Chapter 399: Restart!
The music of “again meeting world” gradually faded, signaling the end of the 2022 Golden Melody Awards.
The moment the song “again meeting world” began to play, the top trending search instantly shifted, replaced by the hashtag #Golden Melody Awards IZONE Debut Song#.
Neither Taeyeon winning the Grand Award nor Red Velvet sweeping various awards could suppress IZONE’s debut song at this moment, which dominated with absolute power.
Sometimes, what is lost is the best.
While alive, it is merely a fire; but upon death, it can ascend to a higher level, deified into an untouchable supreme being.
Such examples exist in countries all over the world; some people’s deification is indeed well-deserved, while others… are very strange and inexplicable.
For instance, a certain handsome individual who was destined for prison while alive, but became a patriotic producer after death.
Tsk, tsk, tsk.
Although IZONE went through the slave room incident, under Jiang Shu’s series of actions, IZONE was completely packaged as victims, so their public perception not only remained unaffected but actually improved.
As a result, after IZONE disbanded, this top-tier group was naturally deified by countless people, becoming a sacred place in the hearts of K-pop fans.
The closing song of this Golden Melody Awards, “again meeting world,” IZONE’s debut song, awakened countless memories.
While reminiscing about IZONE, YG was also trending on the hot search, being criticized.
Yes, in addition to the awakened memories of longing for IZONE, memories of YG also resurfaced.
The heinous YG!
Amidst the surging year-end period, LESSERAFIM, who debuted at the end of the year, quietly won the Best New Artist Group of the Year award, becoming the first New Artist King of 2022.
However, since everyone’s attention was on IZONE, Red Velvet, and Taeyeon, LESSERAFIM’s award went almost unnoticed.
But it doesn’t matter, something big is coming.
Three days after the Golden Melody Awards, on December 13th, DM Entertainment announced the restart of IVE.
The new IVE will officially make its comeback on January 10th, 2023.
This is not a debut, but a comeback!
DM Entertainment:
With great excitement, we are pleased to announce good news to everyone. After discussions among Chairman Jiang Shu, President Li Duohui, and a group of senior executives, we have decided to reactivate DM Entertainment’s first debut group, IVE.
The group IVE is the first group to debut from DM Entertainment and holds special significance. We chose to restart the IVE project instead of creating a new group for three reasons.
First, IVE is DM Entertainment’s first group, which is of extraordinary significance, and we want future artists and staff to always remember IVE’s importance to DM Entertainment.
Second, IVE’s disbandment was too sudden, and many concepts for IVE’s conceptual planning were not put into practice. We want to present these concepts to the public.
Third, IVE was a pioneer of the girl group golden age. Now, K-pop has developed to a new stage, and this golden age should be witnessed by its pioneers.
Given that IVE’s original members have gone their separate ways, we have decided to restart the IVE concept, with significant changes to the members.
Leader: Ahn Yujin.
Members: Zhang Yuanying, Kim Autumn, Liz Kim Jiwon, Rei Naoi Rei, Lee Seo.
Above is the roster of the newly debuted members. The brand new IVE will officially make its comeback on January 10th, 2023, with their second mini-album “After Like,” carrying on the concepts of “I AM” and “Love Dive”!
As soon as this announcement from DM Entertainment was released, it immediately caused a stir in the K-pop world.
It was well-known that DM Entertainment planned to debut two groups after IZONE disbanded; the first, LESSERAFIM, featuring Sakura, Kim Minju, and Kim Chae-won, had already debuted. While the public was still anticipating the second, you’re telling me Zhang Yuanying is bringing people back to IVE?
Moreover, DM Entertainment used the term “comeback” rather than “debut.”
This means that IVE’s concept remains unchanged, still operating on a dual-center absolute core model. Only this dual-center has shifted from Liu Yuan to Ahn Yujin and Zhang Yuanying.
Two of IZONE’s four centers?
“I’m f*cking rising from the grave!”
Clicking on the hottest video under DM Entertainment’s trending search after the announcement of IVE’s restart, the first thing seen was a blogger with (G)I-DLE on his left cheek, NMIXX on his right cheek, and IVE & IZONE on his forehead.
“Hello everyone, welcome to the grave-rising video of a decade-long IVE fan.”
“Today, I was planning to rest, after all, I’ve been recording videos for several days straight and I’m completely drained. Even a donkey in a production team isn’t as hard-working as me, so I deserve a few days of vacation.”
“But!!!” The blogger’s face suddenly moved closer to the camera, almost pressing the IVE & IZONE on his forehead against the lens.
“DM actually! Announced! The restart! Of IVE!!!”
“As an ancient fan of IVE, I’m f*cking rising from the grave right now!!!”
“Do you understand how an old fan feels right now, someone who followed IVE right from their debut, watched them go from unknown to globally popular, and then saw them forcibly disband?”
“It’s truly f*cking awesome!!!”
“I don’t know what you all think, but I’m thrilled.”
“Okay, let me calm down.” After taking a few deep breaths, the blogger slowly began to speak.
“Actually, I was mainly blown away by DM’s third reason for restarting IVE. There’s an old Chinese saying: ‘The golden age is set by generals, but the generals are not seen enjoying the peace.’ ”
“This vast K-pop golden age, its creator was my IVE! But what about my IVE? It only existed for half a year before disappearing. It was like a fleeting meteor in the sky, but in the white paper, my IVE is still officially recognized as the pioneer!”
“Without my IVE, IZONE would have one less C position, aespa would have one less main C position, NMIXX would have one less Main Vocalist, and (G)I-DLE would lose their only main dancer!”
“Although my IVE is gone, its presence is everywhere in today’s K-pop.”
“Gathered, it’s a ball of fire; scattered, it’s a sky full of stars!”
“And now, Yuan Shen is back! With a brand new lineup, she has returned to her most loyal IVE! Now let’s look at the new lineup.”
“Ahn Yujin, Youzhen Ni, goes without saying, one of IZONE’s four C positions, a natural for variety shows, invincible! Although I’m a loyal fan of Yuan Shen, Yuan Shen’s personality isn’t really suitable for a leader, so choosing Youzhen Ni is absolutely! No! Problem!”
“Kim Autumn, this person might be unfamiliar to many, but for some old fans, she should be quite familiar. She’s an early exclusive trainee of DM. What an exclusive trainee is, you can Google NAVER or watch my past videos; I won’t elaborate here.”
“Kim Autumn and Youzhen Ni have a very good relationship, and she often appears in Youzhen Ni’s IZONE vlogs. And most importantly, she’s very beautiful! Remember this point, it will be tested later!”
“Then there’s Liz Kim Jiwon!!!” The blogger’s tone suddenly rose.
“Liz is really beautiful, everyone!” The blogger pulled out a photo of Kim Jiwon, “Look at this divine beauty, she’s completely a candidate for third-generation divine beauty! And, she looks a bit like the Chinese artist Zheng Shuang from next door.”
