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Life of a Celebrity: The Sweat and Tears of Becoming an IdolJangMinHo (http://www.soompi.com/author/1823984/) January 8, 2012 (http://www.soompi.com/2012/01/08/life-of-a-

celebrity-the-sweat-and-tears-of-becoming-an-idol/) (http://www.soompi.com/2012/01/08/life-of-a-celebrity-the-sweat-

and-tears-of-becoming-an-idol/#comments)

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Whenever I see an idol appearing in a variety of public events all on the same day, or shooting a video and

commercial, going to signing events and then photoshoots, having concerts in other countries or even having

practices for 10 hours a day, I wonder if they ever get any sleep? Or at the very least, do they take in the proper

meals to keep their body functioning? In this article, we will review the hardships that idols go through in order to

succeed (because not everything is pure happiness), and then Ill talk about the nice part and luxuries of being a

celebrity.

When you want to be part of an agency, the first step is the audition. Nowadays, almost all agencies have these

little pamphlets inside the CDs you buy, with information about auditions, how to apply or how to get more

information about upcoming auditions in Korea, as well as in foreign countries. Some potential idols are fortunate

enough to get picked off the street, and the talent scout, aware of the potential that the person must have, offers

them the opportunity to show up at the agency and hold an audition.

Then, you go to the agency, get evaluated according to how good you dance, sing or even how good you look.

According to these evaluation points, you get accepted or not. Some of them get rejected the first time but they

keep trying and their persistence sometimes works as a motive to be part of the agency of their dreams. Once

you pass the evaluation process, there it comes the training process which might take years depending on the

effort of the chosen person.

[Some of the popular entertainment agencies]

Most idols we see nowadays started training since they were kids, when they were eleven or twelve years old.

Once the agency decides the new group, the chosen ones start training right away. Their training consists of vocal

lessons, dance lessons, and language lessons which might extend even after their debut. You may wonder how

much does it cost to create an idol group? Well, once they get accepted and start their training, it might cost a few

million dollars per member. So, can you imagine the amount of money invested in an idol group with nine, thirteen

or even twenty-four members? Thats a lot of money (which, lets say, the idols must pay back after their debut

with all their album sales, appearances, and activities they get into).

[Infinite practicing Be Mine]

[BEAST training]

Once their training is complete, the long-awaited moment finally comes: Their debut. Of course that part of their

success depends on how good they are at everything they learned from their years of training. The other part

comes from the audience, because the success of an idol group relies on the public. That part gets so hard that

sometimes they just want to give up everything, as some of them even consider suicide.

When you train, you do it for 10 hours a day or sometimes even more, and you train in different areas, but once

you debut, you job is to promote yourself the most you can. Public appearances, radio shows, variety shows,

concerts, commercials, musicals, fan meetings, photoshoots. so many activities in such a short period of time

that you wonder how do they make that time to do all those activities?.

[Bae Yoon Jong in Japan]

[Kim Hyun Joong promoting for TheFaceShop]

[Super Junior for the Korea Food Expo, 2011]

[Thanks to owner for this pic]

[Rain in Family Outing]

[Won Bin promoting Hite Beer]

Well, welcome to the life of an idol. When they debut, they barely get any sleep or eat and it happens because

their schedule is so hectic that their sleep deprivation is a must. It can be from 24 hours until 33 hours without

sleeping, but they have to accomplish with their programmed schedules. Most of them take few naps while having

their hair done, while being in restaurants having a meal or even while traveling in their van to the next schedule.

[T-ara's Eunjung, known as "the sleepy beauty".]

[Lee Min Ho tak ing a nap while filming Boys Before Flowers]

[DBSK's Yunho]

[JYJ's Park Yoochun sleeping on a chair]

[JYJ's Kim Jaejoong, sleeping at an airport floor]

But what happens when you deprive yourself from sleeping?. You get tired. You get sick. And with so many stress

and pressure over your shoulders, things like the one from the following video happens. F(x)s Krystal fainted

while performing at the Lotte Duty Free Shop Family Concert in 2010, due to the anemia condition she has had

since she was a kid. But that wasnt the only fainting incident of her. She also showed up in extremely tired

condition after performing on SBS Kiss and Cry, when she collapsed onto the ice, breathing heavily, all due to

her ill condition and the pressure from the performance.

[Krystal on SBS' Kiss and Cry]

Being an idol is not just about sleep deprivation, stress, tiredness, pressure, constant practices 24/7 and diets to

make your career perfect. Its also about the accidents that might occur while you perform live. It can be simple

accidents like slipping on the floor or losing a shoe on stage but also, there are these kind of accidents that end up

wrong and require unexpected hospitalizations. Sometimes some of them have to deal with serious issues of

depression or extreme suicidal thoughts or even both.

First lets take a look at accidents occurred while performing live:

[Onew fainted when a light structure collapsed on KBS' Music Bank]

[SNSD's Seohyun accident in Pattaya Music Festival 2009]

[SNSD's Taeyeon pulled off stage by an strange man at Angel Price Music Festival]

[SISTAR's Bora accident while performing on stage]

Some of the accidents and incidents below might not look as serious as the one down below but I honestly believe

that when an idol gets hurt while performing live and the issue looks really bad that they need medical attention

immediately and they must stop all kinds of activities until they are fully recovered. The following is an accident that

involved fireworks. Big Bangs Seungri got injured with fireworks because he was standing too close. Good to

know that it wasnt something to worry about but it requiered a medical examination.

Im pretty sure everybody remembers the accidents involving Super Juniors members. Actually, as a personal

opinion, I believe that Super Junior is the group with most accidents during their entire musical career.

Just to mention a few: first Kyuhyun, Leeteuk, Shindong and Eunhyuks accident when they were coming back

from recording Sukira (Super Juniors Kiss the Radio), then Heechuls accident after coming back from

Donghaes fathers funeral. Then, the small car accidents they had first in Singapore and then in Shanghai after

Super Show 3 in which Heechul got hit on his face by a fan who wanted to give him a LED board as a gift.

Then Kyuhyuns car accident once again back in April of 2011, which wasnt too serious though.

Then, Yesung, Eunhyuk, Donghae, Sungmin and Leeteuks small accidents and injuries they had when they

were recording KBS Dream Team Season 2. All along 2011, I read like 5 or 6 times that SuJus leader Leeteuk

has been hospitalized due to 1) a minimal injury on his pinky finger while recording MBC Every1s Super Juniors

Foresight and 2) exhaustation from work overload. And how cannot he be suffering exhaustation with all the

shows and schedules he has on his shoulders?. Super Juniors Foresight, Hello Baby, Star King, Strong

Heart, Dream Team and the most recent one, We Got Married. How can he seriously do it?.

Besides Super Junior and their accidents, it seems that getting hurt is just part of the business.

There have been so many accidents in K-Pops history, so many to put them in just one article, that Ill just talk

briefly about some of them. First to recall, most of the stage accidents such as the one with SISTAR, happen

because the girls perform with huge killing heals over a slippery floor. Also, because of the constant dance

practices and lack of sleep, their muscles tend to wear down. Then because of this, when the situation gets out of

control, they get hurt by just dancing, walking or even trying to run away from crazy waves of fans on airports

and/or fan meetings.

Back in October of 2010, SHINees Jonghyun hurt his ankle while being at the airport in Indonesia. It required

surgery back in January of this year.

Jonghyuns fellow member Minho also got hurt while filming a variety show and suffered a partial rupture of his

right calf muscle, causing him to perform sitting on a chair while promotional performances for their single

Lucifer. Labelmate BoA, who has suffered a lot of injuries in her career, had the worst ones when she broke her

leg in 2006 and then her arm during her Japanese promotions back in 2008.

The most common injuries on idols are always on their legs, arms and cord nodules. Several cases of idols with

knee injuries include 2PMs Junsu, BEASTs Doo Joon, f(x)s Amber and ZE:As HyungShik, who had both

injuries on their ankles (HyungShik fell off from a yacht). And recently, SECRETs Hyosung, who hurt her left

knees cartilage and broke her right foot after she fell down the stairs. Regarding cord nodules we can mention CN

Blues Jung Yong Hwa, KARAs Park Gyuri, SISTARs Hyorin, U-Kiss Soohyun, Big Bangs Daesung, etc.

Unlike the following cases, MBLAQs Lee Joon, Mir and their leader Seungho have experienced awful

sicknesses in their career. First, Lee Joon had some vomiting symptoms before Inkigayo by February of 2011. He

was diagnosed with cochlea disorder (which is a chronic disorder disease that affects your inner ear).

Bandmate Mir suffered from an injury on his lower back, had a surgery done also back in February and spent a lot

of time resting until he could come back fully recovered. Then, he had an eye injury while being in Peru. Seungho,

separately from Mirs case who couldnt perform any schedule at all, did record Idol Army back in 2010 with a

broken rib. The incident happened while recording Idol Maknae Rebellion.

Some of the accidents are just unavoidable such as sickness, accidents, strange diet rumours (which are just

that, rumours) and some other incidents that can be prevented from happening, like extreme depression, thoughts

for excessive work overload as it happened to actor Jang Geun Suk (http://www.soompi.com/news/jang-geun-

suk-suffered-from-depression-due-to-excessive-workload/page/5), or lastly, suicide incidents, just to mention the

latest case of actor Park Yong Ha, who ended up with suicide after struggling with personal and professional

issues.

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Any person outside the entertainment business who does not have any idea about the constant demand and the

price they have to pay for being famous, think they are just machines with an open life to the public and no private

life whatsoever. Sad to say, but up to this day, there are still existing fans who dont know how empty they feel

sometimes. Yes, being a celebrity can be exciting and awesome but also, when you become famous, you are

giving up a lot of things including friends, girlfriends/boyfriends (at least before and after debuting), a private and

normal life.

Despite what they all went through their trainee days, there were times in which they couldnt stand it anymore and

wanted to quit. But their hunger for becoming singers/actors and being successful is even more bigger than any

obstacle. But in the end, is it really worth to sacrifice your health and mental peace, and your freedom, for

popularity?

Let me know what you think!

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alyannaaldea

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() I respect all idols in general. They are able to put on a regular front when they are all but normal inside. Exhaustion,

fatigue, and all this yet they are still able to get up and perform. I salute them. Recently I auditioned for a company

and they have answered me by contacting me if I wanted to take the next test and if I passed it I would become a

trainee. Honestly, I really do want to become one, but this all sounds sad. I don't want to live a life like this. I just

wanted to get up and do what I love and to entertain. Some of you guys are saying things like it is their fault and if

they don't like it, they can just quit, but it really isn't that simple. They will lose all contact with their agency and it

will be really hard to go back to normal life once you have this idol tag stuck on you. Maybe I won't try out for this

trainee gig after all...

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