Minji of NewJeans attracts the eye of SM Entertainment founder Lee Soo Man
According to the YouTube channel “Drama Gallery”, an employee of Source Music revealed on the anonymous platform Blind (a platform Korean office workers that require a business email to access) that Minji, who recently debuted with NewJeans, was recruited by SM Entertainment multiple times. The same person also added that at the time, Minji was a trainee under Source Music – a subsidiary of HYBE Labels, and that she turned the offer down.
In addition, the original poster also stated that the SM founder Lee Soo Man directly contacted Minji’s parents to recruit the female idol, and even promised that Minji will become the center of SM’s new girl group. However, Minji decided to stay in Source Music, and was later transferred to HYBE’s subsidiary ADOR to debut with New Jeans.
The reason behind Minji’s refusal was unclear, but many netizens believed that Minji must have had faith in HYBE and ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin.
As of the moment, Minji’s decision to stay in HYBE is regarded to be an accurate one. Despite being a rookie group, NewJeans have recorded numerous outstanding achievements, and made themselves known as one of the most formidable 4th gen girl groups.
Moreover, according to a report regarding the stock price of HYBE, analysts pointed out that the debut of NewJeans was a huge contribution to the label’s upward trend. To specify, after the release of NewJeans’ first track “Attention”, HYBE’s stock price has increased by over 6% on July 21st, and witnessed an additional climb of 5.69% the following day.
“The debuts of LE SSERAFIM in May and of ADOR’s NewJeans in July are expected to contribute greatly to the revenue and growth of HYBE Labels”, said analyst Song Beom Yong.
