Photo: IC

The second season of Chinese music variety show The Big Band returned to video platform iQIYI on Saturday. The musical competition show has been hailed by Chinese netizens as providing Chinese bands with a great platform for development.

The first season of the show aired in May 2019. Since its debut, it has been highly complimented for its  high-quality music performance on display. 

The program currently has an 8.8/10 on Chinese media review platform Douban, while the hashtag for the show has earned more than 461 million views on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo.

Many netizens praised the show for introducing them to many brilliant music bands and musicians, which they see as benefiting the development of Chinese music.

The second season's return has excited Chinese netizens, many of whom have expressed their hopes that the new season will carry on the show's success. The first episode of the season has earned an 8.7/10 on Douban.

Well-known Chinese actress Zhou Xun numbers among the new hosts for the season. 

"This was my favorite variety show last year and I am looking forward to watching the second one. I hope it will not let me down," commented one netizen on Sina Weibo.

Some Chinese celebrities have also professed to be fans of the show. Actress Xie Nan, wife of Chinese action star Wu Jing of Wolf Warrior 2 and The Wandering Earth, said on Sina Weibo that she will watch the show with her son to "allow him to appreciate splendid music."

Fan Zhihui, a music industry analyst, told the Global Times on Sunday that the variety show offers a good platform for people to actually listen to the music they are hearing.

"When we complain there is no good music or that today's songs cannot hold a candle to classic songs, one of reasons for this is that we do not have many opportunities to still quietly and listen to music carefully," Fan said.  

"The Big Band offers such an opportunity."