July 19 (2016-07-19) – September 27, 2016 (2016-09-27)
Girl Spirit (Korean: 걸스피릿) is a South Korean reality television singing competition that premiered on cable network JTBC on July 19, 2016. The aim of the show is to highlight the talents of the vocalists of twelve lesser-known girl groups that debuted in recent years.[1] It airs every Tuesday at 22:50 (KST).[2]
The contestants are ranked at the end of every episode based on their performances, and their scores will be accumulated over the course of twelve weeks to determine the top four contestants, two from each team. Each week select contestants' songs will be released digitally. The winner will receive a brand new car and the runner-up will get a family vacation to Saipan; both the winner's and the runner-up's final songs will also be released digitally.
Format
Girl Spirit centers around twelve girl group vocalists who have yet to achieve mainstream success. Five "gurus" will judge their performances every week, as well as give them advice. In addition to the gurus, the contestants' performances will also be judged by 100 "listeners" – men and women who are studying music and have dreams of becoming singers themselves – for a total of 105 maximum points. Starting with episode two, the contestants' scores will be accumulated to determine the top 2 from each team, and the other team will also be judging the performances, making the maximum score 111.
There are two separate rounds in every episode. During the first round, each of the gurus, listeners, and opposite team members will have a device which they will use to cast their vote for the contestants whose performances they liked. After the last contestant performs, round two begins and the listeners must vote for the contestant they felt gave the best performance. The weekly rank is determined by the second round of votes. The contestant who comes in first place then chooses the order in which the members of that team will perform on their next episode.
The contestants are given a different theme for every performance. As an "unstated rule," contestants may perform a "pop song" (English language song), as well as have a "wild card" (featured artist) in a performance only once throughout the competition.[3]
The twelve contestants were introduced in order of debut, starting with Bo-hyung, who debuted with Spica in January 2012, and ending with Sung-yeon, who debuted with Pledis Girlz in June 2016. Each contestant performed a song with their group followed by a solo song.
Theme: Capturing the hearts of military men The contestants were paired up to perform for 400 soldiers. The duos consisted of one member from each team, with the possibility of having up to two other members of both groups join them.
Voters: 405
Performances and round one results
Contestants (Team name)
Order
Guest performers
Song(s)
Original artist(s)
Score
So-yeon & Min-jae (Presidents of the Military)
1
Laboum: ZN and Yul-hee Sonamoo: Na-hyun and Eui-jin
† The combined points totals for Rounds 1 and 2 of the final episode were revealed for only the top two finishers; the winner received 173 points and the runner-up received 160, meaning the algebraic upper limit for the other three finalists is ≤159 points.