Damn Idol Episode 77
* * *
My first thought was, 'Is this filming?'
Otherwise, there would be no way for the 3M & 100D members to know where my parents are in the hospital.
But there's no camera that came with us or mounted camera.
As if he guessed my confusion, Lee Ion opened his mouth.
"We asked our mentor at the restaurant. To contact the production staff and find out?"
"... ... When I went to the bathroom?"
"Yeah."
I see.
So, as soon as I showed up, they changed the topic.
I understood the situation.
But... ... .
I can't understand them.
We have already said the end.
I will debut with Take Scene, and they will remain at Lion.
Staying at Lion doesn't mean you'll be together forever.
Someone may be eliminated from Lion's debut group, and someone else may receive a love call from another agency and leave.
So there is no reason to do this.
At that time, On Saemiro played music on his cell phone.
"Now that I think about it, I think your song is already reaching the hospital room."
Koo Tae-hwan receives Lee Ion's words.
"Wouldn't it be better to listen to the new song in advance?"
I composed the song thanks to On Saemiro, Choi Jae-seong decided on the genre, Koo Tae-hwan requested the introduction, and Lee Ion was responsible for the pre-hook.
A song I made.
<3 Months and 100 Days>.
It was a small singing voice.
So much so that it couldn't even fill the hospital room.
Someone started a little hum.
Soon, the members except me were humming their own parts.
♬♪♪♪♪♪~
Between those singing voices.
The sounds of my parents' ECG are mixed together.
There is a sound of the humidifier operating.
I can hear the birds chirping outside the window.
The early summer wind knocked on the window.
With my cries.
* * *
The day before the final competition, Eddie came to visit.
"Hey, it's already the last time?"
"It's already been quite long."
"I heard the song you sent. Three Months & 100 Days?"
I chuckled at Eddie's poor Korean pronunciation.
"So what is the evaluation?"
"It was a good song. Except for the thought that deep house would have been better."
"This works well in K-pop."
"Oh. Did you know that Alex came back with a very puzzled look on his face?"
Chris Edward's manager Alex recently handed out a contract with a confident look on his face.
As he was watching all the time, he was convinced that he couldn't miss it, and he was able to persuade the headquarters.
"This amount of down payment is absolutely ridiculous."
It wasn't a lie.
It was an amount that was hard to imagine being given to an unknown singer in Asia.
This is a contract that only local singers who are quite popular in the state would receive.
But I refused.
Because my goal is not the billboard.
Alex was very embarrassed.
He only worried about how much to invest, but he didn't know that the investment would be rejected at all.
Still, Alex didn't give up, and he asked me to come to him if he wanted to expand into the United States someday.
Well, I don't know.
If I want to enter the US market, it's easier to use a distributor.
"But didn't I tell clearly? I have no intention of signing a contract."
"Managers interpret it this way. Lack of money!"
"Well, it's not wrong. Anyway, take care."
I smiled and shook hands with Eddie.
He said he has to go back to the U.S. because he had a big shot scheduled with HBO, and that he was going to look for the performers I had given him.
For your information, Eddie knows everything that's going on in Coming Up Next.
As I expected, he received a request for negative feedback when reviewing <Forked Road>.
Of course, it was unthinkable.
Did you think that the #1 songwriter on Billboard would obediently comply with such a request?
Thanks to this, Eddie is able to no-show the few remaining filming schedules and return.
He said he didn't like it.
Well, I also understand PD Kang Seok-woo's feelings.
Because he's a businessman.
"Sion, I hope to see you in America."
"Okay."
I thought we had said our final goodbyes, but Eddie, who had been far away for a while, came back.
"why? Did you leave something behind?"
"You're a little weird."
"Do you feel a sense of closeness?"
"No, I think it's strange that you're nervous."
"......?"
"A musician with your level of talent doesn't need to fret. There is no need to be afraid, and there is no need to calculate."
The words continue.
"Just throw it away. The public may seem indifferent at first glance, but that is absolutely not the case. There will be so many people in the world who will recognize the essence of your music. Like me."
I smiled and nodded at Eddie's words.
"Okay."
My life is such that I can't sell 200 million copies without freaking out.
At most, around 30 million copies will be the end.
But this rebuttal did not mark our end.
Although we met strangely, Eddie and I seemed to have become friends again.
Another day passed.
The morning of Coming Up Next's final competition, <Free Song Mission>, dawned.
* * *
2,000 audience members began to enter the contest hall.
Audition program on a cable channel.
It was also unusual to invite such an audience to an in-house survival format competition program.
If this story had come up during the program planning stage, they would have been criticized for being out of their mind.
But now it was possible.
[Average viewer rating 8.4%]
[Metropolitan area average viewer rating 8.9%]
[Highest viewership per minute: 10.2%]
Because the viewer ratings for episode 6 were incredible.
Even the viewership ratings were clearly on the rise.
The reason a typical audition program loses steam toward the end is because contestants are eliminated.
If the contestant they were rooting for is eliminated, the feeling of a fan is that 'I don't want to see it anymore.'
However, because there were no dropouts in Coming Up Next, viewership inertia was strong.
Of course, just saying this may make elimination seem like a bad factor, but it's actually the opposite.
The reason they have to create a loser every episode, even though they know the viewership will drop off, is because of the tension.
If no one falls, there is no tension, and motivation to watch the next episode is weak.
To put it simply, it may not be fun.
However, Coming Up Next completely overcame these weaknesses.
Thanks to Han Sion.
In particular, the power of <Seoul Town Punk> was great.
Among Coming Up Next viewers, there were quite a few who were not interested in idols but liked Han Si-on.
In particular, male viewers in their 20s and 30s showed this tendency, who were attracted to Coming Up Next but doee not watch idol content.
They always wanted Han Si-on's personal stage and wanted a more high-quality mission.
In a sense, they were people who completely denied the planning intention of Coming Up Next.
So, if the first team match, <Self-Produced Mission>, was not good, the viewers might have all dropped out.
But Han Si-on caught it.
<Seoul Town Punk> was a stage that would make even those who were not interested in idols open their eyes.
Thanks to it, the response was 'Huh? Team battles are fun too.' The viewer ratings did not drop at all.
Enough to aim for a 10% viewership rating for the 7th episode.
Against this backdrop, the production team preparing for the final contest was busy.
"What about banners and cheering slogans?"
"It has been properly replaced or recalled."
"Okay. You can't look like you're only rooting for take scenes on screen or in the field."
"I'll check again later."
In fact, among the audience today, there were more people who supported Take Scene.
Because the on-site voting scores will be reflected in the final results, the production team deliberately selected the audience.
In fact, there was talk within the production team about whether there was a need to select the audience, since the judges would have supported it anyway.
They say that if you show off too much, there may be backlash.
But PD Kang Seok-woo didn't think so.
This is partly because of the 3 Months 100 Days stage they have seen so far, and partly because of the preparation process for the final contest.
'It was cool.'
The sight of 3 Months 100 Days gritting their teeth for 15 days under Han Sion's detailed direction was truly chilling.
Because he could see it being sharpened day by day.
To be honest, it was a shame that all of the team chemistry cuts of 3 months and 100 days had to be cut out and only the focus had to be given to Han Si-on.
"The cleanup is complete!"
Kang Seok-woo was awakened from his thoughts by the assistant director's shout.
Appreciation comes later.
First, the program must be completed.
Furthermore... ... .
'Good guys.'
Thanks to 3 months and 100 days, I think we can have a beautiful ending.
And so the final show dawned.
* * *
Surprisingly, what opened the opening was a special performance by Blue, Choi Dae-ho, Yoo Seon-hwa, and Lee Chang-jun.
It was a performance mixed with Blue's ambition, and it was because he was a bit stressed by the comments that had been made.
-I don't know about other people, but is Blue too stupid to evaluate something like this?
- So, compared to Blue's era, the level of idol world's now is ridiculously high;
The stage was pretty good.
Blue and Yoo Seon-hwa showed off their peak singing skills, while Choi Dae-ho and Lee Chang-jun were in charge of humor.
The audience burst into laughter at the sight of them putting off the rap part to each other.
At the end of the performance, the four people, smiling, sat down at the judges' table and held the microphone.
-Oh, it's really not easy. While preparing for this stage, I once again felt how difficult it must have been for our participants.
-Mentor Yoo Seon-hwa, what advice would you like to give to mentors Choi Dae-ho and Lee Chang-jun?
Yoo Seon-hwa snorted at Blue's question and grabbed the microphone.
-You have to be born again.
The audience clapped and enjoyed hearing the judges' voices ringing through the speakers.
Following the refreshing atmosphere created by the opening, a special stage was announced.
Usually, this kind of special stage is performed by the previous eliminated contestants.
However, there are no dropouts in Coming Up Next.
When the audience tilts their heads.
As the duet performance was revealed, cheers erupted.
-
Koo Tae-hwan – Ready
On Saemiro – Juyeon
Choi Jaesung – Fade
Lee Ion – C.U.
Han Sion – Ilevel
-
But under the water.
-Wow, that's cruel. It's cruel. They do a direct comparison.
-Does it feels like Take Scene can win over everyone except Han Si-on?
-LOL I feel so sorry for Ilevel. He got stuck with Han Si On.
-No, but after doing this, they are having a team battle again? I think I'll have trouble breathing.
-Looking at the song selection, it seems like the choreography is minimal and only a singing competition.
-It's not a competition, it's a duet!
-How do you view this purely as a duet?
It was around this time that residents of idol culture who successfully applied for the audience started sharing their status on social media and various bulletin boards.
Two men came up on stage.
It was Koo Tae-hwan and Ready.
The song the two sang was "I'm Gonna Die."
<I'm Gonna Die> was a duet song sung by a male rapper who became famous through entertainment and the main vocalist of the top girl group Way From Flower.
As with most collaboration songs between a male rapper and a female vocalist, the rapper is responsible for the verse and the vocalist is responsible for the chorus.
But there was an interesting element to this song.
That's right, it was the lyrics.
The speakers in this song blame and criticize each other.
Of course, the emotion contained in it is 'I hate it so much, but I love it so much that I'm dying', but that is the original song.
Koo Tae-hwan and Ready agreed to express this feeling as competition rather than love and hate.
For that, they modified the lyrics and went to their mentor to get permission.
Since the two people agreed, the mentor also nodded.
But this was a version designed by Han Si-on.
So that Koo Tae-hwan can beat Ready.
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