From Park Bo-gum to Lee Hyori “Stars who were overlooked by major entertainment agencies”

Recently, singer EJel, who won third place on JTBC’s “Sing Again Season 3”, confessed to receiving harsh criticism from J. Y. Park.

EJel surprised everyone by revealing, “I knocked on the door of all the major agencies in Korea. I auditioned for JYP, YG, SM and Mystic. I failed all of them.”

In particular, EJel confessed to being hurt by J. Y. Park.

She recounted the incident of receiving judgment from J. Y. Park, “I participated in ‘K-pop Star Season 6’, and when I stopped singing in the middle, judge J. Y. Park spoke first.” 

EJel confessed, “He said, ‘You’re really bad at singing. You’re just mimicking right now.’ If someone who has seen many people says I have no talent, I thought maybe I should give up music.”

She continued, “Because it was when I started music, it became an opportunity for me to be even more tenacious.“

In addition to EJel, there are representative talents overlooked by JYP Entertainment, such as IU, Chungha, former AOA member ChoA, EXID’s Hani, 2NE1’s CL, BTS’s J-Hope, Hyolyn, Yoon Doo-joon and Lee Gi-kwang.

J. Y. Park expressed his regret to the extent of saying, “I’ll find the audition manager who eliminated IU and discipline them.“

The video of IU auditioning for JYP Entertainment is still steadily popular. IU debuted at the age of just 15 under Loen Entertainment.

IU revealed that she debuted after 10 months of training.

She shared, “I was supposed to debut with a group that the company was preparing. The group project fell through. Because of the distribution contract, someone had to debut no matter what. So, they said ‘This kid has many chances. Even if it doesn’t work out well, there will be another chance’ and luckily, I debuted. I thought I was going to debut with a group, but I didn’t know I would debut as a solo artist.”

J. Y. Park expressed his sincere thoughts, “I can’t watch TV these days. I don’t know why I did that. I’m sorry for all the missed stars. Just because they were in our company doesn’t mean they would have been successful. It’s because they made music with other companies’ producers.“

Many aspiring entertainers knock on the doors of major entertainment agencies.

Because they have a high chance of success from the beginning of their career. However, there are also those like IU who were recognized for their talents by other agencies and became global stars. Top stars like Lee Hyori, Park Bo-gum, G-Dragon, CL and Won Bin debuted after moving to different agencies for various reasons.

Lee Hyori caught the eye of the manager of the top group H.O.T in 1999 and was cast by SM Entertainment.

As an SM trainee, Lee Hyori was about to debut with a girl group at the time. However, due to personal reasons, she quit her trainee life and was cast by the current DSP Media, debuting with Fin.K.L, the rival girl group of S.E.S. G-Dragon also once belonged to SM. He was active as a member of the mixed-gender group Little Roo’Ra and was personally recruited by Lee Soo-man after being spotted.

However, during his trainee days, G-Dragon became engrossed in rap and decided to become a rapper, heading to an academy to learn hip-hop. It was then that Yang Hyun-suk noticed him and recruited him to YG Entertainment, where he debuted as a member of Big Bang.

Park Bo-gum debuted as an actor, but originally dreamed of becoming a singer.

Park Bo-gum sent his singing video to major agencies such as SM, YG and JYP. He later debuted as an actor at the agency he eventually entered. Yang Hyun-suk expressed regret, “Rain also failed in our company’s audition. Park Bo-gum is the one I regret the most.“

Park Bo-gum signed a contract with The Black Label, an affiliate of YG Entertainment, in January last year and is relieving his thirst for music by appearing on musical stages.

Source: Naver