It is that time once again! The time when fans go into a frenzy voting for their favourite members hoping that they will find their way to the top of the SNH48 hierarchy… the Top 48 of the 6th General Elections!
Over 200 members of SNH48, BEJ48, and GNZ48 gathered in Shanghai on the week of July 27th for this annual extravaganza of music, spectacle, and lots and lots of handshakes. The Mercedes Benz Arena played host to the assembled fans with millions more watching on Migu Music throughout China and on Youtube in the rest of the world.
Li YiTong
of SNH48 Team HII (2nd generation) once again prevailed to win the crown with a total of 1,483,041.5 votes followed by Mo Han
of SNH48 Team SII (1st generation) and Duan YiXuan
of BEJ48 Team B (SNH48 5th generation) in third place! Duan YiXuan becomes in the process the first member of a sister group to crack the Top 3!
With the expected graduation of the 1st and 2nd generation members soon upon us, this event marked the beginning of a new chapter in the history of SNH48 Group and, based on the performance of the new girls this year, the future looks bright!
Let’s work our way through what happened on the big day!
KTV on “TV Station 48”
SNH48 had in the past always shown the action backstage of the elections online with interviews with various members. This year, they decided to leverage their new web show “TV Station 48” and host a KTV version.
On with the show!
The night kicked off at 4:48pm with the traditional pre-ceremony concert featuring all teams as well as the winners from the previous election (full concert and ceremony in the video above.)
The election song from 2018 (below) was performed first followed by team songs and then units featuring the top members from last year.
As is the norm, STAR48 used the occasion to make a few announcements.
6th Best50 Request Time Concert
Due to Chinese New Year being in January in 2020, the annual SNH48 Group Best50 Request Time Concert will be held in the city of Guangzhou on December 21st, 2019.
Upcoming Dramas and Movies
Studio48 (the movie production subsidiary of STAR48) showed off the several new projects they are working on for the next year.
Infinite 48 Anime
A new trailer for the first SNH48 anime “Infinite 48” co-produced with Tencent was presented to the fans including the reveal that members Zhao Yue, Mo Han, and Xu JiaQi would make appearances in 2D form.
IQIYI Idol Producer
It was finally revealed that SNH48 Group would be participating in the next season of the IQIYI idol show “青春有你” (“Idol Producer”) which will feature female artists. It is yet unknown which members will participate. Fans had been wondering why STAR48 kept passing on the various talent shows that have surfaced throughout China over the last 2 years.
DeMoon debut stage
The new SNH48 subunit formed during the last Best50 Request Time concert was officially renamed from “Dreamfairy” to “DeMoon” at their debut during the election.
Trained in Shanghai and South Korea by a South Korean team, they presented their first single titled “FOX.”
Read our coverage in a seperate article.
Tribute to the Pioneers
Everything culminated with a special tribute to the remaining first generation members of SNH48 (the “pioneers”) who are at their last election as their 8 year contracts are about to end.
Chen GuanHui
, Chen Si
, Dai Meng
, Kong XiaoYing
, Li YuQi
, Mo Han, Qian BeiTing
, Qiu XinYi
, Wu ZheHan
, Xu ChenChen
, Xu JiaQi
, and Zhang YuGe
all performed songs from the early days of SNH48.
The missing few
As we previously reported, several fan clubs were unhappy with how STAR48 managed their idols since the 2018 elections. After trying but failing to get the attention of management, they decided to boycott the event this year.
However, the numbers also reflect a generational change within the group and are a positive indicator that new generations are able to support an election.
The idols themselves were still participating but, without that support, they had no chance at all of ranking. The members that were caught in that web were: Huang TingTing
(Team NII), Lin SiYi
(Team HII), Lu Ting
(Team NII), and Zhao Yue
(Team NII).
It is not to say that the members impacted do not suffer from the fact they will not rank in this election.
The absence of those top members also had an impact on the revenue of the election as the total votes cast for the Top 48 were down around 16% compared to last year.
And the 2019 winners are:
Now is the time to take a look at all of our winners for this year. The absence of key members opened up the field considerably despite the reduction from 66 seats to 48 (caused by the disbandment of SHY48 and CKG48).
No less than 12 new faces have entered the ranking this year while a sister group member for the first time reached the Top 3 of the contest!
Top 16
Top 32 and Top 48
Sister groups Top 16
As per last year, each of the two SNH48 sister groups (BEJ48 / GNZ48) also had their own respective Top 16 ranking based on election results.
