Girls’ Generation member Taeyeon is undoubtedly one of the most successful K-Pop artists of all time. Both as a girl group member and a soloist, she has reigned in the industry for over 17 years now and has never shown any signs of slowing down any time soon.
Taeyeon | @taeyeon_ss/Instagram
While she is often seen as a “perfect” K-Pop idol material, Taeyeon, however, recently shared her dissatisfaction with Korean music shows. In the world of K-Pop, music shows carry a huge influence as they have been a prolific medium for artists to introduce their songs to the general public. Despite the global reach of the industry today, domestic music show wins hold equal weight in benchmarking an artist’s success.
As a veteran in the industry, Taeyeon has done her share of music shows and won many of them. But for her latest song, “To. X,” which was released in the last quarter of 2023, the singer opted out of music show promotions. In a recent YouTube video, she talked about it with Super Junior’s Eunhyuk and Donghae.
The two boy group members launched their YouTube series, Hey, Come Here, on March 28, KST. The first guest on the show was Taeyeon. While talking about “To. X,” when the MCs asked why she didn’t go on music shows, the singer boldly answered, “I don’t like the music show system.”
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While the hosts were taken aback at this statement, Taeyeon further explained that she felt it was inconsiderate to have singers perform at dawn. Even though she understood the reasons behind it, it was not something up her alley.
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Eunhyuk agreed, saying that the system is decided by production costs and also other circumstances, leaving many singers with no other choice than pre-recording at odd hours.
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Taeyeon added that it is disappointing to her when she cannot show better performances to fans due to such a system. So, for her last release, she wanted to present her work in a better way through other kinds of content.
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The lack of music show promotions, however, did nothing to stop the song’s domestic popularity. It debuted at number three on Korea’s Circle Digital Chart and at number six on the Billboard South Korea charts. The song showed longevity in its success as well, climbing the chart positions even well into 2024.
You can watch the entire interview below:
