“Queendom 2” successfully captivated the hearts of overseas fans but is still disappointing compared to Season 1
The winner of Mnet’s girl group comeback battle “Queendom 2” has been announced to be WJSN.
In the final episode of “Queendom 2”, which aired live on June 2nd, WJSN beat No.2 LOONA to top the final ranking, which was determined by adding up the scores from preliminary performances and the final competition scores. As a result, WJSN will be given the privilege of a premium comeback show that will air worldwide in the future.
WJSN succeeded in accumulating points little by little while maintaining their top spot in the ranking of each round: No.2 in 1st round, No.3 in 2nd round, and a joint No.1 in 3rd round. The girl group was able to win the championship thanks to their constant hard work until the end. All the members, who suffered a hard time with the decision of appearing on a survival program, cried so much and filled the studio with tears.
“I was so surprised by this unexpected achievement.” (Bona)
“We want to thank the viewers for showing sympathy for the passion of all artists.” (Exy)
Songs, such as “As You Wish”, which rises to No.1 on music charts on January 1st every year, “Save Me, Save You”, and “La La Love”, are evaluated as WJSN’s hidden masterpieces but the girl group failed to make a breakthrough. Therefore, they were given the opportunity to show off their talents and highlight their presence through “Queendom 2” in the 7th year of their debut.
LOONA, who finished the battle in 2nd place, took the lead in major categories, such as No.1 in Fan’s Choices Votes and Video score, No.1 in Comeback Single Charting, and aimed for a last-minute reversal in the ranking. In fact, since most of their members could not compete in the first round, LOONA stayed at the bottom at the beginning of the show so they only ranked 5th place in the category that combined scores from the 1st to 3rd rounds. This made it quite challenging for the girl group to become the winner. Although they could not get the trophy, LOONA was able to reaffirm the enthusiastic support from their overseas fandom through “Queendom 2”.
Overall evaluation of “Queendom 2” No.3 to No.6 teams
VIVIZ, which consists of former members of the popular girl group GFRIEND, did so well with only 3 members. Although it is regrettable that they could not reach 2nd place in any round, they showed off their potential by maintaining their No.3 spot steadily. It was not easy for VIVIZ to immediately head to “Queendom 2” after making their re-debut in January, but they have proved that their experience gathered through their 7-year career as GFRIEND did not go in vain.
Hyolyn has completed such a challenge that deserves a big applause. Given that she was the only solo singer participant, many viewers guessed that she would be inferior in the rankings, but the result at the beginning of the show turned out to be the opposite. Winning No.1 in the 1st and 2nd rounds consecutively, Hyolyn decorated the first half of “Queendom 2” with splendid and overwhelming performances that changed the flow of the show into “Beat Hyolyn!”. Although having to participate in both dance and vocal units because she joined the show as a solo contestant, Hyolyn performed lower than expectations but she still showed off her potential and abilities as a former SISTAR member.
Starting with fourth place in the first round, Kep1er suffered from the limitation of an inexperienced rookie as their ranking dropped in every round. When the first episode aired, Kep1er was less than three months into their debut. Therefore, they were inevitably lacking in song selection and stage experience compared to their senior competitors who already released multiple albums and hit songs. Kep1er has the advantage of being former contestants on a global audition program, but it did not show much in “Queendom 2”.
Brave Girls also has a regrettable performance. After shooting to fame last year thanks to the viral success of “Rollin’”, the group entered “Queendom 2” with confidence, but suffered a lot due to the sluggishness in the first and second rounds. Although they later rose to the top as they were tied for first place in the third round, due to relatively little support from overseas fandom, Brave Girls had a hard time ranking high in final round scores because “Queendom 2” has a high proportion of international K-pop fans.
“Queendom 2” captured overseas K-pop fans’ hearts… What about Korean viewers?
MCs Taeyeon and Lee Yong-jin introduced that K-pop fans from 189 countries participated in the global fan vote to show their passion for Korean music and idols. It seems clear that “Queendom 2” gave foreign fans quite a big gift, enough to record high YouTube views for each video of contestants.
On the other hand, there are still questions about whether it provided sufficient satisfaction to domestic viewers compared to season 1. This is because from “Queendom“, “Road to Kingdom”, “Kingdom” to the current “Queendom 2”, the popularity gradually faded and the aspect of being solidified into a fandom-oriented program was strongly felt.
3 years ago, “Queendom” season 1 did not have high ratings, but performances such as “Destiny” by Oh My Girl and “Egotistic” by AOA drew attention at the time of airing, adding momentum to the popularity of the program. The music industry in the second half of 2019 was literally the era of “Queendom”, with (G)I-DLE‘s “Lion” (released as the final competition song) doing well on music charts.
On the other hand, in season 2, there was a sense of distance from the birth of a performance or song comparable to this. Obviously, all 6 teams had a spectacular competition full of sweat and effort, but it was hard to find the power to heat viewers’ hearts as much as season 1. Although it ranked first in the topicality index of a private institution, interest in “Queendom 2” on various communities was inevitably different from that of 3 years ago.
Source: Daum
