Music
I got sucked into another music reality show this year. This time it was Queendom, where six female acts competed against each other for a solo comeback show. I was only familiar with the longer-tenured artists, such as AOA and Park Bom, while the remaining participants were unknown to me.
I found the show to be pretty entertaining through its 10-episode run and the stages that some of the competitors came up with made the competition portion worth watching. My favourite performances of the entire show were AOA’s cover of Egotistic, OH MY GIRL’s cover of Destiny and MAMAMOO’s I Miss You.
By the show’s end, I gained a greater love for AOA. Those women are incredibly goofy, and I’m glad Queendom became a platform for their return to music as a 5-member group. (G)I-DLE was the other group that stood out to me from a creative standpoint. Their stages were the most exciting concept-wise. The only exception was their 2NE1 cover since they were paying homage more than anything else.
MAMAMOO winning the entire thing was no surprise. They chose their songs wisely, were consistent performers and were at/or near the top of every preliminary round.
As a side note, I will finish my recaps of the last two episodes. I had some time to kill on the flight to Tokyo this year; otherwise, I’ll get to them sometime in January.
It was not all good in the land of reality shows as the shadiness of Produce 101 finally came to light. Anyone paying attention to these types of programs can probably tell they are rigged in one way or another. So it should be no surprise when these accusations turn out to be true.
The extent of the corruption in the Produce 101 series is pretty damning, making fans of the show (and its associated groups) feel like their votes meant nothing. Now that this is an actual legal matter, it will be interesting to see how this affects future MNET survival idol shows. I guess they will pretend there is transparency but, in reality, will stick to the shady business as usual. Maybe they’ll get better at hiding it.
