peninsula asteroid.

Chapter 840 Backstage
"I see……"

Ji Jingyuan looked at Park Chanyeol and Byun Baekhyun who were assigned to the same team, and they all nodded in response.

“The highlight of this MMA stage is this medley of hits. In these four songs, we will review our achievements in the past few years. I believe it will bring enough surprises to fans and audiences…”

After talking about MMA in detail, An Chengyuan took a sip of water and continued, "Then there is MAMA on December 12. This time we are still the last performer. Including the VCR, the organizer gave us a total of 2 minutes of performance time, which is the longest performance time of all the artists that day..."

"Excluding VCR, transitions and individual performance time, we will perform three songs in total, namely "TransFormer", "Blood Sweat and Tears", and "FIRE"..."

"what?"

Hearing him say this, the EXO members screamed in surprise.

As the title song of this year's re-released album, "Blood Sweat & Tears" should be performed at such an important occasion as MAMA. However, "FIRE" is only a premiere song, not to mention "TransFormer", which is just one of their three regular songs this year. It doesn't even have a MV or choreography. It is far less well-known than the title songs. It is estimated that only their fans have heard of it. Choosing these two songs as performance songs feels a little weak.

Although, Chi Jingyuan likes the song "TransFormer" very much, he thinks the bridge before the chorus is very nice.

At the same time, he glanced at Wu Se-hun next to him with a strange look... This song is the one with the most personal parts in the history of EXO,

"Non-main song + pre-release song..." Jin Junmyeon paused, hesitating to speak.

"Don't worry, the company attaches great importance to this MAMA stage, and the song selection was discussed many times."

An Chengyuan noticed the expressions of several people, smiled and waved his hands to explain: "Several hit songs have been performed too many times during this period of time at the end of the year, which will make the audience feel tired and repetitive, so we made this choice. A more novel look and a more explosive stage effect will be more important in this kind of award ceremony."

"The stage effects of these three songs were carefully planned. The choreographer who worked with the company specially made a brand new choreography for "TransFormer". As the highlight of "Fire", the company also specially invited a professional performance team to directly bring the torch performance to the stage as dancers..."

After the agent's explanation, everyone felt relieved and no longer had any questions. Chi Jingyuan even showed great interest in the "torch show" he mentioned.

"Fire" goes really well with the torch performance, plus this song is already a very exciting and explosive song. If the stage effects are well designed, it will be very suitable for MAMA.

"…Our performance this year is very good. All data and market response have exceeded the company's expectations. We will definitely be the main characters in the year-end awards ceremony."

The agent waved his fist excitedly:
"Whether it's MMA or MAMA, there's no suspense about the Best Album, and there's basically no competition for the Artist of the Year. Plus, one of the title songs, "Miss You," has a very good sound source, and the sound source has warmed up recently due to the winter, so the Song of the Year is also very competitive. This year, our XO is very likely to set a record and sweep all three awards, which is an unprecedented achievement!"

After An Chengyuan said this, many members' eyes lit up and became interested.

EXO has won countless awards over the years, but they no longer have the tears of joy, excitement and satisfaction they felt when they won their first award in 13.

However, no one has ever won all three awards. Even at XO's peak last year, they failed to achieve it due to Big Bang's obstruction. This year, it seems that there is an opportunity. If they can really win it, the members will be very excited.

But Chi Jingyuan did not interrupt. He observed the expressions of several members next to him, the corners of his mouth twitched slightly, and he looked down at the floor.

"Okay, let's start rehearsing now!"

…………

The end of every year is the busiest time for idols, and this year is no exception. After entering November, Chi Jingyuan felt that he was obviously busier.

Practice and preparation for the award ceremony stage, filming of "Goblin", production of the winter special "For Life", and various brand promotions and platform activities in between.

After returning from Japan, the EXO group and himself were either busy working or preparing for the next work.

Especially Chi Jingyuan himself, because he often has to travel between the company and the crew for filming, and occasionally he has to participate in various brand activities. He has become extremely busy for a while. Even the habit he had formed before, calling or sending videos with his girlfriend Ming Jingnan almost every day, has become less frequent, and the time has been pushed to the late night.

Because not only Chi Jingyuan has a lot of things to do, Mingjing Nan and Twice are even busier. They usually return to the dormitory in the middle of the night every day, and sometimes it is normal for them to work all night.

As the most popular girl group in the Peninsula recently, Twice has so many schedules and such heavy workload that even Chi Jingyuan feels a little numb when he sees it.

Even EXO, who are in a similar situation to them now and are both experiencing a rapid rise in popularity, did not have as much schedule during their "Growl" period as Twice does now.

Looking at Ming Jingnan who was obviously very haggard after removing her makeup during the video call at night, and Zhou Ziyu's tired tone during the occasional phone call, Chi Jingyuan could only say that JYP really has no one left...

However, this is indeed something that popular idols must go through. Ji Jingyuan and EXO also went through this.

For the idol profession, because of the high popularity, there are more schedules, which is a good thing.

……Maybe.

In the second week of November, BTOB released the title song "Prayer" of their ninth mini album, Tara released their new song "TIAMO", and MAMAMOO and BAP all released songs for their comebacks. For a while, the entire music industry was extremely lively.

However, as more and more boy and girl groups announced their comeback and joined the competition for the year-end schedule, the situation in the music industry these days is not as complicated or competitive as many people imagined.

The situation is becoming increasingly clear.

Because there is one song that really relies on its own popularity and achievements, from the source of sound to sales to promotion, it has swept away all the songs of most other boy and girl groups.

TT by Twice

What is the monster newcomer Blackpink, what is the lyrical group BTOB, what is Taeyeon, what is Mama Wood IOICBXVIXXBAP.

None of them are good enough.

Ranked in the top two in music sources, in addition to explosive sales, Twice swept all the music programs in the first two weeks of November with an absolutely strong attitude, and the scores were very different. In places like "Music Bank" and "Inkigayo", it was almost 10,000 to 5,000 or 6,000.

The title of "Big Devil" that was used to describe IOI more than half a month ago has been completely transferred to "TT".

The entire peninsula seems to be caught up in Twice's energetic wave. Every day when you walk on the streets, go to campus, or turn on the TV, you can hear various "I LIKE TT" and "Nao Muhei Nao Muhei".

Even many nightclubs with completely different styles are no exception. Many people are having fun with their tattoos on their arms, shaking their heads, and drinking. Suddenly, they hear the nursery rhyme-like "Nao Muhei" coming from the speakers.

But it is so popular every time it is released, which is incomprehensible.

Even though Twice is a group he is very close to, Chi Jingyuan still can't understand why their song is so popular when he sees their current hot momentum. From his perspective of appreciating girl group songs, he actually thinks that "TT" is not a particularly outstanding song and is not much better than other songs of the same period. He feels that the quality of this song is somewhat unworthy of such explosive popularity and achievements.

It was like he didn't understand why "GEE" was so popular in the first place.

But they just did it, whether it was Girls' Generation or Twice... While slapping him in the face, it also seemed to confirm the saying that 'success depends on luck'.

Obviously, Chi Jingyuan is not the only one who can't understand it. Although Twice has been very popular recently, their arrogance means that the number of black fans is naturally increasing rapidly. Recently, there have been a lot of negative comments about them on the Internet. Many black fans edited some of their stage clips and uploaded them to the Internet to attack them, causing quite a stir.

The attacks focused on "radio gymnastics", "poor ability", "not good at live performance", "not turning on the microphone"... oh, and "Lin Nayeon is ugly".

Let’s not talk about the last one, which was obviously done by Ellie, and the previous ones cannot be said to be that bad, because some of them do exist objectively.

However, apart from "radio gymnastics", the other black spots are actually very common in idol groups and can be found in almost any boy or girl group.

Because idols always have bad days during their busy schedules, plus many stage equipments often break down, so no one can escape the blame if someone wants to find fault. Hundreds of minutes of stage accident scenes of Ji Kyung-won and EXO from their debut to the present can be edited out, and now they have been compiled into a collection and posted on YouTube, being liked every day by a group of their black fans.

I can only say that Twice has been too conspicuous recently, and some of its shortcomings have been magnified by many people who are jealous of their performance. However, some members of Twice are indeed a little bit worse.

The fact that so many people are criticizing them proves that they are indeed very popular... and the more they are criticized, the more popular they are.

Fortunately, during this period, although "TT" was arrogant, it was not too outrageous, because in terms of sound sources, there was another song that could compete with "TT" and even surpass it.

The subway song "really really" by Chi Jingyuan and four other people.
Although "really really" does not have a physical album, after the explosion in the first two days after the release, the staying power of the music source is surprisingly strong. Without any publicity and promotion, it has always firmly occupied the top two places in the music source chart, and has been competing fiercely with "TT" for the top spot. Although it has been squeezed out occasionally, it has maintained the advantage most of the time.

You have to know that Twice is so exhausted from running around for promotions every day that this song seems even more powerful and rare in comparison.

It's just a dance song, but there hasn't been a single live stage since its release, so people who like this song can't even find a place to perform it on. As the popularity is getting higher and higher, many people are very dissatisfied, especially fans of Yoo Jeongyeon and Kang Seulgi, whose popularity has surged recently. They have been leaving messages online every day asking to see their performances.

Yu Jeongyeon was asked this question during her live broadcast a few days ago, but she couldn't decide and could only perfunctorily answer it. Later, she sent a private text message to Chi Jingyuan...

The calls became more and more intense, and soon a week passed. Just when the top executives of SM were cursed by the whole family again, SBS "Inkigayo" finally announced that Ji Kyung-won, Oh Sehun, Yu Jeongyeon and Kang Seul-gi will make a special appearance on "Really Really" on the 13th of this week.

……

“Seulgi said she’s here and is waiting in the lounge… Where’s Jeongyeon?”

"She's the MC, and she's also rehearsing for Twice, so she must be busy right now. She'll be here in a while."

"CBX is also promoting their music today, shall we go over to Baekhyun's place later?"

"Okay."

Ji Jingyuan and Wu Sehun arrived at SBS in a nanny car early in the morning on the 13th, and walked to the backstage of "Inkigayo" with familiarity, chatting while walking towards the lounge.

Because it was not an official promotion but just a special performance stage, the two of them arrived relatively late. When they arrived backstage, they saw a lot of busy staff, as well as some idols who were performing today and their agents walking by quickly.

"By the way, Twice is here today too. Do you want to find a chance to secretly meet with Mina Xi? Aren't you super busy lately..."

Wu Se-hun didn't know what he remembered, and with a playful expression, he whispered to Chi Jingyuan, "At SBS, there is a blind spot next to the vending machine room on the third floor. You can't see it if you stand far away. It's a famous dating spot for idols. Do you want to go and see it?"

“You already know this… Never mind. It would be so awkward if I accidentally bump into Baekhyun there.”

"Ha ha……"

Wu Sehun couldn't help but burst out laughing at Chi Jingyuan's mean insinuation.

The temperature has been very low recently. He was wearing a dark slim-fit down jacket and carrying a shoulder bag as he strode through the backstage passage. "There's no need to be so anxious if you've been in touch recently..."

"Being favored gives you confidence." Wu Se-hun clicked his tongue and looked at him with some disdain: "I just wonder if Mina xi thinks the same way."

“Hmm…” Hearing this, Chi Jingyuan slowed down his pace, feeling that he really did not consider Ming Jingnan’s thoughts. He glanced at him with a strange look in his eyes and nodded in agreement: “…Let’s find a chance later. It’s not like we can’t meet backstage. Besides, we can meet on the stage when the first place is awarded.

"Hey, you don't want to show your affection on stage, do you? Be careful, our fans are very sharp-eyed."

"Of course I know……"

"Senior Aniha Saiyo..."

Chi Jingyuan was interrupted by a voice from the front as soon as he finished speaking.

Looking up, they saw seven girls in casual clothes standing a few meters away. They bowed 90 degrees towards them, saluted in a very standard way, and then greeted loudly: "We are the newly debuted girl group MOMOLAND..."

A row of newcomers stood in the front, looking very young. Chi Jingyuan took a quick look and, except for a mixed-race guy, his first impression of the others was quite ordinary.

However, these new female idols all had strange looks in their eyes as they secretly looked at him and Wu Sehun. Obviously, as newcomers who have just debuted not long ago, it is a surprising and memorable thing for them to meet top-level seniors like EXO at an event.

"Um, hello."

However, facing the enthusiasm of the new girl group, he and Oh Sehun were relatively indifferent. They nodded in response and did not stop, but walked past them directly.

Chi Jingyuan could feel the sharp gaze following him from behind, but he did not stop.

He has seen too many new girl groups from small companies like this. He meets them almost every time he comes to the TV station. Unless they are particularly stunning and leave a deep impression on him, he seldom pays attention to this kind of new group.

"……what do you think?"

After walking a little further away, Wu Sehun asked in a low voice.

Chi Jingyuan understood immediately, recalled it briefly, and shrugged: "It feels so-so."

He knew without asking that Wu Sehun was talking about the new girl group he had just met.

"I think the mixed-blood one looks quite distinctive...but he seems a little fat, and not just ordinary fat."

"You're so observant? You noticed her figure after just a few seconds of looking at her face?"

"What are you pretending to be?"

As the two were talking, a burst of scattered footsteps came from the corner ahead. A second later, several figures walked out quickly from the side, and stopped when they saw the two.

Ji Jingyuan had seen the performance list before, and today's episode of "Inkigayo" was really lively. Almost all the popular idols who returned recently were here today, and in addition to Twice, there were several people he was quite familiar with, such as CBX and SJ's Cho Kyuhyun, and BTOB's Yook Sungjae.

There are also some less familiar ones...

Like Blackpink who appeared in front of them at this moment.
(End of this chapter)