to help him introduce them to them.
Cao Xuan followed Cheng Long and took photos with these Xiangjiang celebrities, but he always felt that the process looked a bit familiar. Looking back, he thought, wasn't this the situation when he and Xiao Zhou were together, the eldest brother and the younger brother recognized each other.
If you act as someone's brother, you will also be treated as someone else's brother.
Cao Xuan didn't know if this was retribution, but Cheng Long, who was born in 1954, was one year older than his father, Comrade Cao, and the same age as his master, Li Xuejian, so it was not a disadvantage to be called Big Brother.
After playing a game of football and getting together in the evening, Cao Xuan returned to the crew of "Eternal Dragon Sword" the next day to continue filming.
On that day, it was also the opening ceremony and the first game of the World Cup, which also meant that Pepsi and Warner's efforts to promote Cao Xuan to perform at the opening ceremony were cancelled.
However, the cancellation of the opening ceremony does not mean that the two companies have given up on the closing ceremony. As long as there is hope, they are still willing to give it a try.
In particular, the song performances at the opening ceremony of Japan and South Korea did not achieve the expected results, which gave the two companies even more confidence.
Cao Xuan also watched the live broadcast of the opening ceremony of the World Cup between Japan and South Korea. Frankly speaking, it was very Japanese and Korean, and there were some highlights. At least it was much better than the gloomy Tokyo Underworld Olympics.
But the singing part that Cao Xuan pays most attention to is indeed not very outstanding.
For this Japan-Korea World Cup, the organizing committee specially found 6 Japanese and Korean singers to form a group called "The Voice of Japan and South Korea".
Singers include the Japanese chemical super boy group, Japanese mixed-race singer Sowe Lu (female), and Korean brown-eyed boy group Park Jung Hyun (female).
I don’t know what the organizing committee was thinking. They left national singers like Ayumi Hamasaki and Lee Jung-hyun alone and created such a group.
Except for Chemistry Man and Park Jung-hyun, the six singers are relatively well-known, and the other three are just emerging stars. It is estimated that many people in Japan and South Korea do not know them.
The theme song of the opening ceremony is a trilingual song in Japanese, Korean and English, with Japanese and Korean being the main text. Originally, due to cultural barriers, it was not easily recognized by foreign fans.
But it is also understandable. After all, on this occasion, the importance of highlighting and adhering to national elements is greater than the so-called popularity.
If China were to host the World Cup, the opening ceremony would definitely not involve singing only English songs for the sake of so-called popularity. At the very least, it would be bilingual in both Chinese and English.
This approach is normal, but it is somewhat unreasonable to not even show the famous artists, but to find a bunch of second- and third-tier or even newcomers who are not famous and cannot be said to be able to win over popular singers.
You must know that the Beijing Olympics officially opened with only Liu Huan and Sarah, but at the end, in order to ensure an orderly exit of the audience, an Easter egg concert was actually arranged with a luxurious lineup.
Including Cheng Long, led by Liu Tianwang, Zhou Huajian, Mok Wenwei, Han Hong, Sun Nan, Wang Banbi, Xie Feng, Sun Yue, Joey Yung, Jiuyue Miracle, etc...
Looking at it this way, Cao Xuan felt that the Japan-Korea World Cup Organizing Committee was too small. Of course, it is also possible that they did not want to dominate the scene. After all, there was a football match immediately following.
But no matter what, this helped Cao Xuan invisibly.
If the performance at the opening ceremony was really good, Cao Xuan would have nothing to worry about. But now that their performance was not strong, they gave Cao Xuan a chance.
Especially when "Waving Flag" became more and more popular, coupled with Cao Xuan's Asian identity, he had the hope of replacing or supplementing the performance at the closing ceremony.
Everyone is very realistic. Since Japanese and Korean singers cannot do it, let Chinese singers do it.
Cao Xuan is famous both in Asia and internationally. He also has popular football songs, so he is indeed one of the best performers.
Warner and Pepsi are working hard on public relations and quietly filming on the set to wait for news. The connections he has are good in China, but they really can't be used in Asia.
The only one who is more capable is the three-star princess, but he will not go to find her, and the other party may not be willing to help him. Even if she is willing, it will not be of much use with Li Fuzhen's current size.
While waiting, the crew of "The Legend of Heaven and the Dragon Slayer" also found a large screen and projector to watch the national football match.
How should I put it? Cao Xuan thought that his butterfly effect could affect the national football team to some extent, and he didn't expect to win. Even if he scored one goal, he would be satisfied.
But it's a pity that the national football team was still given 9 goals and returned home. If it weren't for Saudi Arabia's 0:8 German team, which was at the bottom, they would have suffered a big loss this time.
Cao Xuan has also witnessed countless fans in the past few days criticizing the national football team, turning fans into fans and turning against fans, and the Internet and the media are overwhelmingly scolding them.
Cao Xuan didn't say a word, even when reporters came to ask him what he thought, but he didn't respond.
From now on, watching football is all about watching football, and if you want him to express any opinions about the national football team, you have to be cautious.
Because of the defeat of the national football team, the atmosphere among Cao Xuan and the entire crew was not very good.
Until June 18, the knockout rounds between South Korea and Italy started. Under the spotlight, they relied on referees and black feet to enter the quarterfinals.
Everyone was blown away. Media from all walks of life came out one after another about this game. Except for South Korea, they were basically negative. The most extreme ones were Japan and Italy.
Needless to say, Italy went crazy with hatred when it was blackmailed and cursed by South Korea.
Japan, which was eliminated by Turkey, feels that South Korea's behavior has discredited the Japan-Korea World Cup and put Japan's achievements and efforts into shame.
The two countries were not at odds with each other in the first place, but conflicts arose during the World Cup, and they started to quarrel with each other, with new and old grudges.
For Cao Xuan, the opportunity he had been waiting for had come.
Japan is somewhat ambiguous about Cao Xuan's proposal to appear in the closing ceremony, but South Korea strongly opposes it.
But this match against Italy made South Korea lose their support. Even if many people did not support Cao Xuan, they would not support South Korea.
Upon seeing this, Pepsi-Cola and Warner took the initiative to approach Sony.
Sony is a partner of FIFA, including the music aspect of this World Cup, which is also promoted by Sony. Needless to say, Sony's power in Japan can directly influence the Japanese side of the World Cup Organizing Committee.
It stands to reason that the last time Cao Xuan renewed his contract with Warner, although he made it clear early on and it was not a joke, Sony must have felt uncomfortable.
However, some senior executives at Sony who couldn't stand it really appreciated Cao Xuan, or the benefits that Cao Xuan could bring.
You know, no matter how hard Sony put it before, they could not win out an Asian international singing superstar, but Cao Xuan gave them hope.
Although Cao Xuan is now from Warner, Sony has not given up hope of poaching him.
Didn't we almost succeed at first? If we work harder next time, we would be completely successful.
Sony covets Cao Xuan, which also means that Sony does not want to break up with Cao Xuan. Although Sony will not support some things, it will never cause trouble openly.
In order to win the World Cup closing ceremony performance, Warner and Pepsi-Cola made some exchanges of interests with Sony, and also increased their output to FIFA President Sepp Blatter.
Sony's attitude was relaxed, coupled with its intention to sell Cao Xuan's personal favor and express its willingness to support, the Japanese side of the Japan-Korea World Cup Organizing Committee also relented.
Needless to say, Blatter, as long as he has enough [knife], he dares to arrange for Cao Xuan to kick twice in the finals.
In addition, Cao Xuan also contacted Zhang Jilong, vice chairman of the Asian Football Confederation, through his own network, who was the European Emperor who got a good draw and entered the World Cup as the national football team.
Vice Chairman Zhang of the AFC must support Cao Xuan. Since the World Cup is held in Japan and South Korea in Asia, the AFC can also provide certain guidance on part of the World Cup work to a certain extent.
It can be said that Cao Xuan was able to use almost all his power, but the enemy's resistance was still huge.
South Korea has great power in the World Cup Organizing Committee. Originally, this World Cup was the World Cup in Japan, but South Korea grabbed half of the share by force, and was able to kick Italy away openly, which shows how deep its tentacles are.
If South Korea just insists on not letting Cao Xuan play, there is nothing Cao Xuan can do.
But there is no end to the road. South Korea first defeated Italy, then defeated Spain, and openly "killed" into the semi-finals in front of more than one billion fans, completely arousing public outrage.
It is said that the German team, which will play against South Korea in the semi-finals, even threatened to strike, forcing FIFA and the organizing committee to be fair and just.
It was pointed out by hundreds of countries and reviled by hundreds of millions of people. Even the shameless top management of the Korean Organizing Committee was under great pressure. They were busy trying to eliminate the negative impact and couldn't even care about Cao Xuan.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Pepsi and Warner launched a public relations campaign to secure Cao Xuan's opportunity to perform at the World Cup closing ceremony.
Pepsi is delighted that a promotional song has become the theme song and will be performed at the World Cup closing ceremony.
It can be said that in this midsummer, Pepsi-Cola fought a good battle and kept Coca-Cola at the bottom. At the same time, it also accumulated experience and qualifications. It can gain more exposure and support in the next World Cup.
Warner is even more happy. Except for the final public relations stage, it has produced a global hit song and a superstar who will appear in the World Cup closing ceremony. It is pie in the sky.
The happiest person is naturally Cao Xuan. The World Cup is different from the Olympic Games. The opening ceremony of the latter has the highest ratings, but the final of the former is the key.
The closing ceremony precedes the finals, and even if it only gets a small portion of the viewership, it still shows its face in front of hundreds of millions of fans around the world.
In terms of influence alone, this World Cup closing ceremony performance is better than the domestic Spring Festival Gala and the American Super Bowl. If you can perform once, you can brag about it for a lifetime...
