BTS J-Hope and IU may be thriving now with their current agencies, Big Hit Entertainment and Kakao M, respectively. However, fans may be surprised to know that these idols suffered through a lot of challenges before becoming successful K-pop acts.
According to a report by All Kpop, J-Hope and IU are on top of the list of artists that labels regret losing the most. TMI News, recently, released a report after compiling interviews of different labels. The survey indicated that J-Hope was scouted as a trainee of Big Hit Entertainment after a recruiter saw him dancing for three hours during his audition. He was, originally, let go by the label before BTS leader RM and maknae Jungkook convinced the agency to include him in the group.
As a result, J-Hope has used his skills to produce great music for BTS. He, recently, collaborated with Becky G for the solo track Chicken Noodle Soup which entered the Billboard Hot 100 and spawned the viral #CNSDanceChallenge.
IU also topped the list of artists that labels were regretful to let go. For fans of IU, it is common knowledge that the talented singer, songwriter, and actress auditioned with JYP Entertainment and failed over 20 auditions until she was signed by Loen Entertainment and, gradually, rose to success. She is now celebrating her 11th-year debut with the release of her fifth mini-album Love Poem.
She is also expected to go on a world tour to promote her new music after successfully ending her last drama Hotel del Luna. While these two idols became big success stories after their failures, some idols had luck on their side from the very beginning, SBS Pop Asia reported.
Among the idols that had very little training before their debut was former WANNA One's Guanlin who was signed by Cube Entertainment for only six months before he was entered into Produce 101. Suzy Bae was scouted by JYP Entertainment and also trained for six months before debuting with Miss A.
Lovelyz's Jung Yein had an even shorter training period with only four months before her official debut.
SM Entertainment knew they found a star in EXO's Baekhyun as soon as he was scouted by a casting agent at the Seoul Institute of the Arts. He debuted with EXO after a brief four-month training period. Apart from his activities with EXO and his solo album, Baekhyun was also chosen as the leader of SuperM, a new idol group that is taking the world by storm.
EXO's Chen also had only four months to train before debuting as part of EXO. Super Junior maknae Kyuhyun had even less training with only three months before he joined the group.
Some idols debuted with an even shorter training period. KARD's Jinwoo, Super Junior's Ryeowook, A Pink's Eunji didn't have to wait long to start their careers as they joined their groups with only two months of training. However, the one who takes the cake is Wonder Girls' Yeeun who auditioned for the group and debuted with only a few days of training.
