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| The final members of TWICE |
After Got7, who’s next?
It has
been a while since JYP Entertainment promoted a new idol group. In fact, it has
been nine months to be exact, with the last group being Got7, featuring multinational
members coming from South Korea, Hong Kong, United States and Thailand. Got7
has lived up to its expectations, having won two Golden Disc Awards in 2015, and
its popularity is largely attributed to the team’s broad array of skills, those
that are considered rare includes tricking (from Jackson/ Mark) and multilingualism
(from Jackson/ Mark/ Bam Bam).
SIXTEEN: An Audition Survival Show
Back in
May this year, JPY hosted an audition show on Mnet titled SIXTEEN. In which
sixteen female trainees were split into two groups, ‘MAJOR’ or ‘minor’, after
each episode, and those that remain in the ‘MAJOR’ group by the end of the
program will have the chance to debut as a member of the upcoming Kpop girl
group, ‘TWICE’. According to JYP himself, the name TWICE was chosen because he
expects the members to wow their fans once through their ears, and twice
through their eyes. (Good one, JYP lol). Among the sixteen trainees, one comes
from Taiwan, four comes from Japan and the rest from South Korea. On 7 July,
the last episode of SIXTEEN was aired. Much to fans’ excitement, nine instead
of seven were finalized, and to their surprise, one of the finalists was revealed
to be MOMO, who had been eliminated from previous rounds. TWICE’s members are
now confirmed to be Jihyo, Sana, Chaeyoung, Mina (from Japan), Jungyeon,
Nayeon, Dahyun, Tzuyu (from Taiwan) and Momo.
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| All 16 trainess |
From seven to nine members
Fans and
audiences were shocked about the result in the last episode as they were under
the impression that only seven trainees will survive to become stars. In addition,
MOMO had been eliminated half way through the show and Tzuyu was one of the ‘minors’
in the last episode. JPY Entertainment spokesmen addressed the issue the day
after and apologized to fans for the confusion. They explained that as the show
progressed they feel that having only seven members may leave something of desire behind, and the addition of Tzuyu was soley based on viewer’s opinions as she
had the highest popularity among online voters; whereas the addition of MOMO
was solely based on JYP’s opinions.
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| Recent photo-shoot of all 9 members |
Pre-debut
popularity
Even
before TWICE’s scheduled debut later this year, the group had already grabbed
fans’ attention throughout Asia, partly due to SIXTEEN and partly due to its
members from Taiwan and Japan. On 10 July, TWICE opened their official
Instagram account with the name ‘TWICETAGRAM’ and within two hours of releasing
their account, they acquired twenty thousand followers. On 28 July today, they
successfully garnered a hundred thousand followers and the number is still
growing. In response, TWICE members uploaded a thank you message with each
delivering a part of the message of ‘Thanks for helping us get a hundred
followers!’. In addition, a message was sent saying ‘Hi, we’re TWICE, and we
can’t believe we already have one thousand followers! Thank you and we love you
all!’
TWICE's member profiles
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| Jihyo & Mina |
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| Da hyun & Jung Yeon |
TWICE's member profiles
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| Im Nayeon (Na Yeon) |
Blood Type: A
Nationality: South Korea
Specialty: Learning choreography quickly
 |
| Yoo Jungyeon (Jung Yeon) |
DOB:
11/1/1996
Blood
Type: O
Nationality:
South Korea (from Suwon)
Specialty:
Imitating others, making jokes
Remarks:
She is actress Gong Seung Yeon’s younger sister
-----
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| Park Jisoo (Jihyo) |
DOB
2/1/1997
Blood
Type: O
Nationality:
South Korea
Specialty:
Singing trot songs
Remarks:
She has been a trainee for ten years
-----
DOB: 5/28/1998
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| Kim Dahyun (Da Hyun) |
Blood Type: O
Nationality: South Korea
Specialty: Playing the piano, rapping, dancing
Remarks: She appeared in Got7’s ‘Stop Stop It’ Music Video
-----
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| Son Chaeyoung (Chae Young) |
DOB: 4/23/1999
Blood Type: B
Nationality: South Korea
Specialty: Track and Field, rapping, drawing and graffiti
-----
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| Tzuyu (周子瑜) |
Blood Type: A
Nationality: Taiwan
Specialty: Huge strength, dancing
-----
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| Myoui Mina (Mina) |
DOB: 3/24/1997
Blood Type: A
Nationality: Japanese-American
Specialty: Ballet
-----
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| Sana |
DOB: 12/29/1996
Blood Type: B
Nationality: Japan (from Osaka)
Nationality: Japan (from Osaka)
Specialty: Calligraphy
Remarks: She appeared in Got7’s ‘A’ Music Video
-----
DOB: 11/9/1996
-----
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| Hirai Momo (Momo) |
Blood Type: Unknown
Nationality: Japan
Specialty: Dancing, wave dancing with her stomach only
-----
☺My fanboy thoughts:
Personally,
I can’t wait for this group to debut. I’ve seen a couple of episodes from
SIXTEEN and I think TWICE really has potential to go BIG if they develop more
chemistry between group members. In fact, I like Tzuyu a lot and I’m so glad
she somehow gets in TWICE ;)
Who do you like the most in TWICE, leave a comment below and let me know!;)
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