Hins became the first artist to perform at the Hong Kong Coliseum during the Covid-19 pandemic, with the attendee capacity limited at 50%.
[5] On January 7, 2021, Cheung unexpectedly released his eighth Cantonese studio album The Brightest Darkness without any prior announcement.
[7] On October 19, 2021, Cheung posted on his YouTube channel a promotional video for his upcoming concert The Next 20 Hins Live in Hong Kong.
Under the guidance of a professional rock climber, Cheung climbed the lighting rod atop Lee Garden Two in Causway Bay, reaching 246m off the ground.
Due to Hong Kong's fifth COVID-19 wave, shows scheduled for January 6 onward were rescheduled.
[16] On January 13, the show's official blog page removed all of Cheung's references and related articles.
The following day, the blog for another Hunan TV series, Mango TV Divas (芒果台女汉子) broke the news for Cheung's involvement in the Umbrella Involvement and its impact; Cheung announced his withdrawal from Singer 2017 shortly after the news.
[17] On January 17, four days before the season premiere, Cheung was announced to have withdrawn from the competition; Emperor Entertainment Group's spokesman reveal that they have terminated Cheung's involvement from his entertainment agency, and cited that Cheung's actions, whether correct or otherwise, had caused "great pressure on the singer and the TV station, and the singer himself can't concentrate on preparing for the contest", confirming his withdrawal,[18] and his performance ("吻得太逼真") for the first episode (which was taped prior on January 10) were to be edited out of air (except for a part of the results which also involved another contestant, Teresa Carpio); per the rules of I Am a Singer for withdrawn singers (which has also happened for at least one singer from the first three seasons), Cheung was not allowed to have any further involvement in the show, and he was ineligible in participating Returning performances and Breakout rounds.