Second week of promotions, final day.
Sunday, SBC Popular Songs.
“Hello, everyooone~ This is Jeon Harang! The reason I turned on the self-cam today is because—drumroll, please—we’ve become candidates for first place on Popular Songs!”
Even today, Harang unnie was filling the waiting room with the camera audio without a moment’s pause.
“We even came up with a first-place promise. What was our promise again?”
Harang unnie turned the camera lens toward me.
“The cute version.”
Today’s first place on Popular Songs was especially important.
If we took first place today, we would sweep the second week and become SAVEN’s first-ever group to achieve a grand slam.
In other words, taking first place today meant winning six trophies across six music shows.
“Yes! The sweetness you keep coming back to find~”
Getting into the mood, Harang unnie sang “Unsatisfied,” the title track’s cute version that we would perform on the encore stage, acting cuter than usual in a way that didn’t suit her at all.
Harang unnie had been craving a cute image more and more these days.
“I hope we can take first place today and show everyone the cute version!”
That exaggerated reaction.
Cuteness wasn’t supposed to come from affected, artificial behavior.
‘Tsk...’
Of course, that didn’t mean my own behavior was naturally cute.
Mine was simply the prejudice brought on by my appearance.
Seriously.
In any case, I made a V-sign to match the mood and spoke toward the camera.
“Of course, it’s already an incredible honor just to be a first-place candidate!”
“Oh~ What’s gotten into our maknae Dohee for her to say something like that?”
I didn’t know how Harang unnie saw me.
But humility and good manners were essential in social life.
That was how you managed to have a long career.
And above all, if you were successful, polite, and had good character too...
‘That’s why I greet people every time I run into them if I’ve even met them once.’
Whew... Sometimes I was frightened by how I lacked nothing, from my personality to my looks to my abilities.
“What are you thinking about now?”
Harang unnie seemed to be getting too good at reading my expressions lately.
For now, I cut her off and shouted,
“Thank you for always supporting us, Shavenue~ We’ll work hard so we can take first place today!”
***
[Six trophies ㅅㅅ Grand slam ㅅㅅ]
(Photo of the first-place stage)
Congrats on first place~
-Their hair, makeup, and styling this time are legendary
-Congrats to SAVEN on first place
-Honestly, first place was obvious, so I’m not surprised
SAVEN took first place with remarkable ease.
[SAVEN first-week sales]
550,000 copies. If today’s second-week sales are included, roughly 760,000 copies.
-Wow, 550,000 in first-week sales alone? Is this really a rookie girl group? Their growth curve is insane
-Honestly, popularity is one thing, but they made this song way too well
└Agreed. I like this one better than Rose Nebula
└Same, “Unsatisfied” is totally my kind of song... I’ve been listening to nothing else as my alarm and commute song
└Agreed, the melody is so refreshing it has a doping effect
Thanks to topping every chart, we took all the available digital music points.
And we had a high physical album score.
Then there were the broadcast points earned through our high recognition, real-time votes, and the variety shows we had filmed in advance.
[SAVEN’s real-time situation is fucked]
(Photo from behind of an elementary-school-aged girl dancing)
My elementary school sister dances to “Unsatisfied” on TikTok all day...
She can’t even dance, but she sings along too...
As if she’s Lee Dohee or something
-Lolololol why is that so fucking cute lol
-Lol, if elementary school kids latch onto it, that confirms it’s an annual hit
└For real, it’s definitely a school-kid pick
-I’ve also been humming “No satisfaction, no satisfaction” all day
More than anything, the impact of being considered a school-kid pick.
For a girl group competing through public appeal, SAVEN’s first-place grand slam was unprecedented.
SAVEN had scored two consecutive hits.
Usually, the heads of each agency—in other words, the producers—
set the standard for a top-tier or first-tier group at three hit songs.
At present, SAVEN had two hit songs.
But if we included “I Fell for You,” the title track from the program that had spawned SAVEN—
then we had three hit songs.
This was the moment SAVEN clearly became a first-tier group.
More than the number of hit songs, SAVEN had now undeniably become a top-tier group in terms of recognition and influence.
But that also meant that various fandoms had begun targeting us with much stronger hostility.
[But... isn’t SAVEN honestly just taking advantage of an empty field???]
I’ll admit they have impressive results for rookies.
But if first-tier girl groups like Coral Blue or 3M, or any first-tier boy group, had come back, do you really think they could’ve taken first place?
I can say with certainty that they absolutely couldn’t have.
And more than anything, all the current top-tier groups are busy with overseas schedules and concerts right now, so it obviously looks like they deliberately aimed for an empty field. It’s getting hard to watch;;
I wish their fans would stop overhyping them.
Maybe it’s because so many of their fans came in through a public-oriented show like Jeodol 3, but they really show how they don’t know a single thing lol...
-Honestly, I like SAVEN too, but this seems objectively true lol. Imagine if just any first-tier group had made a comeback lol
-Their fans go around every male- and female-dominated forum all day promoting them as the greatest rookies ever, but it’s disgusting seeing people get manipulated because they don’t realize it’s an empty field lol
└Lol, it’s an elementary-school fandom. Perfect for getting manipulated.
[The “talented” idols who exist only in their own minds lol...]
(Video)
Their first-place encore stage lol...
Everyone’s pitch is wavering
Only Eunsera can sing decently lol
-They promoted them as talented idols so relentlessly lol
-Eunsera is definitely good lol
-Jeon Harang and Gong Chaerin should probably put in a little more effort... I know they’re the rapper and dancer positions, but still lol..
-Park Yeeun’s actual skill came right out once the post-production from Jeodol 3 was gone...
-Isn’t Lee Dohee’s high note part unnatural too?? Seems like they turned on the AR;;
└Right?
└I wondered if they could really be lip-syncing, but lol... She seems like the type who’d be almost pathologically obsessed with managing her image, so maybe she would. Agreed...
└For real... Her studying, piano, and appearance all seem fake as hell lol
Rather than making blatant attacks, these malicious comments laid the groundwork and incited people in a calculated way.
The fans tried not to give such bait any attention.
But even an utterly baseless controversy could make the public start thinking, “Maybe that’s true,” if people kept insisting on it.
The live-performance controversy spread rapidly across online communities.
[Girl group of talented survival-show alumni?]
(Video)
This is SAVEN’s first-place encore stage.
Most of them are off-pitch except Eunsera.
Some of them are downright unstable.
-What? Weren’t they supposed to be talented?
└Lol, it was all media play
-What a disappointment
-I don’t give a shit about idols, but upvoting this just to piss off the stans lol
-Eunsera was always the only one who was good. The others were a bit lacking lol ㄴEunsera is just the best lol
The fans were furious.
Of the six encore stages where we had taken first place, this particular video was from Popular Songs—the stage where we had achieved the grand slam, several members had burst into tears, and others had hugged each other in joy, making it inevitable that their pitches would be unstable.
-No fucking way, why didn’t they bring up one of the stages where they sang well live?
-They even cropped out the parts where they were crying and hugging lol
-They sang live well on every stage except that day. This is seriously unfair
-There were so many stages where they sang well. They’re rookies; of course they might get overwhelmed, wow...
People said that overzealous fans created antis, but the fans hadn’t expected the attacks to be this forced and absurd, and they expressed both their bewilderment and their indignation.
But it didn’t end there.
[Let’s examine the AR controversy surrounding Lee Dohee]
I’ll begin with a brief introduction. I’m a musician myself.
(Video of a DAW—software used to record, edit, and play audio and music)
When most people perform live, their volume inevitably fluctuates because they’re human, so the volume coming through the microphone goes up and down.
But the vocals in the video sound fairly consistent, don’t they?
And how could the pitch be so perfect?
This is what engineers do during the mixing stage.
They process recorded vocals to make them consistent and pleasant to listen to.
When you compare the two, the breathing and every single entrance timing match perfectly.
Hmm... That’s not an easy thing to do.
It seems her skill is simply... extraordinary.
I won’t pass judgment. What do you all think?
-Live vocals get pitch correction and compression too, but it does sound like lip-syncing lol
-Did the author get hit by Lee Dohee or something?
└Fucking loser stan lol
-I don’t really care about lip-syncing, but I guess a lot of people do;;
└I understand it for a dance song, but I think lip-syncing even on an encore stage is too much
-I feel bad for Lee Dohee because she seems to be getting attacked way more than the others
└There’s probably a reason she gets singled out for so much abuse
└Maybe. I don’t pay much attention to idols, but I do think it must be hard being a hot idol with both hardcore fans and antis
└There must be a reason
└If she drives both her fans and antis crazy, I guess she’s a superstar
-They’re not singers, just a pseudo dance team
└“Idols.”
-Separately, the person who wrote this seems like a fucking idiot lol
└“Her skill is simply... extraordinary” -> writes this shit
“I won’t pass judgment. What do you all think??” -> then pulls this crap
What a fucking pussy lololololol
Just say, “Please hate on her.”
[The truth about SAVEN, the group called “talented”]
[Lee Dohee’s AR controversy on the encore stage—unstable vocals since Jeodol 3]
[SAVEN’s lip-syncing controversy explained once and for all]
The story even became news, stirring up a major commotion.
[Is the music-show encore stage a punishment? The stage that became an idol rat trap]
***
‘Wow, this is fucking awful.’
Monday, a rare day without a music-show appearance.
I had been happy about having a more relaxed schedule than usual.
That is, until I saw the post while searching through the internet that morning.
[Let’s examine the AR controversy surrounding Lee Dohee]
I’ll begin with a brief introduction. I’m a musician myself... But the vocals in the video sound fairly consistent, don’t they? And how could the pitch be so perfect?
.
.
.
The breathing and every single entrance timing match perfectly.
.
.
.
It seems her skill is simply extraordinary.
I won’t pass judgment. What do you all think?
I had seen all sorts of malicious comments up until now, but this was the first time I’d encountered something like this.
They say that even if there are a hundred positive comments, a single malicious one will stand out. But this post had more malicious comments than positive ones.
‘Well, okay...’
Put positively, it meant that my breathing, timing, and volume had become consistent, and even my pitch was perfect. If they wanted to put it that way, then it was a good thing...
“God, this is fucking annoying.”
Yeah. It was fucking annoying.
Normally, Chaerin unnie would have scolded Harang unnie for swearing so openly, but Chaerin unnie seemed to be in a bad mood too. She was lying on the sofa with a book covering her face.
“Ah, life is bitter.”
Meanwhile, Kim Seoyun was pouring cola into a glass and pretending to drink it like alcohol.
I applauded her mental strength for filming a skit even at a time like this.
“Are my pitches wavering too...? Even now...? Sniff...”
On the other hand, perhaps the trauma from her days on Jeodol 3, when her pitch had been unstable, had resurfaced. Yeeun unnie’s voice was damp with tears.
“What are you talking about? You’re good. Look at this.”
I played another encore video on my phone and showed it to Yeeun unnie.
As I patted her and comforted her, irritation suddenly surged inside me.
“This is the first time I’ve ever been attacked for having perfect pitch and rhythm, consistent volume and breathing, damn it.”
I had seen malicious comments criticizing my piano playing and studying, and even plenty criticizing my appearance.
“Gasp... Even the way you swear is cute...”
But I hadn’t paid them any attention.
‘Because what matters is me.’
But I had never imagined that I’d be cursed at for singing well and accused of lip-syncing.
“Wow, this is the first time I’ve ever seen Lee Dohee swear.”
Even Harang unnie, who had been swearing herself, looked surprised.
“I think it’s my first time seeing it too. Come have some cola, Ms. Dohee.”
I should at least drink something cold.
“Yes. Give me a glass.”
Just as the members were each trying to cool their tempers in their own ways,
Hana unnie came out of the room after exchanging calls with the company and our manager as the leader.
“Guys, they booked us a new schedule.”