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boysplanetrecaps · 11 months ago

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Build Up Episode 0: Getting to Know the Boys Part 4: Team Unique

Hey, friends! This is the fourth and final post in my “episode zero” series of my MNET’s Build Up recaps. I’m giving you some basic background info on each of the boys, including where you may have seen them before, the group they’re in normally if applicable, and my opinion/analysis of their teaser performance. In the previous post, I covered Team Power. This will wrap things up with Team Unique. Woot!

Kang Hayoon

Hayoon is 20, and before this, he went on LOUD and Kookmin Singer. He may have met Jung Soomin (the kid from Chicago) on the show Loud, and he may have met Kwon Euibin on Kookmin Singer.

He was V07, and his teaser song is One and Only by Adele. He has a genuinely unique singing style that doesn’t at all match the way he dresses and looks. It’s a very specific vocal color that might not appeal to everyone -- deliberately somewhat nasal, but in a controlled way. It sounds retro-modern, the way that a lot of Western artists sing these days. He’s obviously a genuine talent, but I can almost feel his throat closing up as he sings. He needs a bit of training to really use that amazing instrument he has. I hope he gets it, and that it doesn’t destroy his natural color.

Jeon Woong

Hair-stylist Unnies, what the fuck? Seriously.

Much better, thank you.

Woong is 26 years old, and was V11, performing Bad by Christopher. He sings the song almost exactly the way the original performer does, even down to the little purposeful vocal kicks. I would have liked to hear a bit more of his interpretation of the song instead of karaoke version. He uses falsetto to hit some of the high notes, but that’s ok, they’re very high notes and he sounds good. I like his singing in an instinctive way, but I’m not sure how well trained he is.

Woong is in AB6IX, a four member group (used to be five) from Brandnew music. Like CIX, this is post-Wanna One group; Daehwi, a former member of Wanna One, is the center and face of AB6IX. Woong, meanwhile, is the main vocal. AB6IX started off doing pretty well, but one of their members, Youngmin, had a DUI arrest and had to leave the group in disgrace. It hurt the group pretty badly, and they haven’t really bounced back. Hopefully, going on this show will draw some good attention to the group, who I’ve always liked but thus far haven’t stanned. The song of theirs that I like best (of the ones I’ve heard -- there are lot of kpop songs, you guys, I don’t always keep up) is Close.

And if you want to hear more of Woong’s voice, here’s his solo song, Moondance.

Sunyoul

Sunyoul is 27 and a member of Up10tion.

He has been on a few shows before this, including two reality shows devoted to trot, a uniquely Korean style of music, and a stint on King of Mask Singer in 2016 where he managed to convince everyone that he was a female trot singer. People were pretty surprised when they found out who he was! Seriously, check out his performance -- I don’t think I’d guess in a million years that this was a man.

For his teaser performance, he was V04, and did a song called Twenty Five Twenty One. He had some shaky moments, but showed his strong lower register and some serious vocal agility, moving from low to high notes almost effortlessly. I think he’s one to watch.

Let me talk briefly about Up10tion. They debuted as a 10 member group in 2015, and didn’t really catch the world on fire. Several members went on ProduceX101 and two members did well enough that they basically started solo careers afterward instead of really bringing the fame home to the group. (I’m not criticizing them -- that was mismanagement on the agency’s part, not their fault.) Three members have left the group, and two members went on Boys Planet (Hwanhee and Xiao). Several members have left the agency, including Hwanhee and Sunyoul, and the future of Up10tion is really dubious at this point.

Meanwhile, I’ve liked a few songs of Up10tion over the years, so it’s a bummer that they never really worked out. I think the first song of theirs that I liked was Blue Rose. Also, What if Love is great, especially the chorus, even if it sounds like they’re saying “ready for love” instead of “what if love”. In my opinion, a lot of Up10tion songs have weird intros and kind of mid verses and then awesome choruses held down by Hwanhee’s marquee vocals and Sunyoul’s sweet higher register. So if you listen to the first 30 seconds and you’re like “meh?” give the whole song a listen. Also, their song Spin Off was one of the best songs of 2021 and lives forever on my playlists. It’s one of those full-on kpop songs that isn’t really any genre, just sort of pop that makes you feel happy.

Wumuti

Wumuti is 24 and is from China, though he’s actually an ethnic Uyghur, a Turkic ethnic group that is an officially recognized ethnic minority in China. If you read my Boys Planet recaps, you know that I have a soft spot for him. He just wants this so bad. Plus, and I don’t want to bum you out too much, but the Uyghurs are facing some pretty serious problems, including forced sterilization and labor camps and it’s really really bad. So I can’t help but always cheer for Wumuti, you know?

He also seems like a really sweet, genuine, and hard working person. He seems pretty fluent in Korean and has been on all the Korean reality shows: Road to Star, The Dance & The Voice, Super Idol, Under Nineteen and Boys Planet. So this makes the third survival show in a row that Wumuti and Jay will be on together! (The other two were Under 19 and Boys Planet.)

Here’s one of my favorite Wumuti performances, gross lollipop aside. (He’s the one in the white hat.) Oh, now I miss Boys Planet!

Then there’s his cover of Antifragile, which he released shortly after getting kicked off Boys Planet.

Ok, as for his teaser song, he was V12, performing Seven by Jungkook. He sounds fine, though I wouldn’t say at all his voice belongs in Unique. I think I’d call it Allround -- I couldn’t promise that I’d know his voice just from hearing it the way I would with, say, Hwanhee or Jay. Also, the rapping is a little cringe, but TBH it’s cringe even in the original version of the song.

I think he was hoping to get people’s attention by singing a super popular song in English. His end game isn’t to make the top 4 of this show -- he wants to launch a solo career. I mean, that’s what I assume, anyway. I’m not sure if that will work out for him, but I hope it does.

Lee Gwangseok, aka, Lee Kwangseok

Gwangseok is kind of a question mark overall -- I know nothing about him, not even his age. We actually learn on the first episode that he has no training at all and works as a model (!). So he has never been on any other show and he’s definitely not in an existing group.

He’s V19 in the teaser song, showing off a unique, smokey, extremely thick kind of voice. I enjoy his performance, even though he’s singing a ballad, so that says a lot, though I know that some people may not personally like this distinctive style. I wouldn’t necessarily have guessed that he has no training. Maybe he just has good instincts, or maybe he had some light vocal training, like in high school chorus or something like that, because he can hit some fairly high notes in his chest voice. And some singers are charming without training -- Joni Mitchell comes to mind as someone like that. They sing the way they sing, and people can like it or not.

I’ll be really interested in see more of Gwangseok. I don’t know if he’s right for a vocal group based on harmonies, because his voice is so distinctive. However, he’s apparently quite handsome* and that combined with genuine vocal talent and his sort of self-effacing charm could give him a decent solo career.

*Those of you who regularly read my recaps know that I have no idea who is and who isn’t “handsome” or “pretty” in the kpop world. I often pick out the member who everyone thinks is the “ugly one” in a group and choose them as the one who’s best looking! So I have no idea. But the other guys on the show react in such a way as to indicate that he’s really handsome, and he works as a model, so I guess he’s handsome.

Hong Sungwon

He’s a musical actor, and that’s about all I know.

He was V21, doing Desperado by the Eagles. He sings it with a slight country twang, which is wild for a non-native speaker. (I assume he’s a non-native speaker? Maybe I’m wrong.) He has a rich, warm tone and impeccable pitch. I don’t love all his weird rhythmic choices in the song, but he’s trying to show that he’s fully singing live. It’s hard to critique a voice like this -- it’s just really good without necessarily really being all that unique. I like it a lot, don’t get me wrong. It’ll be nice to hear him sing more on this show.

Neon

He’s listed as a solo singer, but I can’t figure out much more about him. There’s another Korean singer in this world named Neon Bunny (check out her song It’s You, one of my all-time favorites -- she’s not a kpop singer, she’s an indie artist and the song is amazing) and another Kpop performer named Neon who is a band called About U, so it’s hard to find out info about this particular guy with the same/similar name. I do know that he’s 28 years old -- that’s about it!

He was V33, doing Rush Hour by Crush. He has clean, nice vocals -- not particular unique, despite his category. He’s just really nice to listen to. Good pitch, good breath control, good power, all the good stuff. In fact, I think I would have put him in the Power category. You can see him in his silhouette performance standing quite a distance from the microphone, still singing loud enough to be heard clearly. I’m looking forward to hearing more from him.

Kim Seohyung

Soehyung is a musical actor and has a similar singing style to Kim Seongjeong and Choi Haram. So it’s just not going to appeal to me, as much as I can respect his skill. His teaser song was V18, Me After You by Paul Kim. He did falter a little on one of the high notes, but I mean, it was just 90 seconds of singing one song, and mistakes happen. I think he belongs in the Power category, not the Unique category, but that’s just me.

A fan of his made this “Kim Seohyung cut” of episode 1 -- all 90 seconds that we got to see of him in episode one. MNET really doesn’t care much about Seohyung!

Lee Hwanhee

Hwanhee is from Up10tion, but you might recall him from Boys Planet as the guy who ended up on General Gunwook’s team for Kill this Love. (Performance) You might also remember that he had to withdraw from the show midway due to his health issues.

He is V38, performing Tomboy by G-Idle. He did the song justice, I thought, putting enough snap and sass into it. There were some backup prerecorded vocals that make it tough to tell how much he’s singing live. But I’ve heard enough of his vocals to know that he’s capable of some excellent singing.

I never got the sense that many of my 3-4 readers liked Hwanhee much, but I think he’s a really good vocalist. I like his distinctive, Baekhyun-esque vocal color, which adds nicely to Up10tion songs. However, he might be a tad outclassed by some of the other guys on this show, who have more training than he does. I think sometimes he wears out his voice and kind of runs out of steam while he sings.

I think I would have put him in the Power category, but maybe I don’t really understand what the categories are about.

Kwon Euibin

I can’t get over this official picture. Imagine being like, “Yes, this represents me. This is my brand. I’m going for that, like, pissed off substitute teacher vibe.” I mean. IDK.

He really likes beige sweaters over white shirts, I guess.

Ok, so Euibin is only 25 years old, and my scouting tells me he’s a trainee going for the idol life. He went on two other shows: The Idol Band: Boy's Battle and Kookmin Singer. On the latter show, he may have met Kang Hayoon, the one who sang the Adele song for his intro clip.

He was V35, another fecking ballad, but his voice was unexpectedly sweet and pretty compared to his serious countenance. He strained a little on some of the higher notes and the whole thing felt a little uneven, occasionally kind of shouty. It’s nice to listen to despite all that. I’m not quite sure what to make of him so far, so I’ll reserve judgment for now. But again, not sure he’s “unique.”

Taewoo

Taewoo is 26 and my sleuthing tells me he’s a songwriter who appeared on a few other shows I haven’t heard of, Sing Again 2 and Vocal Play 2.

He’s V28, Thought of You by John Park. I really like his voice. It’s slightly gravely, in a good way -- it has character. Finally, a unique singer who is actually unique. It’s hard to say how trained he is based on this clip but I know I want to hear more of him!

And that’s it! Gang, we did it. We made it through all 40! Now, I’ll move on to the recap at last.

See you then and there!

#bpr recaps build up #build up mnet #mnet build up #up10tion #lee hwanhee #wumuti #kwon euibin #kim seohyung #neon #hong sungwon #lee kwangseok #lee gwangseok #sunyoul #woong #Ab6ix #kang hayoon

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boysplanetrecaps · 11 months ago

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Build Up, Ep 4 Recap: Kick It v The Little Prince

Welcome back to the project nobody minds waiting two weeks for -- my MNET Build Up Recaps! In the previous one, we finally finished episode 3, seeing that match up between Jay and Wumuti. In this one, we’ll see WEi’s Seokhwa and AB6IX’s Woong take on two trainees. Will the sunbaes beat the hoobaes? Will the hoobaes rebel? Only one way to find out!

After a super brief recap, the episode dives in to the first match of the episode: idols versus trainees. People comment on the flashy outfits idols Seokhwa and Woong are wearing, and wonder if they’ll dance.

“Idol beauty radiates -- Kang Seokhwa (left) x Jeon Woong team”

They introduce themselves as “fate,” and I think it’s a pun/meme that would make sense to Korean viewers because it makes everyone else laugh.

Both Woong and Seokhwa were on team Ditto, and Woong ended up with a low tier ranking even though I think his voice sounded quite nice.

In comparison to Seokhwa and Woong’s punky idol styling, the trainees Ji Yeonwoo and Jeong Yunseo are dressed simply and cutely.

Yeonwoo, left, was low tier in Decalcomanie for forgetting the words, poor kid.

You might remember Yunseo most for his red outfit in the first episode that made him look like he drove racecars for a living. (It was cute, don’t get me wrong.) You might also remember his bold confidence in his team performance of Beautiful, where unlike his fellow trainee Minseo, he seemed to be completely sure that he’d succeed. I really love his attitude!

The judges start off by asking the trainees if they’re nervous, and Jaehwan reminds Yeonwoo about his mistake. Yeonwoo says that he’s been having nightmares every night reliving that moment and that it was the worst moment of his life. Poor kid, god, can you imagine? I just want to hug him. Anyway, he promises not to make a mistake again. The other judges yell at Jaehwan for bringing it up.

The two teams trash talk a little -- the trainees say that they have nothing to lose, essentially. The idols say that the trainees are cute, and that they think beating the trainees would be a good story for MNET. Eunkwang rightfully points out, however, that a better story for MNET would be if the idols lose!

Time for a flashback.

It’s the duet-forming portion of the day, and we see Seokhwa go straight for Woong. Since Woong was in the Low Tier and probably was scared no one would pick him, you can tell he’s really glad to see Seokhwa!

“This is the narrative,” reality-savvy Woong interviews. “If you fall and go back up? That’s the narrative.” Yes, but unfortunately, MNET also likes it if you fall and keep falling. They’re sociopaths that way.

This pair up may not have been the best idea, as we’ll see, but it makes a lot of intuitive sense that these two would want to work together. For one thing, they have had similar careers so far. Both WEi and Ab6ix could be considered post-ProduceX101 groups, and they debuted 15 months apart (first AB6IX, then WEi). They would have friends in common, for starters, and given that both groups put out three singles each in 2021 and 2022, they had to be promoting at the same time at least a few times. Woong is Seokhwa’s sunbae since Woong debuted first, but Seokhwa is older, making their relationship a bit more balanced. Also, they obviously solidified their friendship during their preparations for Ditto. Plus, Seokhwa wanted to work with another idol so they could do an idol-style performance, something more dynamic than Ditto. As I said, it all makes sense, especially if you remember that often times the winning group on Boys Planet would be the group that got along better.

Ok, in this next portion I need to talk about Ji Yeonwoo and Jeong Yunseo. I think that if I were reading these recaps, I’d find those names similar enough that I wouldn’t be able to remember who is who and I might have to scroll up and down a lot. So, I’m going to call Yunseo “driver Yunseo.” This is for two reasons: (1) He looked like a racecar driver on the first day.

And (2) because he really is a “driver” in this storyline!

The flashback also shows us poor Yeonwoo, waiting for a duo partner. He voice-overs that after he messed up the lyrics, he felt like he wanted to “hide in a rat hole.” It looks like no one wants to work with him… until driver Yunseo comes over to rescue him, saying, “Let’s go, ‘04s.” Aww, they’re chingoos! (A “chingoo” is someone the same age as you, which makes you feel like you’re friends -- it’s a Korean cultural thing I don’t totally get.)

Driver Yunseo thought they’d be a good match, and I think it was smart on his part to pick Yeonwoo too. The two maknae on a show will always get a kind reception, even if they don’t always get the highest scores.

Driver Yunseo either genuinely wants to cheer up his chingoo or he knows that he has to get Yeonwoo’s confidence up if they are going to have any chance of winning, or both, because he puts his arm around his chingoo’s shoulders, he gives him complicated high-5s, and just generally does everything in his power to pump Yeonwoo up. It’s cute.

Driver Yunseo says: “Ji Yeonwoo, Nekkoya (you’re mine!)”

With Driver Yunseo’s infectious confidence beginning to spread to him, Yeonwoo vows to “rebel” and win this time. Driver Yunseo says, “I promise you, I’ll make you a narrative.” Yunseo GETS IT, you guys. I really like this kid.

Anyway, so, all the guys are sitting on the floor whispering to each other about which duos they want to challenge. Driver Yunseo says, “the team I think we can beat no matter what is Kang Seokhwa’s team.” I hate to say it, but that was pretty smart.

Ok, hear me out, because I really like all four of these guys and wouldn’t want any of them to be sad or anything, but I have noticed that Seokhwa’s voice is a bit weak. It’s a very pretty, sweet, light voice; he has a lot of potential, and a lot of current charm, seeing as he did get a judge’s vote. But he often strains on higher notes, and his belts sound like he’s tensing up his throat a lot. He’s super stable as a performer in WEi and is really well suited for the idol life. I’m just not sure that his vocals are quite to the level this show expects. Sorry, RUi!

I also think that as outwardly cheerful as Woong is, I think he’s really feeling low. I actually really like the texture of his singing voice, and think the judges were unnecessarily rough on him. Being put in the low tier when he’s a main vocal was probably pretty distressing for him. Even though *I* know his voice is really nice, it doesn’t seem like anyone on the show really seems to think so. No one is telling him his voice is nice. Only 14 people voted that they’d want to work with him. So with Woong’s confidence and reputation both kind of in the dumpster, he’s also an easy target.

The trainees correctly deduce that the idols are going to want to do something bouncy and higher energy, maybe with the some dancing, and think that they themselves can win by using their vocal skills and youth to charm the judges. “It’s not a bad picture for us if we try to beat the seniors. Not a bad picture at all,” Driver Yunseo whispers to his chingoo. I’m telling you, Yunseo GETS IT.

So up until now, I’ve been unclear as to how the whole situation with the Rival Choosing Platform Area (RCPA) worked. This time, we actually hear Solar announcing Seokwa and Woong’s names, so they were somehow selected to go down to the RCPA. You’d think that maybe the show could have told us how this all works at any point, but that would have eaten into their instant replay time, so I guess not.

Seokhwa and Woong invite a challenger.

And then a few other teams head down to the RCPA, which kind of hurts the idols’ feelings. Do they look like pushovers? They’re challenged by our two trainees, as well as by Team Geonu x Soomin and Team Hong Seongjun x Kim Seohyung.

Left to right: Woong, Seokhwa; Kim Seohyung, Hong Seongjun, Geonu, Soomin, Driver Yunseo (hidden), Yeonwoo.

Interesting, those two other teams end up each others’ rivals and are up third in this episode! So we’ll see them in the post after the next one.

The trainees make their case.

“I thought it would be an interesting scene, you know, for the viewers, you know, if the idols and trainees go against each other.”

“Ahh!”

“Especially if we win!”

“What?”

“Nothing!”

Seokhwa chooses the trainees, reasoning that they’d be easy to beat. And only later do we find out that Woong had told Seokhwa that the trainees were the one team he wanted to avoid, because it would be disastrous to lose to them! But more on that shortly.

The trainees decide that to show off their singing skills and youthful appeal, they’ll sing “The Little Prince,” originally performed by Ryeowook from SuperJunior. The song was released in 2016, when Ryeowook was almost 30, but it’s a sweet and youthful-feeling little song about love and friendship inspired by the classic story The Little Prince.

Sample lyrics:

Making a heart that is like the wind stay with me Is such a hard thing I know But I won’t say anything, I’m just waiting for you The Little Prince told me That gaining someone’s heart Is the hardest thing to do, come to me The Little Prince said to me It might be sad right now But we’re never gonna be apart That you’re going to want to laugh with me

As they head into the performance, poor Yeonwoo talks more about how miserable he was after he made his mistake. The stakes are high! He vows to do better this time.

Watching the trainees getting ready, Baekho and Seungkwan -- who are signed to the same agency -- talk about how their monthly evaluations as trainees made them more nervous than performing ever did. Boy, do I get that! I’d rather perform 100 times than audition once.

Before they perform, the trainees do some squats, for some reason (I guess maybe to shake off the nervous energy?) and then steel themselves. It’s time!

Full version without reactions

My thoughts:

Yeonwoo, left, in the s w e a t e r over a collared shirt, and Yunseo, right.

Aww, this was cute.

Have you ever been watching a competition reality show that involve a creative element, like Top Chef or Project Runway or Glow Up or Bake Off, and a contestant says “I’ve never done this before, but you don’t win by playing it safe!” And you, watching at home, are like, “omg, why are you doing that? If you’ve never worked with leather, if you’ve never cooked lamb, if you’ve never used prosthetics, if you’ve never made caramel, or whatever the hell durned foolish thing you’re going to do for the first time on international TV, why are you doing it now?” And most of the time they end up going home, while someone who made sure to safely land the plane is the one who wins.

These two landed the plane.

This song isn’t necessarily easy to sing; it has a lot of high notes and requires a lot of vocal agility to make it through the melody and the rhythm, both of which get tricky at times. However, the “concept” or idea behind the song is relatively straight forward and easy for these two to deliver -- a sort of youthful view on love as something that you can hope for if you’re patient. Also, though Ryeowook is a main vocal of SuJu and has a great voice, he’s not someone supernatural like Chen that would be a really, really hard act to follow.

Yeonwoo and Driver Yunseo both have good, young voices with tons of potential. I think they both could use a bit more training and experience, but they really do both deserve to be on this stage. Both sounded more than a bit nervous, which may have contributed to their breath control issues, but both held strong to the end and I didn’t notice any pitchiness or major tempo mistakes, which is big.

Of the two voices, I think I like Driver Yunseo’s a little more, as a Yeonwoo is still a bit nasal at times. Yeonwoo also went a tiny bit fast at a few points, and his high notes were a little bit strained. Driver Yunseo’s lower register is really gorgeous, while Yeonwoo’s higher notes are a bit stronger. They made a great duo! I don’t think they’re going to win this show, but I’m glad they’re on it.

The MNET edit is very retrained. Mostly it’s just the two trainees singing, with occasional shots of the guys backstage looking both proud and hopeful, like this:

Hyukjin, left, and Jeong Inseong from KNK, who will be going third in episode 5.

And the judges smiling indulgently and/or uncertainly, like this:

When they’re done, everyone applauds for the maknae.

The judges say things like, “aww, they must have practiced a lot!”

Backstage, the guys joke about how well the trainees’ did -- “are they our sons? Did we raise them?” -- and also joke a bit about how old they feel in comparison to them.

“If we sang The Little Prince, it wouldn’t come out like that!” Hwanhee from Up10tion says. “Old princes would come out if we sang.” Hwanji is like, “hey man, stop talking like that.” They’re only 24/25 years old, so he has a point.

Seokhwa and Woong, waiting in the wings, say, “They did a great job. Much better than in rehearsal.” You can see the worry on their faces.

The judges vote, and we get the high and low score -- a high of 92 from Seungkwan from Seventeen and a low of 70 from Jaehwan. That’s the lowest “high score” and the lowest “low score” we’ve seen thus far, but it’s not embarrassing or anything. They look pretty happy!

Seungkwan is like, wow, Jaehwan, what’s up with the 70?

And a glowing light comes out of Jaehwan’s eyes and his body begins to slowly levitate as he says, “In place of a Dark Lord, you would have a queen! Not dark, but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Treacherous as the sea! Stronger than the foundations of the earth! ALL SHALL LOVE ME, AND DESPAIR!”

I mean, maybe not literally.

Seungkwan mentions Yunseo’s early lines, which were in fact quite sweet and lovely. “I think it started off well and went along steadily until the end without bumps.”

Jaehwan says, “Actually I really liked it. Maybe it was the purity that comes form the vocal tone…? I felt like I was listening to angels’ songs.”

Everyone is like, wtf? You cheered for them and loved them and gave these “angels” a 70? Backstage, one of the guys mutters, “He’s going to hell.”

Jaehwan continues: “I still thought about it calmly. When I heard the song, I felt endlless possibilities, but when considering the average level of singing ability, I thought that 70 was the appropriate score. It wasn’t bad, though!”

Eunkwang says, “it was so good, but….” and he points out that Driver Yunseo sort of bounces in a bowlegged way as he sings. That’s exactly the kind of helpful feedback that a good sunbae should point out, says I, and the other judges agree.

Backstage, Seokhwa and Woong are really nervous now. I think the trainees had had a really bad rehearsal and so the idols were pretty sure they’d have an easy time of it. But now the idea that a pair of debuted idols would lose to trainees who did a kind of straight-forward performance is just really sinking into their heads.

Woong is worried that maybe people will lose interest in AB6IX if he doesn’t do well on the show. Oh, I doubt that, Woong-ah. It’s a parasocial thing -- people might even like you better if you lose.

We see a flashback to the rival choosing moment, and this is when we learn that Woong really didn’t want to go up against the trainees, because the optics of losing to them would be awful and the optics of beating them wouldn’t be much better. He had told Seokhwa as much, which Woong finds perplexing.

Seokhwa either didn’t hear or didn’t think it really mattered, and chose the trainees because he thought it would make them stand out. I think I’m with Woong on this one! Woong interviews, “I can’t get any lower than I am right now. We better win.”

The idols have a nice cozy rehearsal studio to work in, but no sweaters.

Seokhwa reveals that he overheard the trainees talking ant that they’re planning to do a bright, youthful ballad. Seokhwa wants to show that ballad vocals aren’t the only kind of vocals, and maybe doing something more hip, with an R&B vibe, would give them their own lane to drive in. The judges liked their performance skills in Ditto, so they should capitalize on that. That sounds great to me, Seokhwa!

What about maybe Butter by BTS? That song is catchy af. Or what about Blooming Day or Hey Mama by EXO-CBX? I think both of those songs would sound good as a duet, and both would get the judges on their feet! Ok, sure, with the EXO-CBX songs you’d be following in some amazing vocal footsteps, but I think it would be fine! There’s also a bit of rap to show off here.

But nope. They want to do “Kick it” by Blackpink. I don’t know why on earth they chose this song! This is one of those songs where Teddy Park had a lunch date he really wanted to keep, so he just sort of threw some notes in a random order and had Jennie sing with as much swag as humanly possible so that it sounded almost like a melody.

Also, there's another problem here. See, Woong is a very derivative singer. I really like his voice, as I’ve said before, but if you listen to his vocal check performance and compare it to the original singers’ version, it’s nearly identical, to the smallest detail. I think Woong needs to hear an example of really good singing in order to match it, and he’s not going to get it on this song. Do not get me wrong; the members of Blackpink are all fantastic performers and I always enjoy their vocals. But none of them sings in a way that is likely to draw positive attention on a show like this. Rosé in particular worries me -- she has a gorgeous natural instrument, and the YG singing style is teaching her really bad habits that might hurt her vocal cords long term. In any case, there’s nothing for Woong to appropriately mimic here to pull out an outstanding performance.

I really get the feeling that they were overwhelmed by the possibility of choosing any song in the whole world. They wanted to do a girls’ song because it would be cool and attention grabbing, and then wanted to do a Blackpink song because Blackpink is so popular, and once they’d made that choice, they sort of randomly chose this song. The choosing was stressful and they wanted to get to the part where they’d already chosen. That happened to me with my fella when we were trying to pick out curtains. Now we have curtains that don’t really match the room. Sigh.

If they had really wanted to do a girls’ song, I think Impurities by Le Sserafim would have been cool -- it has a beat and you can definitely dance to it, but it’s also kind of smooth and sexy. It has a real tune and real chords and they could have done something cool with it. Or maybe Eleven by IVE. It could have sounded really cool! (For both of those links, go to speed and set it to 1.25, or if you know how to do custom, 1.15 is perfect. That way it’s at normal speed, just a lower pitch.)

Anyway, Seokhwa wants to show how cool they can be.

They rehearse at Woong’s agency, Brandnew Music (I mean, blur it all you want, MNET, the logo is pretty obvious), practicing as hard as they did when they were trainees.

Before they start, the judges talk about how with the song they’re doing, they’ll have to really light up the stage and have fun. The judges are hoping for a good performance showcasing singing, dancing, and rap. As the lights go down, Wendy says, “This is what they’re best at. They shouldn’t be so nervous.”

Here is the full version without reactions.

My thoughts:

Overall, it’s just sort of curiously lacking something. I watched this on an airplane on my tablet, and wondered if maybe it just felt “off” because of my environment, but then I remembered that I was really impressed by Jay and Bitsaeon in the same circumstance.

They both seem so nervous, especially Seokhwa, who runs out of air in the middle of lines, and keeps brushing his hair back anxiously. Woong remembers to smile and connect with the camera, but you can almost see him trying to remember the dance steps. Woong is obviously doing a Jennie impression a lot of time, as I expected him to do, and it just doesn’t sound as good as it does when he just sings as himself.

As they sort of settle in, it seems like maybe they can relax and pull it out at the end, but then a Terrible Thing happens: Seokhwa’s voice cracks on a high note.

Oh no.

It’s pretty noticeable, and I already know that it will be a lot more noticeable when MNET does a few instant replays. Seokhwa!! Oh no!!! Baby!!

I really think both of these guys are sweet and lovable, and both have nice singing voices that are well suited to being a main vocalist of an idol group. I think a combination of nerves and bad song choice really brought them down in this case, but they haven’t lost me as a fan. Fighting!

I almost don’t want to watch the MNET edit. It starts off with lots of appreciative reactions from the judges and other guys, but as the song wears on, we start to see more looks like this from the judges:

Backstage, sympathetic Bitsaeon mutters, “They worked so hard for this,” and you know he’s thinking, “... and it turned out like this.”

Look how miserable Woong looks even *before* Seokhwa’s crack.

And then the crack happens.

We only have to hear it twice, thankfully, and Woong never gives up, to his credit, but there’s no coming back.

When they’re done, the judges applaud politely, if a bit sadly. They’re all vocalists too and they know that cracks can happen, that we’re all just fragile meat bags when you get down to it and are subject to our human failings, but…. Still. This performance wasn’t great, crack or no crack.

Backstage, the other guys try to be positive, focusing on how much time and effort went into the performance, and how hard they must have practiced.

Driver Yunseo says, “It was like watching M-Countdown”...

… but his smile tells us that he thinks that maybe, just maybe, his team has just won.

“You did a good job,” Woong murmurs to Seokhwa, who can’t bear to hear praise right now.

Dahee asks, “Are you happy with your performance?” and of course Seokhwa says no, he made a mistake and is very disappointed with himself. He seems to be barely, barely, barely holding back tears, but he is holding them back. Fighting, Seokhwa, fighting!

The judges give their scores. Jaehwan seems especially unsure how to vote, but finally he locks it in.

Wendy has given them a sympathetic 80, but Jaehwan has given a 60. (As a reminder, the trainees’ high and low scores were 92 and 70 respectively.)

Jaehwan looks genuinely sad about it, but seems to view this judging thing as a responsibility. Backstage, the other trainees say that Jaehwan is so stingy with his points!

Wendy says her favorite part was the rap in verse 2. She asks if they came up with the choreography, and says it’s not easy to do all that, so she gives them credit. Wendy kind of famously has had trouble with dancing in the past, so it makes sense she’d be impressed by dancing. She adds that it would have been better if they had enjoyed it more, which is exactly what I think. She notes that it was probably really tough for them to go up against trainees, and she felt like they deserved the score she gave based on their attempt to show all the elements.

Jaehwan says he’s “heartbroken” about it because “they’re active singers just like me, and we all perform together on music shows. They’re my colleagues who cheer me up. To be honest it’s very hard for me to rate them. Yet I rated them because I’m sitting here. I expected you to have fun on stage because I know how good you are at performance. I expected you to go crazy on stage, and I just didn’t see that today. So I gave this score because I want to see more confidence from you next time. Fighting!”

VCG chimes in with a good point: because the song was originally intended for women’s voices, changing the pitch made it less exciting. He says, “No matter how excitedly you sing with mens’ voices, it’s never exciting. You need to change your voice or something, but you didn’t. Your tone was the same when you scratched your voice, or for the low tone, or the rap. So it didn’t sound fun.” I think he is right on target with that, and it seems that all the guys listening backstage agree. It didn’t even occur to me before that this could be specifically an issue for when guys sing women’s songs, but it makes so much sense.

The idols bow 90 degrees and say thank you for the helpful feedback. I wish they could have met with the judges or a mentor in advance of the performance!

Now it’s time for the winner to be revealed.

And of course, the trainees took it, 591 to 505. Ouch -- it wasn't even close.

If you subtract out the highest and lowest scores, and take the average of the point value remaining, the average score of the other five judges for the trainees is 85 -- and the average score for the idols is 73. Aww!

With Woong’s encouragement, Seokhwa holds it together.

Yeonwoo says, “I wanted to win, but now that I did, I feel bad.”

I think that makes Seokhwa and Woong feel ever worse, though I think they’re also a bit touched by the trainee’s kindness.

Woong vows that even though they’re on the elimination list, they’re going to “build up and show their best.” But backstage, Seokhwa feels awful. He says that he thinks that he ruined round one as well and keep dragging Woong down.

Woong interviews later that he was really upset, but just didn’t want to show it in front of Seokhwa, because he’s Seokhwa’s hyung, and it’s a hyung’s job to be strong. Aww! Woong, fighting!

The judges talk about how difficult competition is. Wendy says that it’s hard to show your skills when you’re nervous, and Jaehwan points out that that’s part of your skills, to stay calm under pressure.

And on that sad note, this segment draws to a close.

In the next one, we’ll see Bain and Minseo take on Gwangsuk and Sungjung! Should be a good battle. I’ll see you then!

#ab6ix #wei #wei seokhwa #build up #mnet build up #build up mnet #ab6ix woong #seokhwa #woong

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