Evaluations Continued
Sorry for the late publish!
As a gift, enjoy my first chapter which is over 2000 words!
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We move on to the Singing part of the evaluation.
5 stools are set up in a line, and we are each given a mic. We all sit down, me in the middle, and JYP tells us to begin. All 5 judges are now sat, stone-faced. Ready for our performance.
The Intro to Ultra Lover begins. Hayashi starts the song off.
"Looking for love (love) with a wish (every night), Believe in yourself"
Then DongBang "I'm going to pick you up right now, Oh baby I don't want to lose to anyone"
"Don't give up! This is my last love, Shivering my heart I'll bet ride on now" Hyun-Shik sings
"Haste to the future you drew, I'm heading ready to go! Tonight, tonight Be sure to lovin', lovin', lovin' you" I sing, through the bridge.
We all sing the chorus together " I'll hold my hands tightly with my hands together I'll always get on, So keep on, keep on I swear oh yeah, yeah, yeah"
Before Kyu-Bong continues the song "There are also passing each other that can't be helped, Sometimes tears overflow"
We continue the song, skillfully. Hyun-Shik and DongBang struggle a little with the Japanese pronunciation, but we do pretty well in general.
We picked this song, particularly to the very few high notes that are in it. Meaning that I could sing them all, which helped the others a lot, as apart from Hayashi and me, our vocal skills and range were pretty low. (The other three are Rappers and dancers, not singers.)
We end the song with a flourish, then look up to the judges. Three of them are smiling slightly. But JYP and our vocal coach look slightly disappointed. "That was pretty good," one of the judges to the left of JYP says. "I disagree! I understand that most of you guys don't have the range to sing a lot of songs. But you played it too safe I think. I want to hear you at your absolute limits. I want to see how far you guys can go in your vocals! I also want to hear some improvement in rapping from you too Jin-Ho. That means that all of you need to get out of your comfort zone. Next evaluation, I'm switching up your roles, and dividing the parts personally!" JYP states. He's not looking too satisfied. Our vocal coach is sitting next to him, nodding his head in agreement also looking a little disappointed. "well. Let's move on to your solo performances then." JYP sighs.
First up is DongBang. He decided to go with a song, that does leave his comfort zone. "For my performance, I will sing and dance. I picked this song because Rain has always been an idol that I aspire to be like. Especially with his dancing ability." DongBang says.
The music starts, and DongBang, light on his feet perfectly reenacts Rain's moves. He was almost better. Every step was fluid, every spin graceful and his singing. The gravelly whisper that was so iconic with rain, can be heard in his voice as he sings the words of Rainism. The high notes, although attempted, were not high enough. You could hear him reaching his limits. But halfway through the song, he changes the high notes to a surprising low note. as soon as those notes came out of his mouth, you could see JYP's mouth drop open, and his eyes widen in shock. The notes seemed to reverberate through your skull. It was distinctive. Like the after-effects of an explosion.
[For reference: a little deeper than lee Felix of stray kids. (God's menu probably best reference)]
I was shocked, as although I have the largest vocal range in the group. My low notes are still about half, to a full octave higher than that. Finally, with a swipe of his arm across his neck, the song ends. The judges and us group members were stunned into silence.
"What was that!?!?" Kyu-Bong is the first to ask, coming out of his shock. "How did we not know about this!?!?"
DongBang smiles sheepishly. JYP shakes himself out of his stupor. "Impressive" he mutters, writing a few notes on the paper in front of him. "Not quite right for the song, but it worked," he says. "Ok, next person."
Still a little surprised by the recent events, Hyun-Shik gets up and prepares to perform. He clears his through, and announce that he is not dancing, but is primarily going to rap. G-Dragon's Coup d'Etat begins to play. Kyu-Bong effortlessly gets through the song. The song was a little lacklustre in terms of showing off his range and although he had the least dancing ability out of all of us, he should probably have tried to show it off. After finishing, JYP nods his head and notes a couple of things down. "Ok, next please," He says, looking up.
Next was his brother Kyu-Bong. As the main rapper, we expected him to go with a largely rap centred song and he didn't disappoint. Doom dada by T.O.P is the song that starts to play. As a testament to his abilities, not only did Kyu-Bong nail the performance. He destroyed the original. he made it seem like his own song. His stage presence was top-notch, and his rap was fluid. JYP did catch a couple of mistakes in his dance, but overall, he seemed pretty happy with the performance. He did advise that we should be practising solo performances as well when we had time so that we could avoid this kind of situation again. We all took the advice on board and continued, with Hayashi stepping up to perform.
He chose to go with Taebin's Without You. The song perfectly showed off the thick layers that his voice carries. It was soulful and effortlessly portrayed the emotion of the music. His dance, self-choreographed was basic but solid with no mistakes. he had clearly practised it a lot. JYP was smiling throughout the performance. Clearly very happy with it. Hayashi finally ends his song with a drawn-out, slightly raspy note that sends a shiver down my spine. He has clearly impressed the judges today, and I have a performance that I have to top.
Hayashi sits back down after receiving some applause and notes from the judges. JYP is clearly happy. I then stand up and strut to the centre of the room and grab the mic. I had already given my USB to a staff member and asked them to play track 6. Again, I felt a little bad using another one of Taemin's songs, but I was finally realising how good a relationship we had, seeing as I wrote quite a few for him. This one was going to require a lot more vocal control and concentration. I had been practising the dance as well for weeks. Initially, I was going to hold off on using this song for a little longer, but today's surprise performance request has made it necessary. I guess I have to remake a few extra songs just Incase.
"The song I will perform today is another original. Although it doesn't contain a proper rap, it contains a slight rap/singing element into it. I intend to practice my rap more in the future, but i currently do not have the skills available to confidently perform a rap for you today" I state to the judges.
At the words "another original" the judges perk up. JYP looks heavily interested. They seem to understand my hesitation to rap. Especially the vocal teacher who has heard me try before.
I nod to the staff to play the track and get into position to begin. The music starts, and a unique drum beat starts to play, with a little synth in the background. It soon develops into a hard bass drum kick as I begin to sing. [The song is Danger by Taemin for reference]
You're so intense, if it's not me, no one can win you
I can't hold it anymore
Bbum bbum bbum bbum bbum
Open your iron-like heart
I'll appear like the wind, disappear like smoke
Deceiving your eyes
I'll approach you like a flower, dig into you like a thorn
Going after your heart
Danger, tonight, tonight,
Tonight, tonight
Danger, I'll steal you, I'll steal you away
(Steal you)
Stay, when my fingers follow you
You're the only one who shines in this world
Stay, on this night that swallowed all the darkness
It's my showtime
At the same time as singing, I am also dancing. My dance was slightly inspired by Michael Jackson. Especially Thriller, and Bad. I am sliding, bouncing and spinning effortlessly. Trying to create a picture, and flow that works with the beat. I can see JYP and our vocal coach bouncing their head to the song. JYP has his eyes closed, listening intently. Our dance coach seems impressed. Closely analysing each movement. Taking notes, with a proud shine in his eyes. The other two judges to JYP's right, are discussing something in a hushed voice. They note a few things down and continue listening, clearly intrigued. The song doesn't fully show off my vocal range, but I'm very happy with the result. I managed to change a couple of aspects of the backing track during production, and I feel that it sounds better than the original.
I head into the final verse.
Danger, tonight, tonight,
Tonight, tonight
Danger, I'll steal you, I'll steal you away
Steal you
Danger, with me, with me,
With me, with me
Danger, disappear, disappear
Disappear, disappear
As I finish singing, I end in a spin, posing while looking down.
I'm breathing heavily. My stamina is still not as good as I want it to be, and I have already performed 2 songs before this one.
Suddenly, all the judges stand and begin to clap. My group mates are already clapping with their mouths hanging open.
"Amazing!" JYP exclaims. "That song is so good. I'm sure it would hit number 1 in the charts. It could possibly even go global!"
"Have you registered it for copyright yet?" my vocal teacher asks me.
"Yes I have. It was accepted last week" i reply.
I had written and produced this song about a month ago, and had applied for the copyright. I cleaned it up in one of the studios at JYP after joining, ending up with this result. One that i was very happy with.
"Have you thought about a solo debut?" one of the judges to the left that i didn't recognise asks me.
"I have, but i think it would be better if i did that after debuting with the team, and i am still a minor so i can't do it right now anyway" i reply.
JYP then introduces them as the head producer and planner of JYP. This explained why they were so interested in the song. They asked a few more questions of me, including whether i had written more or not. i told them that i had, and all of them so far had been registered. JYP showed them my audition with Move which also impressed them. I also told them i had more that were being written currently which also piqued their interest.
Finally, I was released from the centre and we were allowed to go and rest for the day. Of course, being trainees we didn't rest. Instead, we went straight to the cafeteria to eat and then to a dance room to practice again. We were already starting to prepare for our next evaluation, and this time we were going to work hard so as not to disappoint the judges, and maybe even speed up the debut process.
It was after our 3 hour dance practice that i finally managed to have a shower and some rest. I was sat in the corner of the JYP cafe having a hot chocolate when i was approached by a couple of girl trainees. They asked about my song Move again, and asked me if i would be able to watch their performance and give them some tips. When i asked them about how they knew of the song, they told me that a couple of the female trainees 'namely Momo and Ji-Hyo' were constantly performing it in their dance trainings, and even did it in their latest evaluation which not only surprised and impressed JYP, but also the other trainees. When they had asked the girls about the song, they told the girls about me, and how it was my song. They then told me that the song had then spread throughout the company. This was one thing that i hadn't expected. It was about to get a little worse as well as just at that moment i got a call. Not just from anyone, but JYP himself.