JYP VS YG
The 6th episode of the survival program was challenging. It was the JYP vs YG episode. It’s similar to the agencies’ trainees’ showdown that previously happened in the 2013 reality television program Win: Who is Next, a YG Entertainment survival program.
A week before the battle, the group picked their representatives for vocal, dance, and free battle teams. For the vocal team, they needed to perform a song from one of the girl-groups of the other agency. Chan, Woo-jin, Ji-sung, and Jeong-in selected Black Pink’s “As If It’s Your Last”. They worked on a remix version of the song to fit the Stray Kids’ concept.
3Racha prepared a rap performance titled “Matryoshka”, about Russia’s traditional dolls. On the battle day, they went to YG Entertainment headquarters, where they met the other agency’s trainees for the first time, including Bang Ye-dam from K-pop Star 2.
In the free battle round, Chang-bin and Ji-sung performed “Matryoshka” without Chan. Yang Hyun-suk and Park praised their performance. Bang Ye-dam of YG performed Shawn Mendes’ “There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back” and received compliments from Park.
Felix’s Second Chance To Debut
The memories of Felix and Lee Know being eliminated from the survival show Stray Kids, may still leave a mark. Both had been eliminated and declared not ready to debut with JYP Entertainment boy-band, Stray Kids.
Felix and Lee Know were introduced as two of the participants who would compete with seven other trainees, to debut under the auspices of JYP Entertainment. He underwent a training period of approximately one year before finally joining the survival show set up by JYP, Stray Kids.
Lee Felix’s and Lee Know’s dreams of being able to debut as an idol ran aground due to being the trainees to be eliminated from the Stray Kids event. At the time, JYP said it would only be a boy-band with seven members. However, JYP gave Felix and Lee Know the chance to appear in the trainees’ final mission. At that time, they had to be able to prove their abilities and talents.
“I heard after you guys were eliminated, you two continued to work hard and practice diligently every day. I’ve thought a lot of things, and after you left (eliminated), it felt like there was something missing from the group,” Park Jin Young said about the two performers being reintroduced into the mix.
The CEO of JYP Entertainment gave Lee Know and Felix a second chance to be able to prove they deserved a debut with Stray Kids.
“This can be a second chance for you, but it can also lead to disappointment a second time. So, I want to be careful. But I think you will have less regret if you try it one more time,” JYP said.
The Stray Kids members, who had reacted to both eliminations with tears and disbelief, were thrilled. The rest of the trainees responded to it happily. They couldn’t hide their joy as they rushed to embrace Felix and Lee Minho joked, “Why’d you come so late?”
Felix Debut with STRAY KIDS
Fortunately, Felix and Lee Know were able to successfully debut as members of Stray Kids in 2018, with Bang Chan, Woojin, Changbin, Hyunjin, Han, Seungmin, and I.N.
Through a mini-album song titled ‘Mixtape’, Felix and Lee Know debuted and showed their abilities as talented future idols.
In Stray Kids, Felix takes the position as lead dancer and lead rapper. He is also unofficially an English speaker for Stray Kids when they have a tour overseas or must speak in front of the International speakers or fans, as he can speak English fluently.
After his debut, Felix, himself, had said that he and his teammates always worked hard so they could debut and show their best performance, “In the past when I was a trainee, I only trained with my team. We worked very hard and tried to show the results of our hard work. And we really worked a lot,” Felix said, as quoted by Billboard.
Now, Felix and Lee Know’s hard work has paid off. Together with Stray Kids, both of them made achievements by winning the title of rookie monster, and won various awards in the newcomer category. Stray Kids is also holding a concert tour to various cities in Asia, to entertain their fans through stunning stage acts.
