A top idol revealed what he went through during the casting process before his debut with SM Entertainment.
On October 24th, a video titled “2nd Generation Idols are Just Excuses” was released on the YouTube channel Ddeun Ddeun.
In the video, Kyuhyun spoke about his trainee days before Super Junior’s debut, saying, “I trained for about a year. Thankfully, I joined the debut team as soon as I entered the company and started preparing.”
He continued, “What was unusual was that right after I joined the company, they told me, ‘You’re going to debut now.’”
Yoo Jae Suk joked, “You’re not that good looking,” causing laughter. Kyuhyun also joked, “Since I’m not handsome, the fact that I immediately joined the debut lineup means I must have had tremendous skill.”
In particular, Kyuhyun shared his experience of being street-cast before debut. He said, “I was also cast in front of my school. At that time, they didn’t cast me because of my vocals. I went for a test and passed right away. But then they asked for money.”
He added, “That was about 23 to 24 years ago, and they asked for around ₩100 million KRW (about $75,600 USD). I thought that was wrong, so I declined,” surprising listeners.
Later, Kyuhyun revealed he initially declined an audition offer from SM Entertainment.
He explained, “I was offered a test by SM, but I said, ‘I don’t go to idol companies for casting.’ At that time, I had won the gold prize at the Buddy Buddy Star Contest and teacher Park Sun Zoo was going to help me develop.”
Kyuhyun recalled, “Back then, I was thinking of becoming a ballad singer. But then I lost contact with teacher Park Sun Zoo—she seemed really busy.”
He added, “When I looked over the contract, there was a clause that if Party A didn’t act within a few months, the contract would become null. So I called SM again.”
Kyuhyun shared how he ultimately joined SM Entertainment, saying, “Thankfully, they gave me a second chance. I sang at the year-end evaluation where Girls’ Generation and SHINee performed.“