The road to becoming a K-pop idol isn't easy, as there are various hardships one must endure- and one of them is failing auditions. While some K-pop idols were lucky enough to immediately pass their first audition, several artists auditioned so many times before they got accepted as trainees. Here are eight K-pop idols who failed auditions more than 10 times.
8 K-pop Idols Who Failed Auditions More Than 10 Times: IU, MAMAMOO Solar, More
IU
Before IU became one of the top K-pop soloists, she dealt with many hardships. When IU was still young, her family fell into debt, and she and her younger brother had to live with their grandmother. However, her grandmother barely managed to provide food for them.
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IU soon began to chase her dream of becoming a singer, but she failed more than 20 auditions. She was even once scammed, as one of the agencies she auditioned for disappeared. Despite the many rejections, she continued to audition for other companies until she was accepted to LOEN Entertainment.
RAIN
Although RAIN is one of the most famous idol-actors at present, he is another K-pop idol who failed auditions more than 10 times. In particular, he went to 18 auditions but he failed all of them because of his looks. Fortunately, J.Y. Park saw his drive and persistence, and so Rain was ultimately recruited into JYP Entertainment.
Former AOA Choa
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Former AOA Choa auditioned for both SM Entertainment and JYP Entertainment, but neither of them accepted her. She especially had a difficult time getting into SM Entertainment as the agency rejected her 15 times. Luckily, Choa found her way to FNC Entertainment and later debuted as an AOA member in 2012.
MAMAMOO Solar
While MAMAMOO Solar pursued an idol career, she initially wanted to become a flight attendant. But after making up her mind, she finally decided to debut as a singer. So she started going to numerous auditions, which totaled 50 auditions. She auditioned for every agency (except SM Entertainment) but she failed every single one. But after being rejected 50 times, Solar eventually became a trainee at RBW.
MOMOLAND JooE
MOMOLAND JooE had the same situation as MAMAMOO Solar since she also failed to pass the 50 auditions she went to. She revealed that she attended auditions from middle school through high school, but she was rejected by many of them. But when she auditioned for MLD Entertainment, the directors saw how talented she was and accepted her.
ONEUS Ravn
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ONEUS Ravn revealed during a live broadcast that he got rejected by all the companies he auditioned for. He also has a similar pre-debut story to MAMAMOO Solar and MOMOLAND JooE, but the only difference is that Ravn auditioned for only one agency for 50 times (in addition to his auditions for other labels).
WOODZ
WOODZ is another K-pop idol who failed auditions more than 50 times. Some of the auditions were for JYP Entertainment and SM Entertainment. Thankfully, he was accepted into YG Entertainment and trained for a year and a half. He then debuted as a member of UNIQ, which was supposed to be a collaborative effort between YG and Yuehua Entertainment. But UNIQ was solely launched under Yuehua.
A.C.E Byeongkwan
After he enrolled in Hanlim Artist School, where he took practical dancing as his major, he auditioned 40 to 50 times for all the companies he knew of. But, they all gave him the same criticism: "Your singing is not good enough," meaning they all rejected him.
Do you know any other K-pop idols who attended more than 10 auditions but failed all of them? If yes, comment down below!
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Written by Maria Scott