Actor Choi Dan-il shared his experience of personally trying the 'Veiled Musician' audition.
On the afternoon of the 12th at the SBS building in Mok-dong, Yangcheon District, Seoul, an unveiling press conference was held for SBS's new audition variety show "Veiled Musician." The press conference was attended by Choi Dan-il, Ailee, Paul Kim, Shin Yong-jae, Monsta X's Kihyun, Bolbbalgan4 (Ahn Ji-young), KISS OF LIFE's Bell, and producer Lee Hong-hee, who spoke about the show.
"Veiled Musician" is a survival show where contestants hide their appearance, age, region, academic background and more behind a veil and compete solely on voice and musicality. It is a large-scale project staged simultaneously in multiple Asian countries, including Korea, and after the eight-week journey of "Veiled Musician" ends, the top three from each country will gather in K-pop's home, Korea, to compete for Asia's best through the "Veiled Cup."
In particular, "Veiled Musician" is distinguished by the rule that if a contestant singing behind the veil receives three or more "fail" judgments from the judges, they are eliminated. However, if eliminated, the stage lights are turned off and the contestant must continue to finish the song even in that state.
When asked whether this aspect might feel somewhat cruel to participants, producer Lee Hong-hee said, "I thought about the time and effort participants put in to perform this one song. It felt too unfortunate to simply cut off the time they spent preparing for the song just because the evaluation ended, so we set it so they would sing the full song to the end."
He continued, "When we shone the lights from behind, we intentionally set the system so participants wouldn't clearly feel the exact situation. We wanted to minimize the effect of lights turning yellow, then red, then off while singing, on the emotional line or song delivery. So the participants don't know the lights are off, and I think making them finish the song is a show of respect for the participants' preparation."
Then MC Choi Dan-il said, "If I share one experience, I was actually edited out of the main footage, but I secretly went in to sing and be judged. You can probably see that on 'Veiled Musician's' Instagram or website. I actually went in and sang — I think I sang about two lines and was immediately eliminated. But I didn't know I had been eliminated. I was able to sing comfortably, and I felt relieved to be able to finish the song. Even when the lights went out, I completed the song and turned it into my own performance. I remember liking that more than I expected," he said, sharing his candid experience and drawing laughter.
Meanwhile, "Veiled Musician" begins today (the 12th) and will be released on Netflix every Wednesday for eight weeks. Afterwards, the "Veiled Cup" will take place over four weeks starting in Jan., and it has been scheduled to air on SBS. The "Veiled Cup" will include Tiffany Young, 10CM, Ailee, Paul Kim, Henry and (K)I-DLE's Miyeon as judges.
[Photo] OSEN photographer Min Kyung-hoon
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