Whenever a K-Pop group actively promotes, fans often notice that some members don’t have as many schedules as others—especially foreign members. A second-generation idol exposed one of the main reasons why.
2PM’s Nichkhun
Thailand native 2PM‘s Nichkhun debuted in 2008 as one of the industry’s first foreign idols. Looking back on his experiences, he detailed the struggles and different treatment he faced.
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When ARCHIVE-K asked the idol about the difficulties of being the group’s foreign member, Nichkhun immediately mentioned receiving fewer schedules than the other members. He revealed that foreigners had limits on how much they could promote and remembered being allowed only to have “three contracts at the same time.”
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That meant the idol couldn’t film for every broadcast station that 2PM was scheduled for. Every week, he had to choose two of them so he could use the third contract to film an advertisement.
If I have to go to KBS, MBC, or SBS, I can’t go to one. Or go out [to] two [so] I can do one CF. There was something like this for foreigners. Those who made the schedules probably had more headaches than me.
— Nichkhun
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Although Nichkhun implied those limits have become more relaxed, fans and idols like CLC‘s Sorn have called out how companies still treat their foreign idols differently than their Korean idols. See the veteran singer talk about his fifteen years as a foreign idol in the K-Pop industry here.
