Beneath all the glitz and glamour, the Kpop industry hides a lot of scandals. The Kpop industry is one of the largest entertainment industries in the entire world, grossing revenue of about 6.8 Trillion. Furthermore, the Kpop industry is not like any other entertainment industry and has a system in place where thousands of aspiring artists become trainees for entertainment agencies every year in order to make a debut. After becoming trainees, these artists train with their blood, sweat, and tears and gradually climb up the ladder to becoming successful kpop idols.
Most of these Kpop idols spend countless years being trained to perfection. From weight, proportions, dancing, singing, down to the way they talk is monitored to perfection by their agencies. As fans are used to seeing the best side of their Kpop idols, they are usually blinded with the belief that their idol could do no wrong. However, over the years, with scandals ranging from drugs and bullying to sexual and physical assault, it has been proven that the Kpop industry harbors many dark secrets. In this article, we will be listing down the Kpop scandals that shook the entire industry.
Kpop Scandals That Shook The Entire Industry:
Blackpink’s Jennie ‘Lazy’ Scandal
Starting off with Jennie’s ‘lazy’ scandal, which compared to all the other scandals is pretty light-hearted. Additionally, Jennie is a member of the world-famous Kpop girl group Blackpink that debuted in 2016. After their hit song Ddu-du-ddu, Blackpink, especially Jennie, saw immense in their popularity. Kim Jennie went on to release her debut solo song titled ‘Solo‘ in November of 2018. With its catchy tune and sassy lyrics, it was no wonder that Solo went on to dominate music charts both in Korea and worldwide. Jennie’s Solo was the first song by a Kpop female artist to reach 700 million views in such a short amount of time. Although the ‘Solo’ era brought Jennie tons of praises, it also made her the center of the biggest Blackpink controversy yet. In 2018, when Blackpink was on its world tour, netizens started accusing Jennie of being lazy.
They claimed that she was ‘underperforming’ and doing lazy dancing on stage. Youtube was filled with compilation videos of Jennie not giving her best during performances. The hate got out of hand, Jennie started receiving death threats for no particular reason. It was not until 2020, when Blackpink’s documentary came out, that it was revealed Jennie was suffering from an ankle injury during the world tour. Furthermore, this is not the first time Jennie has faced issues because of her ankle. The singer had to be hospitalized soon after the group’s debut performance because of her ankle injury. It is sad to know that Jennie could have been saved from all the hate comments had YG Entertainment released a statement. Thankfully Jennie proved all her haters wrong with her badass dance moves in Blackpink’s The Show in 2021.
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Stray Kid’s Woojin SA Scandal
A recent scandal that shook the Kpop industry was when Woojin, the lead vocalist of the popular band Stray Kid was accused of sexual assault. Furthermore, Stray Kids was formed by JYP in 2017 through a survival show by the same name. Woojin was an active member of the band until he left both the band and agency in 2019 following the allegations.
Woojin Gets Accused Of Misconduct
In the September of 2020, an anonymous woman on Twitter alleged that Woojin tried to touch both her and her friend inappropriately despite their protests. Following this, another Twitter user claimed to have met Woojin at a bar on 29 April during the coronavirus outbreak, where he tried to touch her even though she kept rejecting his advances. Additionally, the user also claimed that Woojin even cursed at her. Unlike the first claim, this woman attached a photo of her with a man with bottles in between. The man’s face could not be seen in the photo, but she claimed that it was Woojin. The allegations, true or not, sparked another controversy.
Kim Woojin Gets Cleared Of All Charges
Netizens started claiming that Woojin was also rude to his band members and shared various clips of him sitting quietly in interviews. Woojin did not stay quiet and immediately responded with his own statement saying that these claims are all false and fans should not be worried. Furthermore, Woojin also filed a defamation suit against the users at Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.
This was an amazing move on Kim Woojin’s part as the investigation unveiled that the accusations against Woojin were indeed false. The alleged photo that the girl claimed she took on the night when Woojin harassed her turned out to be a random picture that had nothing to do with Woojin at all. Moreover, the information also revealed that both the accusers were anti-fans from Brazil. However, Woojin decided to leave Stray Kids and signed an exclusive contract with 10x on 23 December in 2020. Fans believe Woojin made the decision owing to the lack of support shown by JYP Entertainment during his time of difficulty. Furthermore, Woojin released made his debut as a solo artist with the mini-album ‘The Moment: A Minor’. Although Woojin is legally clean off all the charges against him, haters are still going to hate.
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Kris Wu’s Scandal
Who in the Kpop world does not know about Kris Wu? And if you have heard this name then you must have also heard the scandal that shocked the entire Kpop industry. Furthermore, Kris Wu debuted in 2012 with the mega-popular group EXO. The group was a major success and released multiple best-selling albums. However, Kris Wu abruptly decided to leave the group in 2014.
Kris Wu’s and SM Entertainment’s Legal Battle
Fans and, to a certain limit, SM Entertainment itself was left to speculate the reason behind his departure. Until May of 2014, when Wu decided to file a lawsuit against SM Entertainment demanding immediate termination of his contract. Additionally, Kris Wu also claimed that the company overworked him to the point that he developed Myocarditis (which causes abnormal heart rhythms). This resulted in SM Entertainment firing back with their own lawsuit against Kris Wu and his Chinese agency. The two parties continued to splash mud on each other until it was decided that Kris Wu would be under SM’s management in only Korea and Japan.
The Beginning Of Kris Wu’s End
After leaving EXO, Kris Wu debuted as a soloist in China under Universal China. In 2015, Kris Wu also went on to debut and gained praise for his acting in the film Somewhere Only We Know. However, his glass empire came crashing down when in July of 2021. A nineteen-year-old Chinese student named Du Meizhu posted on Weibo about Kris Wu’s habitual pattern of sexually assaulting women who are under the influence of alcohol. Furthermore, Du Meizhu also claimed that some of these girls were minors between the age of fourteen and fifteen when Kris engaged in sexual acts with them. Moreover, Kris Wu would lure young girls by lying that the agency was looking for models and then sexually assault them.
Du Meizhu Exposes Kris Wu
In response to Du Meizhu’s statement, Kris Wu’s agency did not hesitate in lying through their teeth and claiming that this was just a ‘malicious slander’. Furthermore, the agency also said that they would be following up with a lawsuit soon. But before they could, Meizhu, on 10 July, released a statement saying she and the other victims would be filing a police report and submitting evidence against Kris Wu. Later on 18 July, Meizhu revealed that Kris Wu had sent her $77,000 USD to stay hush, but she was now ready to fight. Furthermore, starting from 18 July, Kris started losing multiple brand sponsorships.
After Du Meizho’s second statement where she revealed that she had enough evidence to send him to jail for ten years and also demanded Kris leave China and the entertainment industry along with a handwritten apology to the victims. Soon after, Kris Wu posted on Weibo denying all the claims against him and even had the audacity to say that he would put himself in jail had he ever done something so immoral.
C-Pop Idols Speak Up Against Kris Wu
On 19 July, former members of Cpop group SNH48, Yu Jiayi and Zhang Dansan both shared screenshots of their conversations with Kris Wu. The two girls stood up against Kris Wu in solidarity with the victims. Another big name that spoke up against Kris Wu was Li Xiaolu, an Internet celebrity. In a screenshot of her chats with Kris Wu’s assistant, where he asks her to have a drink with Kris. And then proceeds to ask Li Xiaolu if she knew which girl would be spending the night with him. Following her statement, major brands like Louis Vuitton and Bvlgari dropped Kris.
Kris Wu Gets Arrested
On 21 July, Kris Wu posted an apology on Weibo admitting and apologizing to victims. However, the post was deleted within seconds. The very next day, the police confirmed that Du Meizho was indeed telling the truth about being in a relationship with Kris. Finally, on 16 August, Beijing’s Chaoyang People’s Procuratorate officially arrested Kris on charges of sexual assault. Although his jail term has not yet been confirmed, lawyers believe that the result of his first trial will be released in January 2022. Kris Wu’s scandal will always remain one of the biggest scandals in Kpop history.
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The Burning Sun Kpop Scandal
Despite the countless dark scandals that Kpop celebrities get involved in, nothing beats The Burning Sun Scandal. At the thick of this controversy were some of the biggest names in the Kpop industry. Bigbang’s Seungri, Jung Joon Young, Choi Jonghoon from FTISLAND, Yang Hyun Suk, who is the founder of YG Entertainment, Lee Jonghyun from CNBLUE, Yong Junhyung from HIGHLIGHT. It all started when a club-goer, Kim Sung Gyo, was beaten up by the burning sun staff when he decided to stand up for a woman who was being harassed. Soon this case not only shook the whole Korean industry but the whole country itself.
How it All Started?
Kim Sung Gyo, on 24 November in the year 2018, witnessed a drugged woman being harassed at the burning sun club, but what surprised netizens was that when he tried to stand up for her, he instead got beaten up by the staff members, which left him serious injuries like broken ribs and more. Not only that, when the police arrived, Kim was again harassed by the police and was arrested instead. Feeling understandably frustrated by the entire situation, Kim Sug Gyo posted a petition on the Blue House Official website.
Additionally, in the petition posted by Kim in 2019, he alleged that The Burning Sun Club and the Gangnam Police had a corrupt relationship, where the police were turning a blind eye to all the wrongdoings of the club in return for huge sums of money. The second and the most charge made by Kim was that the Burning Sun’s VIP customers were drugging the female club-goers. For those of you who do not know, any citizen of South Korea can post a petition on the official Blue House Website. And if the petition manages to gain over 200,000 signatures, then the government responds to it.
Following Kim Sung Gyo’s petition, President Moon himself said that Korea could not be considered a just society if the truth was not revealed. A designated team for investigating The Burning Sun Club was set up by the Seoul Metropolitan Police. While the club was being investigated for sexual violence, drugs, and corruption charges, Bigbang’s Seungri, who was the director of the club, was accused of arranging prostitution services. On 10 March 2019, Seungri was booked by the police for organizing prostitution services.
The Aftermath Of The Burning Sun Scandal
The Burning Sun Scandal brought light to an even bigger problem in South Korea. On 11 March, it was revealed that Jung Joon Young, Choi Jung Hoon, Lee Jung Hyun, Yong Jung Hyun, Eddy Kim, and of course Seungri used to share illegally filmed hidden cameras footage of women in their chatroom. Additionally, on 29 April 2019, Seungri’s business partner, Yoo In Suk, confessed to arranging prostitutes for six Japanese Businessmen during their Gangnam trip in 2015.
Although Seungri denied the claim at first, the police discovered that seventeen prostitutes were paid for using a YG Entertainment card. Finally, Seungri got three years in prison. You can read more about his charges here. The Burning Scandal pushed the government to make a rule that no celebrities who are being investigated can enlist in the military after Seungri decided to enlist in the military while being investigated.
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