Meet the Talented Idol, Jiwon
Jiwon or Kang Jiwon participated in the KBS survival show ‘The Unit’. ‘The Unit’ is a program that gives a fair chance to idols who have already debuted but haven’t become widely known by the public, offering them a chance to show their talent. Jiwon participated in this show because she is a former member of the girl-group, Spica. The group debuted in 2012 and disbanded in 2017. Before that, she had already failed to debut twice, once with Five Girls and again with T-ara.
Jiwon was praised by the mentor on her very first performance, when she performed “Tonight” by Spica. The mentor said she had all four elements, singing ability, dancing, great stage presence, and a stunning visual. Jiwon passed the first elimination with super boost in only 30 seconds, which means that 90 percent of the audience voted for her. In the final episode Jiwon ended up ranked 6th, so she could debut with eight other girls as UNI.T. But, sadly, the group only lasted five months of promotion and only released two mini albums before their disbandment.
SPICA Jiwon As A Part-Time Worker
On the teaser of ‘The Unit’ it was revealed that there was a contestant who was working delivering juice early every morning. The person who’s wearing a green jacket was Jiwon. Jiwon started working early in the morning so that afterwards she could practice and audition. Jiwon did that because she didn’t have anything to do after her disbandment from Spica in 2017. She also didn’t take any lessons to kill her leisure time. She needed to make money and pay for her rent, that’s why she choose this job.
She’s a really strong person, even though she knows that many people already knew her face she wasn’t embarrassed to do this Job. Jung Hye-sung, her actress close friend, even gave Jiwon 1 million won (approximately $900) in cash along with a letter for her birthday during this difficult period. She was thankful for that but she didn’t want to burden other people, so she did what she she could do, finding a job that she capable of doing.
Jiwon Keep Pursuing Music During Hard Time
Jiwon’s dream since she was a kid was to be a singer. Ever since elementary school, every time people asked what she wanted to be in the future she always answered ‘singer’. So she kept pursuing this career by joining ‘The Unit‘. Jiwon is actually one of the contestants who had a really long training period. She’d already started in the music industry before 2007, but she didn’t give up even though she would start from the bottom again, from trainee life and living together in the dorm.
It didn’t mean that she’s not afraid, though. Jiwon said “My dream to debut every year changed into despair.” She also added “Honestly, I was really scared.” She knows it’s really hard to realize her dream, but she can’t give it up so she’s trying again by challenging herself in this program. And it’s paid off, she passed the first performance with super boost. She had to compete against a lot of younger contestants, because she was turning 30 when she joined the show and many contestant were still in their teens. She said “Rather than feeling generational differences, I’ve found the differences in energy to be a little challenging. I’m sitting down a lot.”
Check out her very first performance and a little backstory here!
Jiwon as a Popular Trainee on ‘The Unit’
The contestants’ first mission was to feature in The Unit‘s music video. They had to form a group of 9 people and go on to make their music video, and if they won they would receive a production budget of $500,000 dollars. Soon after the mission was announced, Serri from Dalshabet rushed to Jiwon to and grabbed her to be in the same team as her. Jiwon didn’t find any difficulty in forming a team but she didn’t get a chance to be on the same team as Hyunjoo. She was late in seeing where Hyunjoo was, and by then her team was already full. Even though she was sad that she couldn’t be on the same team as Hyunjoo she still helped Hyunjoo to find a team.
Everyone wanted to be on Jiwon’s team because the news was already spreading around the trainees that Jiwon got super boost in only 30 seconds. They also thought that Jiwon had it all but, actually, Jiwon said she knows she’s still lacking in dancing. The mentor even called her the blackhole in her team because she was always a beat late in the dancing. Jiwon kept practicing alone and no one helped her, one of the members said they couldn’t slow down the practice just because someone was lacking in the dance. Most of Jiwon’s team member only wanted to be in her team because they wanted to get more screen time because Jiwon is famous, and couldn’t be bothered to help her learn the dance.
Check the video here!
