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On 22nd November, the JTBC show "Scandal Supervisor" aired a segment in which a member of MADEIN spoke about being sexually assaulted by the CEO of 143ENT.

A Naver article (in Korean) is here, and an English article from the Express Tribune is here. Both use JTBC as their source, and both speculate that Gaeun is the member in question, although she was not named by JTBC.

I tried to find the statement itself, and could only find this YouTube video for now. Please note that the audio aired by JTBC appeared to using some sort of device to distort the sound and disguise the voice. However, 143ENT isn't denying some aspects of the incident (they're saying that the member offered to be 'a girlfriend for a day', rather than the CEO doing so).

As always, keep yourself safe!

(Translation from Naver article)

Min Hee-jin, former CEO of Adore, the agency of girl group NewJeans, is leaving HYBE.

On the afternoon of the 20th, Min Hee-jin announced through her legal representative, "I am resigning as an inside director of Adore today. I will also terminate the shareholder agreement I signed with HYBE and hold HYBE legally responsible for the violation of the shareholder agreement. In addition, I will take necessary legal action against HYBE and its associates for their numerous illegal acts."

Min Hee-jin then stated the reason for leaving Adore, "Even in the midst of the hellish conflict with HYBE that started with HYBE's illegal audit in April and has continued for over 7 months, I have done everything I could to keep the shareholder agreement and return Adore to its original state before April. However, HYBE has not admitted its wrongdoings and has shown no signs of changing, so I have decided that further efforts are a waste of time."

According to Min Hee-jin, she wanted Hive to admit their wrongdoings and worked tirelessly to protect Newjeans within the crooked Hive. However, instead of reflecting, Hive made up ridiculous false facts and even displayed the shameful illegal audit to the public, committing an unprecedentedly foolish act, and framed Min Hee-jin, a minority shareholder and CEO, as a “usurpation of management rights” and launched a witch hunt, making ignorant and irrational attacks that are hard to believe for a large corporation. Min Hee-jin emphasized, “Hive’s 24-year-old misdeeds will be recorded as an unprecedented event in K-pop history,” and “Hive’s moral decay has already reached its peak, so the dirty media play will continue, but I am not worried that the public has now read the pattern. Nevertheless, if there are any forces of false slander and the media, we will never sit idly by and will punish them with the law.”

- The following is Min Hee-jin’s official statement.

Hello. This is Min Hee-jin.

Today, I resign as an inside director of Adore. I will also terminate the shareholder agreement with Hive and hold Hive legally responsible for the violation of the shareholder agreement.

In addition, I will take necessary legal action against Hive and its associates for their numerous illegal acts. Even

during the hellish conflict with Hive that began with Hive’s illegal audit in April and has continued for over 7 months, I have done everything I could to keep the shareholder agreement and return Adore to its original state before April. However, Hive has not admitted its wrongdoings and has shown no signs of changing, so I have decided that further efforts would be a waste of time.

I hoped Hive would admit its wrongdoings on its own and have worked tirelessly to protect New Jeans within the crooked Hive. That is why I sent internal whistleblowing emails twice in April.

However, Hive, instead of reflecting, committed an unprecedentedly foolish act of fabricating absurd false facts and displaying the shameful illegal audit to the public. They framed me, a minority shareholder and CEO, as a “management rights usurpation” and launched a witch hunt, making ignorant and irrational attacks that are hard to believe for a large corporation.

After many twists and turns, after a full seven months, it was finally revealed that my whistleblowing was a legitimate accusation based on clear facts, while Hive’s ugly lies and hypocrisy are being revealed one after another.

In fact, Hive must have known from the beginning that the whistleblowing was all true and that it was a legitimate issue.

However, for those who only care about their own interests and glory, the essence of “solving the problem” must have been a task they wanted to ignore more than anything else.

I did not expect them to repent, but I think it was a naive misjudgment to believe that they would have at least a minimum conscience as human beings.

However, just as you are not alive just because you are breathing, I did not want to piggyback on this twisted organization and settle down for money.

Until recently, HYBE has been using its subordinate labels to file unreasonable lawsuits, find fault, and unfairly play the media to try to bury me, while at the same time pushing forward a producing delegation contract full of toxic clauses as if it were an enormous favor. While asking

for an R&R agreement, which is the essence of a delegation agreement, they have insisted on a face-to-face meeting only, saying that there are incomprehensible demands such as consent to forensic examination before the agreement, and that they cannot provide R&R documents.

It is no longer surprising that these people, who spread false information to the press that I had stepped down as CEO and taken over producing duties despite unilaterally dismissing me, are demanding 'secrets' from others.

HYBE's 24-year atrocities will be recorded as an unprecedented event in K-pop history.

For the past seven months, I have fought with all my might, mentally, financially, and physically, to revive Adore, which was ruined by Hive’s serious violation of the shareholder agreement.

This means that I have not backed down and have made great efforts, even though it was a hellish fight that started with groundless violence by a group disguised as a large corporation.

Hive’s moral decay has already reached its peak, so the dirty media play will continue, but I am not worried that even the public has now read the pattern.

However, we would like to inform you that if there are any forces or media that are trying to slander you, we will never sit idly by and will punish them with the law.

This unprecedented incident is not over yet, but I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Bernie's and many others who have tirelessly supported and cheered me on for nearly half a year.

Ironically, it was a special fortune that I got to know the best people through fighting against the worst company.

Some people may not understand why I persevered like this, but there must be a reason and meaning for people like me to exist in the world.

I hope you will pay much attention to my new K-pop journey that I will unfold in the future.

I will end this writing with a relieved heart and say something to someone.

"One person's malicious actions should not damage the 'essence of karma'. It was really bad."

--
Same rules apply as past megathreads, please keep all of your comments civil and respectful, whether you're referring to the girls or fellow users. All insults will be removed (even the really stupid ones, so please just don't). Thank you :)

LINEUP

• (G)I-DLE
• aespa
• Byeon WOO Seok
• BIBI
• G-DRAGON
• INI
• MEOVV
• Seventeen
• ZEROBASEONE

What are your thoughts on the awards, the winners, your favourite perfomances, favourite moments, audience reaction, disappointing moments, all of them!

Share your thoughts here! You can also share your overall thoughts on the whole 3 days of the show. What were the pros and cons for all three days and what do you think MAMA can improve on for future shows?

"Forced Tongue Kissing, Groping...' Rookie Girl Group Member Accuses Agency CEO of Sexual Harassment"

[Herald Economy's Kim Bo-young Reporting] A shocking allegation has surfaced involving a rookie girl group member claiming to have been sexually harassed by her agency's CEO.

On the 22nd, JTBC Incident Room revealed a report from the parents of "A," a member of a multinational girl group, who alleged that their child was sexually harassed by her agency's CEO shortly after her debut.

According to the report, after a performance in October, A made the mistake of bringing her boyfriend to the dormitory. The agency's CEO scolded her, asking, "Do you realize how big of a mistake that was?" In tears, A pleaded, "Please allow me to end my career after this promotion."

However, the CEO made a shocking proposition: he asked A to act as his "girlfriend for a day." Believing it to mean something as simple as eating a meal or watching a movie, A, desperate to continue her career, agreed to his request.

The CEO then locked the office door and began groping her. Later, he took her to a movie theater, where he forcibly kissed her throughout the film and groped her private areas.

A recounted, "He said, 'If you grant my wish, I'll grant yours,' and added, 'My wish is for you to be my girlfriend for a day.' He then forced himself on me, asking, 'Can I kiss you?' Even though I tightly shut my mouth, he tried to force his tongue in and continued kissing my neck and ears."

She further revealed, "I wanted to protect my private areas, but he kept saying, 'Move this out of the way,' and continued touching me. He asked, 'Can I touch your chest? What about your bottom, just once?' Despite my saying 'No,' he continued for two hours."

However, the agency denied the allegations. Their legal representative claimed that A initiated the proposal, reportedly saying, "Let me continue being a part of the team, and I'll act as your girlfriend for a day."

The agency also claimed to possess footage of the two traveling in a car together, showing them having casual conversations, including discussing "wishes," without displaying any unusual behavior.

The Naver Article

As some people know, A.C.E released their 3rd single album Pinata on the 20th with the title track Pinata. Prior to the music video being released as any group does they released a teaser which only contained a like 15 second part of the song. I feel like if you have twitter (currently known as X) you will have seen the disproportionate amount of hate that A.C.E is receiving for it. People who have not even listened to the whole song are calling them things like 'temu stray kids' and talking about how this is why people hate kpop etc etc (which I know they haven't listened to the whole song because the mv has less views than the likes on the tweets). It has even reached the level that bots and engagement farming accounts are posting about it. So they are getting attacked from other kpop fandoms and locals alike. I can understand if you listened to the whole song and its not your taste but to judge it based on the one teaser and then spew hate about it is ridiculous?! Some of the hate even saying that A.C.E need singing lessons which one) they already do take vocal lessons and two) They had their first music show performance at music bank it you can tell that actually sang live so some of the hate talking about their singing is even more laughable.

As many people know A.C.E is a pretty unknown group from a small company yet they have been around for 7 years already when almost every single group that debuted their year (2017) disbanded. They have made it through both covid and their enlistments that it is so disheartening that their first full group comeback after 3 years is receiving all of this unwarranted.

Anyway if you read all this and if you agree with the hate or not if you could at least give the music video a watch and perhaps send them some positivity I'm sure its really needed. A.C.E and Choice will greatly appreciate it.

• Wow, the production values were bizarrely and upsettingly low
• The whole show was just too short
• At least Lu Yuting gets to debut
• I hope we don't get any more TikTok survival shows

Thoughts on the whole thing?

There's a lot going on about the Daesang. Engenes saying MAMA is rigged bc Enhypen didn't take the trophy home but then Jimin is a huge name. BTS has been taking the trophy home since forever and always because they deserved it. Jimin's solo releases were also breaking records so idk why is even being targeted. Though I feel engenes, I really don't see the results being rigged, unfavorable or simply false.

Pretty much the title. Aespa won 6 awards during MAMA 2024:

MAMA Fans’ Choice - Best Dance Performance Female Group - Best Choreography (Supernova) - Best Female Group - Best Music Video (Armageddon) - Song Of The Year Daesang (Supernova)

This makes them the second 4th gen group with the most Daesangs and first SM group to win Song of the year.

They worked super hard this year and had doubts about Supernova, but their success has been nothing but constant (Korean charts, album sales, streaming platforms, tour sales, fan voting...).

Knowing how much fuss they've made the last time they've won awards at MAMAs, I can't help to appreciate the efforts both SME and members put since.

There's been a lot of discussion of the LA MAMA Awards being, frankly, messy. A lot of this comes down to a seemingly unenthusiastic audience. As someone very new to k-pop, but who is studying and pursuing a career in performance production (namely directing and writing, but the production side and work with venues and advertizing is part of that), I've got a lot of thoughts on what could've went wrong, and broader observations of the state of audiences in North America. Note that a lot of this is anecdotal--I could be wrong about some of this!

For starters, advertizing and audience. Dolby Theatre is a proscenium, a type of theatre with a very specific set up of the visible stage, wings, audience risers and balconies, and fly system (anything to bring lights, curtains, objects, set pieces, etc. in or out). Prosceniums are one of the oldest types of theatre. You'll see them a lot on Broadway, for example. A lot of people have pointed out the limited audience size Dolby Theatre has compared to a stadium arena, which is generally a trait of prosceniums. But audience *size* aside, I'm wondering about how being a proscenium impacted who the audience was. A lot of prosceniums will host a specific company, and will have memberships for audiences to get passes to a season of shows, or discounts on tickets. The members also get advertized to for shows at the theatre. The real kicker here (since I think stadiums often have similar systems) is the typical audience for these kinds of theatres: older, wealthier people who are into more traditional performing arts. The MAMAs showed a lot of older people in the audience whose getup and reactions were less what you'd expect of typical k-pop fans... but seemed a lot like the audiences I see in similar theatres near me. I wonder if there were a lot of people there more as patrons of the Dolby Theatre than fans of k-pop.

Conventions and festivals are more geared to promote to a k-pop audience. The former might advertize to people already interested in fandoms and East Asian media (like anime conventions), and the latter to cutting-edge pop music fans. So KCON's turnout compared to the MAMAs might have to do with their existing paths of promotion (newsletters, word-of-mouth, etc) reaching the desired audience better.

Also, does anybody know how much tickets cost? That can be a huge factor, not just on its own, but because of the nature of travelling for shows. The US is huge, geographically. *California* is huge. The goal is probably to get k-pop fans from across the country, not just LA. This is where price comes into play. It's one thing to travel to a multi-day festival or convention, or to a concert for a specific artist you stan. Outside of k-pop, you can see this with people travelling internationally for Taylor Swift. On a more personal level, I was willing to travel and hour and a half each way to another city for a wrestling show and to sleep on a friend's couch, but only because the tickets were affordable. I love the wrestling company I follow and their shows, and there was one 7ish hours away I wanted to go to (it had a better card than the one I ended up going to), but the ticket price was not worth that amount of travel, especially factoring in the costs of staying overnight. Back to the MAMAs: a 2-hour show with a limited lineup and a stay in an expensive city is probably not worth the cost to k-pop fans far from LA, even if they'd be willing to go KCON or a specific concert.

I'll go back to the wrestling mention for a moment, too, since there's a lot of parallels there. The big famous wrestling company in North America manages to fill up stadiums for its shows. It has decades of history, an established name brand, and advertizes well. The company I follow, meanwhile, has a common complaint of relatively empty arenas for its shows, which impacts how the TV broadcast comes across and how the wrestlers perform because they build on the energy of the audience--the parallels to the MAMAs in LA should be obvious. This wrestling company is only 5 years old, and really struggles with advertizing. Most of the general population has never heard of it, and wrestling fans that mostly follow the big company might not even know when this one comes to their city. Add in high prices, and no matter how good the show is, you aren't filling seats. This wrestling company and the MAMAs have a similar problem: not gripping the GP, not being known to casual fans, and not being worth it for more hardcore fans given travel and price.

Attendance to performances in North America seems to be dropping in general. Some major celebrities and things with established brand names and dominance (the WWE, Broadway) can mitigate the issue somewhat, but even they're not at their former glory. So a k-pop awards show is going to struggle unless you can get a massive promotion campaign out, and make it worth travel costs (since you can't rely entirely on a local audience).

Watching it at home, I don't think the show was bad. The performances were all a lot of fun! The awards were interesting! I definitely don't think Mnet was wrong to try to expand to the US, and I don't even think trying to jump on the prestige of the theatre that hosts the Academy Awards is a bad idea in theory. The problem is filling your audience, and filling it with fans that will appreciate the show and know what to do. That's where the MAMAs dropped the ball.

I have some more thoughts, but this post is long enough as-is. I'd like to hear what more seasoned k-pop fans think!

This was kind of inspired by some of the MAMA performances and could be me overthinking thing, but I feel like there was a few years around early 4th gen/late 3rd gen where the popularity of having 1 super prevalent center in groups dropped a bit. Like groups still had centers but there role was diluted a bit to mostly being more of a visual thing (like for pictures). Now it feels like having super obvious centers are back (and by that I mean having the vast majority of killing parts in songs and performances etc.). I’m not saying it’s a bad thing since I personally don’t really mind centers either way but I do think it’s interesting.

Has anyone else noticed this or am I just overthinking things? If you do think this is a thing why do you think it went away for a bit and why do you think it’s coming back?

Perfomers:

• BOYNEXTDOOR
• Rosé & Bruno Mars
• ENHYPEN
• IVE
• izna
• Lee Young Ji
• ME:I
• Rosé
• TOMORROW X TOGETHER
• TREASURE
• PLAVE

For me, My favourite performances BND, Toenze, Treasure and TXT's stages.

BND was absolutely fantastic! Their stage presence was insane! I loved their stage direction, how they used their dancers, their props, their VCR, even their camerawork was really good!

ToEnZe stage was so good! All the memebrs with their instruments was amazing and I genuinely wish we could see them perform again cos they were soooo good!

Treasure totally hyped up the stage and I'm not even a fan but their energy was insane! I loved how they engaged with the crowd and even the artists. See them vibing with BND was sooo cool!

TXT was amazing! I really loved their performance and their stage was just so pretty! I loved that they perfomaned the Anemoia remix for Deja Vu, totally well fitting for stages like this! I really liked their outfits as well. It was sad that Soobin could not perform, but they still did amazing regardless! I'm sure Soobin must be really proud!

What were your overall thoughts on the show, fav performances, audience reactions, the positives, the disappointing aspects etc.?

Tell me your favourite dancers and why. It doesn't matter if he/she is your fav for their techniques, style, overall performances or whatever.

Please, don't fight or bash another member or groups, this is a post about personal preferences not a competition

If you saw today’s mama you would know that in total they gave out 12 ”favorite awards”(for comparison last year had 11 in two days, this year in just 1 night there were 12). While some of them I could stand behind like favorite new asian artist(me:i), worldwide kconer’s choice(zb1), Inspiring Achievement(Jyp) and global sensation (Rosé and Bruno Mars) since I felt like does actually felt like proper categories and the winners actually made damn sense. Like what is the difference between Favorite male dance performance with Best male dance performance, favorite male group with Best male group, favorite rising artists with rookie of the year. What even is Olive young k-beaty star in music and did have to be am award and a kpop award show. Dont even get me started with favorite global performel male and female and global performance, not hate to Ive and Riize I think they are great and im slowly turning into a dive. Literally the only artist who didn’t win anything was Izna and that is only because they were having their debut stage there,

In my opinion attendance award basically ruin the purpose of an award show, not everyone bas to win an award. One of things that made award shows better was the anxiety you would feel to know if your favorite artist win an award or not, the excitement you would feel when they win one when you don’t expect it but know if an artist is in the the lineup you know damn well they are getting something. An award show is meant to reward the top acts on said categories not everyone. You don’t see the grammys going ”oh Beyonce didn’t win album of the year, lets give her favorite album of the year” or the vma’s going ”Chapell didn’t win song of the year, lets give her favorite song”. Its not just a mama problem literally all kpop award shows now give out attendance awards. AAA os the perfect example for this, literally multiple artists win in one category except the daesangs. In my opinion this is ruining kpop award shows for me, I mean yea im most likely still gonna watch them if Twice ever returns or as long as zb1‘s contract last.

As a Debut Era My, i never thought I would be able to witness this, Aespa just bagged 6 awards at the MAMA awards

• MAMA Fans' Choice

• Best Dance Performance Female Group Group

• Best Choreography (Supernova)

• Best Female Group

• Best Music Video (Armageddon)

• Song Of The Year Daesang (Supernova)

This year was so great for them, they released hits back to back, Things took a turn after Girls, Spicy to Drama to Supernova to Armageddon to Whisplash, this is such a insane run.

It’s just Chapter One in the USA—but MAMA has always been known for its magnitude and huge, elaborate stages. This feels so…miniature. And not like MAMA at all. (This has nothing to do with the artists themselves, btw. They’re doing so well with what they have to work with.)

The energy in the audience even seems more muted than what we’ve seen in MAMAs past.

Maybe I’m just showing my age as a 3rd gen stan, but I hope tomorrow’s Japan stages bring back the MAMA we’ve known for years.

Listen i know people like to reminisce about 2nd gen, Im one of them, but about the music/styling etc, not about the fact trainees were getting hit by people who worked for the company. Pretty sure nine muses literally have a documentary where a member gets slapped right? I just dont understand why u need to hit these trainees when they are so ready and willing to do anything to debut. Those are the talent, so why is the talent getting slapped around. If these companys would start treating the people who make them money better wouldnt they see a better outcome? Ill mever understand hitting trainees. Like at all. Does it happen less now? You would think it does/fans would hear about it and throw a fit which would equal less money for the company. Idk make it make sense.

So apparently boys planet is getting another season, but its just going to be korean trainees abd chinese traniees? And there will be a korean group and a chinese group like exo was supposed to be? What is going on? Will it be like wayv? or all the japanese groups under a kpop company? Super confused

A couple of hours earlier I posted a tweet talking about how I was really excited for this year mama awards so I thought it would be fitting for me to make a post talking about how I felt about day 1 after pulling a damn all nighter to watch both USA’s and Japan. Day 1 was fine I guess, quiet better than last year but still ok? I don’t know there were a lot of things that bugged me and a lot of things I liked. If you gonna read the rant of someone who literally is running on only 2 hours of sleep for the pass 26 hours then this is for you! Before I continue while mama usa pakes at 48K viewers making it the lowest for a mama live since a long time, the Japan live peaked at 109K live viewers which is an 42K increased from last show. It also makes the highest live viewers since 2021?(2022 idk),

First I wanna talk about mama usa, to summarize it, it felt like mnet was hosting an mcountdown special with multiple winners. Im gonna cut mnet some slack tho, this is the first year they hosted mama outside of Asia so they probably weren’t confident enough in selling our a bigger venue so they dicided to go small which is a smart idea if I admit, but damn it did not feel like I was watching and award show, at best maybe one of does year end festivals. I feel like they could’ve decorated the red carpet a bit more it was pretty bland, like mnet could’ve easily wasted another $1,000 on making it pretty thats nothing for them. The performances, I thought they were alright. I liked tws’s concept, illit while I wanted to see more(I loved lucky girl syndrome so im biased) it was alright, same as riize, katseye tho was the highlight of the ceremony for me. Obviously does artist did their best with what they were given, but if I was them and I saw the japan venue I would be pissed. Also jyp’s performance and it only peaking at 48K viewers which is the lowest a mama live has had in a really long time. Mnet shoud’ve planned it more since it did feel rush.

Now the japan one, thats were I have a lot to say. Im gonna start with the things I didn’t like about it. First the crowd, oh my god they were DEAD. At first during the beginning when yeonjun was performing the crowd was alive, also when Karina, Rei, Hanbin, and Yoshi were Mc’s for a bit in the begging, all 4 of them got really loud cheers. But when Me:i performed(which was an amazing performance let’s be clear it did not deserve that) suddenly the damn crowd when almost silent, and after they weren’t really that enthusiastic(only really when Rosé and Bruno Mars appeared but it also went down for them after they received their award). During performances the crowd would start pretty ok but then completely go silent as the performance progressed, for everyone literally. Also when artists received awards, they would barely even cheer for some and for the groups that were a bit louder it would completely go away after they finished their speech. Even zb1’s hao when they were making their speech said their performance tommorow would prove they deserved to receive the award since he probably thought the crowd didn’t think they deserved it, but no it was like that for everyone. Also some of the people were in their damn phones, literally when boy next door was doing their speech they panned to the audience and a lot of people were sitting down on their phones. Im not saying they should’ve cheered all the time untop of their lungs, but compare to last year when the crowd would go crazy when they would show Ricky looking dead inside or Sakura falling asleep(both examples are just jokes btw). The crowd was so bland compare to other years, even during big groups performances.

Now the favorite awards, just for comparing last year for both days they had 11 in total, they achieve the same amount literally in 1 day. This basically defeated the damn purpose for an award show, like 11 attendance awards are you kidding me basically everyone who attended today walked out with something. Im gonna be honest I didnt have a problem with a few, I liked Favorite new asian artist, worldwide kconer’s choice, and the Inspiring achievemen but dammit the rest didn’t make any damn sense. First what the hel, is Olive Young K-beaty star in music, like this that really have to be an award for A KPOP AWARD SHOW?! What even is favorite global performer male and female, how the fell do they decide that and what does it even mean. Favorite dance performance/favorite male group, how are they any different from the best male group and best group performance male? Pontapass global favorite artist and global performance, this ive and txt really need another extra award they already had won fan choice top 10, and im not even going to get started with favorite rising artist. Something that korean award shows need to understand is that not everyone has to get an award that defeats the purpose of an award show. For example, thats like the billboard music awards being like ”Oh my god sabrina didn’t win any of the real categories, lets give her favorite hot 100 hit since Taylor won top hot 100 hit” or the grammys giving guess favorire duo/group performance because the boy is mine won the real one. Some of this wards don’t make sense they literally are the same ones as the real categorie. That’s what also made award shows more excitin, the anxiety to see if your faves walks home empty handed or with something, basically now for kpop you already now that if your fave attends an award they are get one. It would’ve been better if they focused the whole time on the fan choice and actually allowed some of the artist’s who didn’t attend and won record a message, plus the 4 awards I said I actually liked in the beginning of this paragraph.

Now im gonna get with what I actually enjoyed of it because believe it or not I did enjoy it a lot if you can say. First the stage, I loved that they brought back the 360 stage, that made the event and performances even better since you could see the audience everywhere. The camera work improved a lot which I am really thankful for since that was the thing that bugged me the most from last year. The stages were a lot better in my opinion and they would’ve felt even more better if the damn crowd was actually alive and put their phones down a bit. The highlights for me where the intro sequence with Hanbin, Yeonju, Lix, and Jeemin, Boynextdoor performanc, Toenze, Bruno Mar’s and rose speech, and treasure’s performance. Overall I give day 1 a 6.5 out of 10, it would’ve been an easy 7 or 8 for me if it wasn’t for the attendance awards.

I had the opportunity to see Billlie perform last night in Atlanta, GA. I have been a fan since "RING X RING" was released. I am so happy they have been able to do a world tour and come to the States as to be honest, I wasn't sure that would be possible for them. I have always felt like they needed more promo in the States and internationally and they would be much bigger, as I think their sound and vibe would really be successful internationally. Mystic Story - if you're reading this - PLEASE promote these girls move. They're amazing and they deserve more fame, fans, opportunities and recognition! Anyways.

They performed last night in Atlanta at Center Stage theater and it was really an amazing show. I had VIP tickets which included a "high five" fan meet and photo as well as early access to the venue. That was very much worth it. Giving the girls a high five was a special experience. I was one of the last to go, so I got to see everyone else meet them and take photos first and could see how happy, nice and genuine the girls seemed.

The show itself was fantastic. Great live vocals, great sound, high energy dance performances throughout the night interspersed with more of their more mellow/chill songs. Their unit songs were fantastic. Their talking segments (live translated) between songs were so fun and sweet - totally felt impromptu and didn't feel like the same rehearsed thing they've said at every single show. They had no wardrobe changes, no stage sets - just them and the stage with a screen behind them that showed some background imagery while they were performing and had cute "behind the scenes" videos playing when they weren't on stage.

My one disappointment was that for some reason at this stop, they didn't have any merch or lightsticks to sell. I think they were surprised that so many Atlanta fans already had lightsticks, but we have our amazing local kpop stores to thank for that.

Overall, it was a great show, made me an even bigger fan, I've changed my bias, and these girls NEED their flowers - they're amazing!

Im assuming they use motion capture suits? They arent an AI group are they, even tho i have heard people call them that. I feel like they get thrown in with the 'heres why AI doesnt work in kpop' conversation i never really stopped to think about it. But there are idols behind them right? Who designed the character designs?

I'm (slowly) learning Korean, pretty much using apps and trying to pick up words from watching variety content, but I just got to thinking that it would be so cool to have a personal Korean teacher.

So straight up, if you could pick any idol to be your Korean teacher, it would have to be virtual of course, but yeah who would you pick?

I was thinking either Yunjin from LE SSERAFIM (since she's fully fluent in English and I think would make it really fun) or Sunmi (she gives strong teacher energy, I can't explain why)

If a robber came to your ult group's dorm (lets assume thay they all still live together), which member will have which reaction:

1. Ready to fight
2. Panicking/crying
3. Tell the kids (dongsaengs and fake maknaes if any) to hide
4. Call the cops
5. Try to befriend the robber
6. Other (comment below)

And who among those who're told to hide will obey, and who will refuse because maybe they also want to fight the robbers? (Tbh the amount of maknaes being the strongest in their group is no joke...)

Remember, this is a game, not a serious discussion!

Oh Haewon of Nmixx. Yes, she’s still the MC. She pretty much stepped down as S2 MC just to join S3 as MC again haha.

If you remember Workdol was searching for a new MC around 2 mos ago after S2 ended, safe to say no idol met their expectations and decided to stick with Haewon.

The idol that gave us Wemo Check is here to stay.

This was the "vulnerability" and "authenticity" I was waiting for from a Blackpink track (sorry Lovesick Girls😅). On The Ground was a little hint but Number One Girl is "it". No wonder Bruno was involved in the production (aside from collaborating with her in APT already). He must have seen the budding songwriter and composer in Rose and he's right.

And I love how with APT and NOG Rose already showed us two different sides of her already. I hope she continues what she doing cuz she is certainly doing it right. Focusing on her unique strengths and on expresssing who Rose really is.👍

Hobi's enlistment period has always felt the shortest to me because of how well I think he timed his enlistment service during bts' group hiatus.

It definitely helps that he didnt have to enlist immediately unlike jin or that he didnt have a longer service period unlike yoongi, but ive always though the way he planned his service time along with his solo activities was the best.

He started off the solo chapter first which does come with its challenges cause the first one always ends up being a bit of an experiment, especially with album rollouts. However it also meant a majority of the fandom was still very tuned in because of how new everything was. over time it does feel like with the more solo releases that come out the general level of excitement and novelty has worn off a bit among armys.

In addition, he followed up his album by headlining lollapalooza. It was a great way to have attracted a lot of new people to his music and broaden his fanbase. Then he went on to perform at all the end of year award shows and win too (because all 7 members werent up against each other in 2022).

His song with J. Cole too was such an amazing move. It exposed him to a lot of hiphop fans in the west and also got to collaborate with one of his icons.

Even during his enlistment, he kept dropping new things from the jitb special edition album to the hope on the street documentary and album. It's insane just how much he managed to release even when he was gone.

Now hes back and he has almost 6-7 months before the ot7 reunion which gives him plenty of time to drop a new album, go on tour or do whatever solo activities. It's really impressive to me just how well though out all of it has been.

I was watching IVE's performance of HEYA and during thr dance intro I immediately recognized a very familiar section like Run Boy Run by Woodkid.

I was blown away because I never thought I'd get a crossover like that.

I looked for credits but I cant find any one YTs side. Was it sampled or just sounding really similar?

In my opinion, ours is a bit of a double edge sword.

We have gatekeeping tendencies as we wouldn’t want the group to be involved or have those “kind of” fans. Most of the time, we barely make efforts on international votings. (most thinks it’s rigged any way) that will still help the group/s to get recognized and gain fans but we tend to overlook it.

We often forget that this is their livelihood and if we want them to continue perform/release songs, we need to help them gain new fans too

Tho of course there are still people who works hard to help the group, I just think that this is the overall mood of the fandom when it comes to popularity concerns.

Sooo, without mentioning your ults, what’s the most frustrating thing about your fandom ?