"2025 Korea-Japan King of Singers Competition" attracted viewers' attention with its new competition format.
On the afternoon of Nov. 2, MBN's "2025 Korea-Japan King of Singers Competition" aired for the first time.
MC Shin Dong-yeop noted, "This season has completely changed compared to last year," as it kicked off with a 'ranking exploration battle.' Prior to the main competition, which is a best-of-three format, the top 7 from Korea and Japan faced off in a groundbreaking manner based on their rankings.
The first match was between Japan's 7th-ranked Shin and Korea's 7th-ranked Kang Moon-kyung. The handsome Shin humorously expressed, "I want to finish the match quickly and eat yukhoe and nakgopsae," eliciting laughter. However, the competition results were unexpected. The choice of the national judging panel overwhelmingly favored Shin, leaving the Korean team unable to hide their confusion.
Kang Nam expressed surprise, saying, "It's almost double the difference!" The second match featured the 6th-ranked competitors, with the youngest representatives from both teams, Korea's Choi Su-ho and Japan's Kimoto Shinnosuke. Amidst the tense atmosphere, Choi Su-ho claimed victory with a score of 72 to 28, securing the first win for the Korean team.
In the subsequent 5th-ranked match, Korea's Kim Jun-su faced Japan's Sugar. After a close contest, Sugar won with a score of 55 to 45, allowing the Japanese team to take the lead again. The 4th-ranked match featured Shin Seung-tae against Juni, with Shin Seung-tae taking the win and leveling the score for the Korean team. However, in the 2nd-ranked match between Jin Hae-seong and Masaya, Masaya scored 71 points for the win, giving the Japanese team an advantage in the ranking exploration battle.
[Photo] Screenshot of the "2025 Korea-Japan King of Singers Competition" broadcast
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