Chapter 159 Debut Song
The popularity of “Produce48” instantly pushed several trainees onto the hot search, especially Sakura, who sat on the throne, surpassing Liu Zhimin and Zhang Yuanying, garnering immense buzz.
The first episode of the show was one hour and forty minutes long. The initial evaluation was not fully completed, only a small portion, but even that small portion revealed several eye-catching trainees.
For example, Song Yuqi, with a husky voice completely at odds with her appearance; Kim Minnie, with a dreamy vocal tone; Li Caiyan, who has excellent dance skills and is Lee Chaeryeong’s older sister, a member of ITZY; and… Jiang Huiyuan, who couldn’t do anything.
When Jiang Huiyuan finished demonstrating what it meant to be terrible at both singing and dancing, and then stood on stage with vacant eyes and an expression of utter despair, the three main judges below the stage, except for Jiang Shu, all frowned.
There had been trainees before who weren't great at singing and dancing, but Jiang Huiyuan was truly the first to be completely incompetent.
“Your vocal and dance skills are very poor.” Min Xizhen picked up the microphone and frowned at Jiang Huiyuan, “How long have you been training?”
“Uh… eight months?” Jiang Huiyuan said tentatively.
“Only this level after eight months of training?” Min Xizhen questioned, “If you’re only this good, I have to wonder if you truly want to debut.”
“Jiang Huiyuan, I see from your profile that you are a DM Entertainment trainee.” Park Jin-young took over, “How did you join DM Entertainment?”
“Uh…” Jiang Huiyuan instinctively looked at Jiang Shu, who was sitting in the middle, but being highly myopic and not wearing her glasses, she couldn’t clearly see Jiang Shu’s expression.
She wasn't very good at lying anyway, so she decided to tell the truth.
“The CEO told me that as a trainee, food and accommodation were covered, and I could eat as many snacks as I wanted from the pantry, so I came.”
Silence.
The DM Entertainment trainees were fine; they had all heard more or less about Jiang Huiyuan’s reputation as a foodie. But the trainees from JYP and S.M. all gaped, and even Min Xizhen and Park Jin-young stared blankly at Jiang Huiyuan.
Jiang Shu’s mouth twitched. This child really says everything.
“Ahem.” Jiang Shu cleared his throat, interrupting their conversation, “Hyewon, show us your special skill.”
“Yes.” Jiang Huiyuan reached up and scratched her head, “My special skill is Monkey D. Luffy’s Gear Second transformation from One Piece.”
Park Jin-young and Min Xizhen’s faces showed a hint of confusion, and the screen was filled with question marks in the barrage.
Then, Jiang Huiyuan showed them what Luffy’s Gear Second was.
Silence.
This was the second time there had been complete silence throughout the recording of the first episode. The first time was when Jiang Huiyuan explained how she joined DM Entertainment.
Both times were because of her.
It could be said that after the first episode aired, aside from the three members of Liu Yuan who brought their own traffic, Sakura had the highest popularity, followed by Jiang Huiyuan.
After the first episode aired, the “Produce48” production team also released the real-time voting rankings. Without any surprise, Liu Zhimin and Zhang Yuanying were far ahead, with their votes consistently differing by only a few hundred, either Liu Zhimin leading by a few hundred or Zhang Yuanying leading by a few hundred, a truly neck-and-neck battle.
And the third place was not Lily, but Sakura.
Liu Yuan fans disliked Sakura for taking their idol’s spot, but this also meant that some people appreciated her ambition.
Moreover, and more importantly, while Liu Yuan was popular, the more popular an artist is, the more fans they have, the fewer people dislike them.
So, these people either don't follow “Produce48” or, if they do, who do they vote for?
Of course, it’s Sakura, who is surpassing Liu Yuan.
Coupled with Sakura, who already had a large fan base in Japanese entertainment, surpassing Lily, she directly rushed to third place.
And Lily was relegated to fourth.
Jiang Huiyuan, who stole the show in the first episode, was ranked fifth, with other artists ranking successively.
The ranking of the first episode doesn't determine much. The positions of Liu Yuan are negligible, meaning that the actual first place was actually Sakura.
After “Produce48” aired, the response it generated was unexpected by most people. This show was much more popular than they had anticipated. In streets and alleys, young people could be seen everywhere discussing their most picked trainees.
Clearly, from a business perspective, the first episode of “Produce48” had already gotten off to a very good start.
Given the excellent response to the first episode, the production team immediately decided to start recording the fourth episode.
Jiang Shu hadn't been idle during this time either; he was pondering the debut songs for the three groups.
DM Entertainment, Music Practice Room.
Jiang Shu looked at the sheet music in front of him, lost in thought.
The groups that will debut from “Produce48” have already been confirmed: IZONE, aespa, and NMIXX.
He doesn't care about NMIXX; JYP is fully responsible.
In the real world, TWICE was still going strong, and there were many strong contemporaries, so NMIXX's position could be said to be unloved and quite awkward.
But now it's different. NMIXX’s positioning is the same as TWICE’s, not in terms of members and group concept, but in terms of their status within the company.
JYP is facing the brink of delisting and is currently busy creating a boy group to stabilize the situation, urgently needing a girl group for quick recovery.
In the real world, this group was TWICE, but now, this group has become NMIXX.
Jiang Shu isn't worried that JYP will make NMIXX's debut song something like “O.O” again.
To be fair, the song “O.O” is not bad, let alone trash, but if it serves as a debut song, then sorry, it's garbage.
Anyway, as long as JYP doesn't make a song like “O.O” the debut song for NMIXX, he won't intervene.
The main consideration for the debut song is still IZONE. For aespa, Black Mamba is fine; there's no problem with the path they're taking, so there's no need to change their debut period.
But IZONE…
The song “La Vie en Rose” is good. In fact, IZONE’s main songs and some b-sides for every comeback are of high quality. Jiang Shu could just copy them.
But he was considering another point: are some songs really necessary to keep in his music library forever?
Some groups are very difficult to create, like Girls' Generation.
The empress’s bond is actually very strong, or rather, ridiculously strong. As top-tier bonds, TWICE’s overall effect is still difficult to compare to Girls' Generation.
But!
Girls' Generation, a group where everyone was born in 1990, are all twenty-nine now. Being a girl group?
Just Bae Joo-hyun alone required immense effort, with marketing articles bought up everywhere and “Bad Boy” directly slapped on her face as a debut song.
You want me to get nine people older than her?
Don't torment old people like this.
Girls' Generation is gone, but their songs genuinely exist.
How about… creating a again meeting world?
Using “again meeting world” as IZONE’s debut song?
Holy crap?
It seems not impossible?
Jiang Shu’s eyes suddenly lit up.
“La Vie en Rose” is good, but compared to again meeting world, it’s far inferior. If this song were used…
Heh?