The anniversary of the 5·12 earthquake is approaching, and a grand artistic gala named "365 Blessings" organized by CCTV's Heart-to-Heart program will be recorded on May 9th and 10th. This gala is produced by the same team that created the 2009 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, and its scale surpasses all previous Spring Festival Galas. A reporter obtained the program list yesterday morning. Informed sources analyzed that the tone of this gala is particularly aimed at "boosting morale"; its scale is unprecedentedly strong—28 well-known CCTV anchors will appear together on stage along with nearly a hundred celebrities who are participating free of charge; the program arrangement closely follows the theme—mainly songs, and all of them are inspiring and emotional ballads. The gala will be broadcast on CCTV-1 on May 13th.
The main venue of the gala will be set up in the prefabricated housing area of No. 2 Overpass Bridge in Mianzhu City, while the sub-venues will be in Beichuan’s Leigu Town and Dongqi in Deyang. Informed sources introduced that "boosting morale" will be the main purpose of this large-scale artistic gala, because the deceased have already passed away, and the living need more courage and blessings. "The opening song of the gala is '365 Blessings' sung in chorus by 24 hosts, which fits the theme and conveys heartfelt sentiments," the informed source explained. Songs like "Victory", "Thank You, Country, Thank You, Party", "Everyday Upward", "Tomorrow Will Be Better"... This gala has a total of 22 programs, among which songs account for 18, exceeding 90% of the total number of programs, each song aligning with the theme of "boosting morale." CCTV's "King of Sketch Comedy" Zhao Benshan will not perform a sketch comedy but instead sing the theme song of the TV series "Rural Love Story." Apart from the 18 songs, the remaining four programs are: interactive crosstalk "I Sing For You" by Feng Gang and others, crosstalk "Five Senses News" by Ma Dong and others, interactive skit "A Volunteer" by Huang Hong, and poetry recitation "Us" by Zhao Zhongxiang and others. Why doesn't the gala feature popular songs? Why are there so few sketches and crosstalks? In response to these questions, informed sources stated: "This is determined based on the program situation and the tone of the gala."
To organize this gala successfully, CCTV mobilized forces from all aspects and dispatched multiple well-known anchors. This gala is co-hosted by Zhou Tao, Zhu Jun, Dong Qing, and Bai YanSong. Zhao Zhongxiang, Bi FuJian, Sa BeiNing, Wang XiaoYa, and 24 other famous anchors also came to support the event, singing the theme song "365 Blessings" together. The stage of this gala will be built on an open space, and it is expected that over 10,000 audience members will watch the show live, making it the largest Heart-to-Heart gala ever held. The number of guests at previous Heart-to-Heart galas did not exceed 30 people, but this gala will include nearly a hundred performing arts stars, including big-name figures like Jackie Chan and Zhao Benshan. All the stars voluntarily participated in the performance without any labor fees. (By Liu Jia)
CCTV "5·12" Gala Program List (Please click the link address to view)