Thai idols struggle a lot when carrying out activities in Korea: Lisa only won 1 music show trophy, Ten doesn’t have many chances to shine
It is undeniable that Thai idols have both talents and visuals and are considered “global fans attractors”. However, when promoting as solo artists, these Thai idols faced many difficulties.
GOT7 BamBam recently made a comeback with the title song “Slow Mo”. To promote this comeback, BamBam did dance challenge collaborations with many famous idols. However, when asked why he didn’t collab with artists from JYP Entertainment, his old company, Bam Bam replied with an unexpected answer.
In particular, he said, “Doing dance challenges with idols from my old company is not an easy thing. Sometimes they allow us to do so, but sometimes they don’t. I’m not saying I’m angry or something, but I’m just being careful since I already left that company.”
Although Lisa has a huge influence and a strong individual fandom, she still encountered many challenges when carrying out activities as a solo singer in Korea. In particular, she only won one music show trophy for the title song of her solo debut album ‘LALISA’, and lost to other Korean artists on all other music shows.
Moreover, both “LALISA” and “MONEY” didn’t rank high on Korean music charts. Many netizens believed that it was international fans who helped Lisa earn remarkable achievements.on global platforms, such as Youtube, Spotify, etc.
(G)I-DLE Minnie is also another Thai idol who owns impressive visual and vocal but doesn’t receive much attention compared to other members of her group. When mentioning (G)I-DLE, many people only know Soyeon, an all-rounder and the only 4th generation idol to become the judge of a survival show, or Miyeon, who has outstanding visual and also participates in different fields, such as acting, hosting shows, etc.
Meanwhile, Minnie has quite limited activities and rarely participated in individual promotions. The last time the female idol appeared individually was her collaboration stage of the song “Fiction” with Ryujin (ITZY), Chaeyeon (IZ*ONE) and Isa (STAYC).
Ten (NCT) is also an underdog compared to other members of his group. He works in two NCT units, NCT U and WayV. While NCT U did not have many outstanding achievements like NCT Dream and NCT 127, WayV promotes enthusiastically in the Chinese market, that’s why Ten did not have many activities for himself to show all of his talents.
In 2019, SM Entertainment established the project group SuperM to enter the Western market. However, the members of SuperM all are Ten’s seniors or already have a large fan base, which makes Ten even more inferior in this debut.
Although highly appreciated for both their beauty and talents, Thai idols have rather arduous solo promotion path in Korea, the very homeland of K-pop. Many fans believe that this is due to the “Southeast Asian” prejudices of some Korean people.
