Raising a Neglected Singer-Songwriter - Chapter 179



Only Noblemtl

179. Let’s enjoy it instead

D-9 from the day I promised to Justin Bobby.

Seongjun was still going about his usual daily life.

A set with a standing microphone in the center against a green chroma key wallpaper.

There are three cameras positioned on the left, right, and center surrounding Sungjun, who is standing in front of the microphone.

This is the filming location of ‘Healing Voice’, hosted by ‘Mingo Music’, a music-specialized YouTube channel.

‘Healing voice’.

This is content where invited artists perform their hit songs live, one after another, without stopping, for a given 30 minutes.

A total of 15 songs, each about 2 minutes long.

You must sing the verse and chorus in a short relay.

A stage that you can’t dare stand on if you don’t have that many hit songs or if you’re not confident in your live performance skills.

Therefore, appearing on ‘Healing Voice’ means that the artist is a proven artist who has met both the conditions of being ‘rich in hit songs’ and ‘talented’, and many popular singers have passed through here.

Among them, there are several singers who are close friends with Sungjun.

They include South Korea’s top singer Yuna, Sisters’ main vocalist Hyo-ryun, female diva Hailey who worked with them as a vocal mentor in ‘My Favorite Girls’, Choi Kang-san, the vocalist of the legendary rock band ‘Halla’, and Hong Kwang-woo who has risen to stardom as a musical in 2024.

Even just looking at the member names, you can feel the high quality of ‘Healing Voice’.

Also, among them, there was an artist who had the highest number of views among all ‘Healing Voice’ videos.

“Seongjun! This time, I’m going to break Yuna’s record!”

What’s the point of talking?

The nation’s little sister, the celebrity of celebrities, and South Korea’s top singer Yuna was the main character.

Last year, the ‘Healing Voice’ video featuring Yuna rose to the top of YouTube’s trending videos on the day of its release and maintained the top spot for three whole days.

Current views: 70 million.

It recorded the highest number of views in the shortest period of time among all of ‘Mingo Music’ content, and in the 2023 YouTube Korea year-end report, it was selected as the most-watched video in Korea.

“I can’t tell you how happy I am that Seongjun accepted the offer.”

The PD of ‘Healing Voice’ spoke in an excited voice to Sungjun, who was testing the sound by tapping the microphone.

They had been sending me love calls continuously since the release of their first full-length album, when they had over 10 hit songs.

However, due to his extremely busy schedule, Sungjun and MXM Entertainment kept postponing the appearance date, and in the meantime, Sungjun became a mega star who even reached number one on Billboard.

‘We absolutely have to recruit him within this year!’

Recruitment is all about timing.

It is not uncommon in this industry for a casting request that has been piling up for a long time to suddenly be overshadowed by a fresh new request.

It is possible that a competing channel that makes a live medley of hit songs by singers or rappers like theirs may suddenly appear and steal Sungjun’s attention.

Fortunately, no such news has been heard yet, but we cannot let our guard down.

At that moment, as MXM Entertainment and rival channels were keeping a close eye on each other, their desire and impatience for recruiting Sungjun were boiling over.

Finally, Sungjun expressed his intention to appear.

“I heard you were busy preparing for the year-end concert, but I didn’t expect you to take the time for this.”

“Before the concert, I also want to feel more joyful and inspired.”

Sungjun smiled and responded to the PD’s words.

The reason why Sungjun agreed to film ‘Healing Voice’ despite being busy.

It was for the ‘fun’ and ‘inspiration’ he spoke of now.

In fact, Sungjun’s mind has been a mess lately.

Orpheus, who had to concentrate on preparing for a concert, offered her a choice between ‘abandoning the summer and becoming a monk’ or ‘losing her ability points’.

There was even a songwriting competition initiated by Bobby, who had been making strange remarks a few days ago about being a ‘half-and-half player’.

I couldn’t do that because my head was spinning.

So, while looking up at the night sky with complicated feelings, a realization suddenly came to me.

The day of choice that Orpheus spoke of will surely come someday as long as he continues his career as a singer.

A day when countless emotional energies gather to open the Biseungmun Gate.

I have a feeling that day will be the end-of-year concert day.

It is a day when as many as 100,000 people gather at once.

Since they are going to do a live broadcast on terrestrial and public broadcasting channels, as well as YouTube, the emotions of the people who gathered at the scene will likely soar, tens of times more than the number of people.

‘Just before, Orpheus said in the music box that his accumulation of ascension energy was almost complete.’

In most cases, the concert day was likely to be D-Day.

If you can’t avoid making a choice anyway-

‘Let’s enjoy it!’

Spend the remaining time making your choice without any regrets or hesitation!

Although I haven’t decided yet what choice I will make.

Even if all abilities disappear, let’s make these times into memories that will last forever.

Like a flame that burns most brightly before it goes out!

‘And I also got some inspiration for the song I needed for my bet with Bobby.’

When I thought about it that way, my noisy head and heart magically became at ease.

So I spoke to the company right away and decided to proceed with the schedule that had been temporarily put on hold to prepare for the concert.

However, this only applies to music-related work, not advertising or broadcasting.

Appeared on ‘Healing Voice’.

Filming ‘The Odd Friends’.

And attending the 2024 N.Net Asian Music Awards, abbreviated as ‘NAMA’, held at the end of November.

I planned my schedule by selecting only the things that Sungjun needed.

Among the things he did during that time, there were many large-scale events that would make others’ jaws drop when they heard about them.

The finale to the year in the music industry.

That’s right, it’s the year-end music festivals of the three major broadcasting companies.

This year was definitely Sungjun’s year.

A monster rookie who took over the country as soon as he debuted and even took over #1 on Billboard.

It was obvious that if you asked any passerby, 99.9% of them would answer that Sungjun was the best star of the year.

Accordingly, the host of the most splendid and spotlight-focused finale stage of the three broadcasting companies was also decided.

In reality, the three broadcasting companies had their directors step forward and even allocated a generous budget in order to win the directing competition with other companies.

however,

“I’m sorry, but it seems like I won’t be able to attend the music festival.”

Sungjun and MXM Entertainment, who were supposed to be invited, declined.

“Uh, why is that?”

I tried to appeal to them that I would be happy to accommodate their demands, fearing that pay or treatment might be the problem, but their opinion on the matter did not change.

The reason they gave was simple.

“Because the schedule overlaps so much with the year-end concert.”

The heads of the three broadcasting companies were momentarily dumbfounded after hearing Sungjun’s response.

If it were another artist, they would have postponed their concert schedule and attended the three major music festivals first.

That’s how powerful the promotional power of the music festival was.

Even since it was almost certain that he would be in charge of the finale stage, the article would have had a huge promotional effect.

First, Sungjun was already a star who didn’t need any promotion.

The only regret is that he can’t show his face to his fans on TV, but in that regard, ‘My Star’ has already achieved a certain degree of freedom.

Every time I made a comeback, I was only active for a week, you know, my singer.

Instead, it was Sungjun who consoled her regret by constantly communicating through SNS and communication apps.

Recently, YouTube’s own content ‘Star Chin’ also started season 2 with ‘Breeze’ as its first guest.

Also, more than anything, knowing that Sungjun had a year-end concert coming up, ‘My Star’ supported his decision to focus on the concert rather than spreading his time and effort by attending various music festivals.

Anyway, for that reason, I expressed my intention not to attend the music festival.

For the same reason, I also passed on the request to perform at the ‘Kōhaku Uta Gassen’, the biggest music festival of the year-end in Japan.

It was a coolness that no one but Sungjun could have dared imagine.

“Then let’s start filming!”

As the director gives the signal, the three cameras surrounding Sungjun turn red.

“Ah. It’s my first time greeting you, ‘Mingo Music’ viewers. I’m singer-songwriter, Sungjun. I’ll sing happily today.”

The MR begins to flow with a greeting.

The first song is ‘DMLC’, the representative song that made Sungjun known, which has become somewhat commonplace now.

“Drink me like Coffee~”

As a sweet and captivating voice flows out from Sungjun, who has his lips slightly pressed against the microphone, soft exclamations erupt from the set.

From the first introduction in ‘Who’s the King’ to the official release of the first EP and up until now.

It’s a song I’ve heard countless times, but hearing it live like this feels different.

‘Besides, the sound today is incomparably deeper than during the early live performances.’

The PD’s mouth watered at the sight of the singer, who had appeared almost perfect from the beginning, evolving even further.

After that, the medley of 15 hit songs selected by Sungjun continued.

Each and every song is so famous and familiar that there is no song that I am hearing for the first time.

Thanks to that, the staff members were also humming along with Sungjun.

After finishing the last song, Billboard’s #1 hit ‘Destiny’, and doing a 90-degree bow towards the camera, cheers and applause erupted as if they had been waiting for it.

A live performance that lasted a full 30 minutes without a single break in pitch or breath.

The staff who witnessed the perfect live performance that surpassed the sound source, to the point where it was not enough to say that they had swallowed the CD, later said that they had never been more thankful to be an employee of ‘Mingo Music’ than they were today.

*

And the next day.

Sungjun was sitting in front of the camera again.

And on Sungjun’s lap was a Munchkin kitten with pure white fur, curled up in a ball.

A baby munchkin purrs as if it feels good when Sungjun tickles the tip of its chin.

Even cats recognize handsome men.

Meanwhile, there are also many cats around.

Starting with the Korean Shorthair, which is native to Korea and is currently the most popular cat among cat lovers.

Russian Blue with silver fur and emerald eyes.

The Persian that Queen Victoria of England loved.

Turkish Angoras, with strangely odd eyes where each eye color is blue and the other is yellow.

Cats of various breeds and colors are lying on cat towers or leisurely strolling around.

And among those cat boards, there were four girls who resembled cats, although they were not cats.

“One, two, three. Live in your heart. Hello, I’m Mimyeo Girl!”

‘Star★Friends’ Season 2.

The second guest invited was girl group Mimyosonyeo.

And the place where the filming took place is a famous large cat cafe.

“I don’t know whose cat this is.”

“PD-nim… I’m really sorry, but you just sounded like an old man.”

Sungjun and the members of Mimyosonyeo started the interview with laughter.

“How have you been? I heard you’ve been very busy with events, broadcasts, and commercial filming. Most recently, you even had a solo concert.”

“Yes, it was my first solo concert since my debut.”

“But why didn’t you invite me as a guest?”

“We were really excited, but CEO Yonggo stopped us. He said PD Sungjun would be busy.”

“At that time, we were at the peak of our careers, hitting number one on Billboard, and going to Lollapalooza.”

“iced coffee.”

Seongjun wipes his nose in embarrassment at the members’ answers.

“I’ll definitely invite you to the next concert! PD Sungjun, please promise in advance!”

Ain, the leader of the subtle girl group, extends her little finger towards Sungjun.

‘It’s the next concert.’

Will he still have his current abilities at that time?

······I don’t know.

but.

“Yes, it’s a promise.”

Seongjun crossed his fingers.

It wasn’t a promise that couldn’t be kept.

This is a promise to keep.

A promise, like a pledge to myself, to somehow struggle and use my brain, no matter how ugly it may be, to protect my current abilities and current relationships.

“Then let me ask you the next question. Is there anything that has changed before and after ‘Salgeum’?”

Just before disbandment, the mysterious girl who wrote a miracle of recovery with ‘Salgeum’ talks about her life that changed 180 degrees.

This is the first time I’ve received a settlement since my debut.

Thanks to that, I was able to pay off all the debt that had been piling up.

A heartwarming episode where he bought a car for his parents who supported him.

“In the past, all I could do was lie in bed and worry about what I should do for a living. Now, on the contrary, I’m so happy that I don’t have time to sleep.”

The four members show genuine, happy smiles.

At that smile, Sungjun’s heart also fills with pride.

The interview ended a couple of hours later.

“Thank you for your hard work.”

Seongjun approached the four subtle girls who were politely greeting the staff.

“By the way, are the preparations for the [Cheonma Hwansang] opening song going well?”

Since we haven’t officially decided on an opening song yet, we didn’t mention it during recording.

After the recording was over, Sungjun casually asked about the progress.

“Yes! I received the lyrics and am practicing them!”

“If the lyrics were written by lyricist Choi Ha Na, then it would be perfect even without looking at them.”

When Sungjun started to act cute, the youngest of the subtle girls, Yuri, answered.

“Huh? These aren’t lyrics by lyricist Choi?”

If not Choi Hana, then who···?