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Hit That Drum
Ment
Forever Young Extended
Ending Ment
I don't know where to start for today's Ment...Living in Australia as a minority, K-pop was something that helped me connect more with my Korean culture. It made me proud to be Korean. Now to be a part of a wave of K-pop that's spreading globally... I would've never in a million years guessed that could happen.
So, I think what I should talk about today is how I ended up moving from here all the way to Korea. I started to dance the day I learned how to walk and I really loved it. I looked forward to my school days ending and going to my dance studio, practising for hours on end. Even when I moved to Beijing, I insisted that I wanted to continue to learn and practice dance despite the language barrier, it's what I want to do. My life was filled with dancing and I wanted it to stay that way until the day I died.
I knew generally what K-pop was, my mom liked Shinhwa, Seo Taiji, when my mum was in the hospital before giving birth to me, she listened to BOA's debut album. My dad liked older ballad singers and grandma enjoyed trot. But aside from those, I didn't know much and I only listened for the sake of them while we were in the car.
As you may or may not know, my cousin Jongin Oppa debuted in EXO sometime in 2012, that's when I really started to research and learn what K-pop is because I wanted to support him. The first song I listened to voluntarily was Electric Shock by F(x) and that's when I fell down a hole. Then I started listening to Shinee and those two groups were my favourite. To be honest, I didn't branch out much after that, I knew hits but those two groups and EXO were the ones I consistently listened to. I loved them a lot and I still do; I believe wholeheartedly that they released some of the best music I have listened to in my life.
In 2014 around March, I begged my parents to allow me to go to Korea and see the Shinee concert which was being held in Seoul. My parents allowed me, and I managed to convince my cousin through my aunt. I went to KSPO Dome to see Shinee's concert and it was honestly the best night of my life.
After seeing them performing on a stage like theirs, something clicked and I had an epiphany, I want to be an idol. My parents thought I wasn't really serious about it, they just thought I was starstruck but I was being serious.
A year later, we went to Seoul for the summer. I got an offer from a company, I sent them my audition and the following day they called for me to sign a trainee contract. I was over the moon, that was the company I really wanted to be at. But that same day my dad and I went over to do some volunteer work and a talent scout approached us. They said that they're a company looking for female trainees and would like to scout me for an audition, they gave us their card and asked us to call them. When we got home, my mum and I searched them up. I was really interested, Big Hit Entertainment, like the name itself sounds like a great company. We searched up BTS and at the time, Dope had just come out and I Need U a couple of months before. My mum really liked them and so did I. That time was the first step of BTS' transition phase and my mum really liked the direction going for and how the company overall presented themselves. So that night we called them, I went over to BigHit and we signed a contract. I truly don't regret it one bit, there was never a time where I thought to myself that I should've signed with the other company.
