Singer Hong Ji-yoon finally fulfilled a pledge to donate prize money that she regrettably could not keep five years ago. She resolved the task that had rested on her shoulders for five years while also claiming the honor of being the third "King of Singers," accomplishing both goals.
On the 11th, an MBN "King of Singers 3" TOP7 press conference was held at the Stanford Hotel in Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul. In attendance were Hong Ji-yoon, who took first place, Cha Ji-yeon, Lee Su-yeon, Gu Soo-gyeong, Kang Hye-yeon and Soul-G. Kim Tae-yeon, who placed sixth, could not attend due to school commitments.
Hong Ji-yoon held the fresh "King of Singers" trophy she received live on the 10th and posed for photos. Her visuals like a Barbie doll and bright presence filled the stage, matching the moniker "trot Barbie."
At the subsequent conference, Hong Ji-yoon fulfilled a promise she could not keep when she only reached the top finalists on "Miss Trot 2" five years ago. She said, "I once said that if I won a competition I wanted to donate the entire prize, but I couldn't because I didn't win then. Now I feel like I can resolve the unfinished task, so I definitely want to donate," and announced she would donate 100 million won in prize money.
Hong Ji-yoon shared the story of a fan who voted for her until the end while battling cancer and then passed away. She said she took on this competition to offer comfort and support to those who are ill, and she fulfilled her words by winning and donating 100 million won in prize money.
Debuting through "Miss Trot 2" and entering "King of Singers 3" as a fifth-year active singer, Hong Ji-yoon did not confine herself to the early label "trot Barbie," continuously showing new sides and proving limitless growth and broad concept versatility.
In the first-round one-on-one death match of the preliminaries, she achieved an overwhelming victory over her university senior, gugak musician Kim Joo-i, and in the second-round preliminaries she led her team as leader of the team "Nurungji Caramel" to first place. In the ace round she received praise for a passionate performance that included barefoot singing of "Han Obaek Nyeon," and in the first round of the third preliminaries she put up a strong showing against Cha Ji-yeon. In the first and second final rounds she presented the songs "At least I saved one outfit" and "My crying mother," respectively, moving the judges, the audience and viewers.
Whether her efforts to shop for fabrics and accessories, sketch designs and plan performances resonated, from the third week she maintained first place in national support voting for seven consecutive weeks, successfully capturing an overwhelming fandom and public appeal. As a result, Hong Ji-yoon earned a total of 3,727 points by combining the interim aggregated score and real-time text votes, claiming the final victory.
Refusing to rest on her laurels, Hong Ji-yoon studied Japanese, enka and jeongga and broke limits with each performance, proving that "effort does not betray" and reaping appropriate rewards; by donating the entire prize she definitively resolved the assignment from five years ago and announced the start of the "third King of Singers."
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