Battle of the Buskers

Battle of the Buskers () is a singing reality competition organized by Mediacorp Channel 8. The season premiered on its Mediacorp streaming website meWATCH and its YouTube channel on 23 July 2023, and the finals are slated to be held on 5 November 2023.

Development
First teased during the Star Awards 2023 show, the competition was announced on 8 May 2023 and auditions are opened on that date until May 26. Buskers with a valid identification issued by the National Arts Council of Singapore are eligible to take part. Acts can either be a solo act or as a group, and has no age limits.

Contestants 
A list of 16 busking acts were announced on 13 July 2023, which feature 10 groups and six solo acts, including its youngest-ever contestant in Singapore's reality competition history. The list are as follows:

Key:
 – Winner
 – Runner-Up
 – Third place
 – Finalist
 – Semifinalist/Eliminated on the Semifinal
 – Quarterfinalist/Eliminated on the second Quarterfinals
 – Quarterfinalist/Eliminated on the first Quarterfinals

Live shows summary

Results summary 
Result details

Live Busking rounds 
For the next four Sundays from 23 July to 13 August, four acts would compete in one of four rounds, each with a designated location across Singapore. Each busker had to sing two songs (with no particular genre) for this round, along with an interlude between songs to entertain the audience. QR codes directing to vote for the busker will be provided during the performance. Voting lines open during the episode's livestream at 4 p.m. until 11.59 p.m., which requires an active meCONNECT account in order to vote. Closed captioning for meWATCH are later added for past livestreams after voting period ended. A second round of voting for all buskers reopen on 14 August from 4.30 pm for 24 hours. Only public votes decided solely on the outcome itself; the ten acts with the most votes after four weeks will advance to the quarterfinals, which were announced on 22 August.

Color key:

Week 1 (23 July)
The first round was held at Hougang Central Hub, located nearby Hougang Mall.

Week 2 (30 July)
The second round was held at Paya Lebar Quarter (PLQ). Ng's father Eric appeared as an audience member.

Week 3 (6 August)
The third round was held at Waterway Point at Punggol. Part III's member Tan Yi Zhen was absent on that day of performance due to illness.

Week 4 (13 August)
The fourth and final round was held at Westgate, Singapore.

Elimination rounds 
The top ten buskers will compete in five weeks of elimination rounds beginning 23 September to determine the winner of the competition. Unless otherwise stated, each episode's pre-recorded live-stream begin at 4.30 p.m.; similar to the Busking rounds, voting opens at the start of livestream until 11.59 p.m. (except for the Final), and requires a valid meCONNECT account to cast their vote. Like the Busking rounds, captions are added progressively after voting lines are closed. A two-part post-produced version of the competition, with never-before-seen behind-the-scenes and post-competition footage and its results, would broadcast on Channel 8 on Wednesday and Thursday 8 pm (with meWATCH publishing the episode prior to broadcast)).

Introduced as a twist during the elimination rounds (打赏战币), at any time during each of the performance, audience with a liking of it are allowed to go to the booth to collect a gold coin and then tip it to the suitcase. Each audience member was entitled to one coin per busker, and they can either choose to tip it or not for a particular singer. These battle coins would be used to "purchase" songs from a set of its songlist and determine their performance order. The number of coins obtained for each busker, along with the results for the week's performance were announced on the Thursday's episode.

Top 10 showcases (23 September) 
The top ten performed its exhibition performances at Plaza Singapura. The first round of the voting took place, and votes from that week were carried over to the next week quarterfinals. While this week was a non-elimination, the bottom three in terms on the public vote were announced during the Thursday's episode (highlighted in blue).

Quarterfinal 1 (30 September) 
The first quarterfinal took place at Funan. Unlike the first week, buskers are not known on how many coins they earned during the performance, but instead being informed on the outcome of the results. The two buskers accumulating the fewest votes cast from the two weeks of shows would face elimination.

The songs are determined by the buskers through a format similar to auction sniping, and the song is given to the busker with the highest bid among other buskers who were interested in performing said song. The remaining coins will determine the busker's priority on allocating their order of performance; ties are broken by number of remaining coins, then the accumulated number of coins.

 Non-competition performance: AL4HA ("自由" / "你的呼唤")

Quarterfinal 2 (7 October) 
Based on the number of coins obtained from the first quarterfinal, the busker will pair with another busker to perform at either one of four locations indicated below. Votes for the pair of buskers are unified, and the pair accumulating the fewest votes will be eliminated on the conclusion of this episode. Guest hosts and YES 933 radio anchors Zhu Zeliang and Lin Pin Juan were live at Bugis+. Unlike the first two weeks, there was only one post-produced episode airing on Wednesday.
 Non-competition performances: Gavin Teo (Wisma Atria; "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love for You"/"浪費"), Gao Meigui and Corrine Goh (Plaza Singapura; "空白格"/"你的甜蜜"), Hazelle Teo and Herman Keh (Bugis+; dance skit), Zhu Zeliang (Bugis+; "纸飞机") XXMXRCS (Cathay Cineleisure Orchard; "Down4U"/"我相信")

Semifinal (14 October) 
The semifinalists compete at ION Orchard for a place in the final, singing on both local mandopop and xinyao songs. In addition to the public vote, the semifinal also features a judging panel, which consists of Peter Li, Hong Junyang and Ling Kai, in-lieu on the battle coins. The ratio for public vote-judge's score is 30%-70%, and the busker with the lowest overall score will be eliminated.

In the Wednesday's episode, buskers had to agree an amount of coins to be split among their partners. Unlike the first quarterfinal, the songlist (for the local mandopop songs) available by auction are referred by a part of the song's lyrics and not its actual name. Afterwards, priority for allocating order of performance starts on the busker with the least coins remaining, but subsequent buskers can override the order of other buskers if they desire. In the Thursday's episode, it was revealed that each song also contain another songlist of three songs (for xinyao songs) for the busker to choose from based on which song they picked.

 Non-competition performance: Jocie Guo ("温习"/"二人同行")

Final (5 November) 
The finals will take place at CQ @ Clarke Quay Fountain Square. Special guests appearing in the final include Priscilla Abby, Jim Lim, Pakho Chau, Kay Huang, Kelvin Tan and Shigga Shay. The broadcast will begin at 7.30pm instead. A two-episode pre-show will also broadcast on 1 and 2 November leading up to the final.

 Non-competition performance: TBA

Contestant appearances on other talent shows 
 Dawn Yap was a contestant and as a runner-up of the singing competition segment in the Season 28 (November 2020-February 2021) of the long-running game show The Sheng Siong Show.
 Steve Han of Be Happy was a contestant and winner in the 2013 season of Golden Age Talentime.

Notes

References

External links
 Offical website
 meWATCH microsite

2023 in Singaporean television
Buskers
Street performance
Singaporean singing competitions