Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Okay okay, so people have been asking for this, and if nothing else why not? At least it gets people a place to rant about it or whatever. But anyway, ‘Queendom’ had recent episodes where the groups covered other groups, though thankfully they were more reinterpretations than anything else.
For me, this is more of what I wanted out of the show, essentially replacing special stages we used to get. All we need now is collabs.
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MAMAMOO – AOA’s “Good Luck”
MAMAMOO came into this as prohibitive favorites due to their popularity and talent seemingly fitting this concept perfectly. As expected, there’s not much they do poorly or anything that they will necessarily do bad on.
That said, I do think this cover sorta showed that more raw talent doesn’t always equal something inherently better. It was more complicated and more theatrical, arguably performed more skillfully, but I’d say I preferred the original by a large margin.
AOA – MAMAMOO’s “Egotistic”
AOA came into ‘Queendom’ basically looking dead, honestly. Members had left, their momentum seemingly stalled, and people wondered what the so-called untalented, sexy group could do. Yet, I heard about this performance a ton before I even watched it, so expectations were high but it didn’t disappoint.
It was fascinating not just because they killed the stage itself, but because it goes to show how well these groups are trained. Granted, AOA was never what the public image of them was, but their polish in executing this concept and their ability to make it sound credible when compared to the MAMAMOO original seemed to show just how proficient and talented any group that lasts as long as they did tend to be. “I don’t want to be a flower that wilts, I’m the tree” was a solid example of them making this their own, applicable to their own career. A statement, indeed.
Park Bom – (G)I-DLE’s “Hann”
Park Bom was obviously a part of a legendary group in 2NE1, but at this point is somehow feels like she’s working from the bottom up, especially with the controversies (valid or not).
Many dislike Bom’s voice, which I can’t do much about. Personally I’ve always thought it was valuable as something instantly recognizable (much like Jimin’s squeeky rap), though I wonder if it works as well solo as it does for a group. For songs like this that are less vocal and require something more of a chic energy, I don’t think it fits Bom’s current strengths and that resulted in a somewhat uneven performance.
Oh My Girl – Lovelyz’s “Destiny”
Oh My Girl was my dark horse in this. They’re shown they had do a variety of things already in their career, and have the skills to adapt to anything, with “Closer” still standing out as the level of performance they can deliver.
They absolutely fucking drilled this shit. I loved “Destiny” as a song for its anime feel, and they essentially transformed it into a VIXX song while maintaining the upbeat chorus. The outfits, the performance, and the remake of the song all hit well for me, with perhaps the trap-influence in the rap being the only unnecessary section.
(G)I-DLE – 2NE1’s “Fire”
Controversy aside, I was excited to hear (G)I-DLE go for 2NE1 as it seemed like a fit. “Fire” in particular appeared a solid choice. In the end though, I felt … welmed? I wasn’t disappointed or surprised, it just seemed to be solid.
Perhaps I thought (G)I-DLE would separate themselves with this and expected a bit much but they seemed to give a solid showing like any old ‘Inkigayo’ stage or something, for better or worse.
Lovelyz – Brown Eyed Girls’ “Sixth Sense”
Similar to AOA’s stage, I had already heard horrific things about Lovelyz covering “Sixth Sense”. I’m not sure girl crush fits them particularly well but I didn’t see any reason they couldn’t do it.
To an extent, I can see where they’re coming from. It was a wholly engaging stage while covering a group that is thoroughly engaging in their presence. Personally though, I think their biggest error was essentially just doing a straight cover and not trying to reinterpret it more into their own thing.
It’s hard for them to match that intensity, but they couldn’t done something to emphasize their strengths instead of trying to mimic the strengths of another legendary group.
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The rankings by ‘Queendom’ caused some controversy, with most saying AOA deserved better than Lovelyz deserved worse.
Oh My Girl
MAMAMOO
AOA
Lovelyz
Park Bom
(G)I-DLE
Personally, I would’ve went different.
AOA
Oh My Girl
MAMAMOO
(G)I-DLE
Park Bom
Lovelyz
I felt Oh My Girl was a justified choice for the top and I enjoyed their performance the most, but AOA really grasping that song by the throat and making it their own sold me. It had the most impact. It would be hard to see MAMAMOO ever being at the bottom, honestly. They didn’t do that well today and it was still solid. Similarly, (G)I-DLE wasn’t special, but I don’t think they were the worst either. Park Bom choose a tough song to work with solo, which I think hurt her, and she’s at a disadvantage being a soloist. Lovelyz struggled primarily due to inviting comparisons with a stronger group’s own song, which is always dangerous. I think that was their primary problem, as people are familiar with their standard already.
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Excited for the next performances already because they’re collabing.
During the September 26 episode of the reality show, the MCs informed the competitors that they’d be facing off in an entirely different way in the show’s third round. Unlike the previous rounds, each group would select only two members to participate: one as their vocal representative and one as their dance representative.
The six members chosen to compete in the vocal unit battle would pair off into three teams of two to perform duets with each other, and the total points scored by each pair would count towards the two members’ team scores. The dance battle, on the other hand, would involve the six members putting on a group dance performance—then being evaluated individually, with each member’s individual score counting towards her team’s total score. (Park Bom, as the program’s only solo competitor, would have to compete in both battles.)
The six vocalists chosen by their groups to compete in the vocal battle were AOA’s Hyejeong, MAMAMOO’s Hwasa, Lovelyz’s Kei, Oh My Girl’s Hyojung, (G)I-DLE’s Minnie, and Park Bom; while the six dancers selected were AOA’s Chanmi, MAMAMOO’s Moonbyul, Lovelyz’s Yein, Oh My Girl’s YooA, (G)I-DLE’s Soojin, and Park Bom.
