While many said that Kpop gen4 is becoming nothing but a pool of pretty yet talentless
idols, which they took the success of IVE to exemplify such a belief, the advent of
some latest debuted acts has proven the opposite.
Not only being able to slay dancing, singing and stage presence like experienced performers,
these idols also have hidden talents that can always draw eyes to their directions regardless
of situations.
NewJean’s Hanni
Being the very first Vietnamese gen4 Kpop idol of, Hanni was initially said to amount
to nothing because of her nationality and the South-East Asian antipathy embedded in
the nature of many Knetz.
Yet, it didn’t take long for people to change their view as only several days into her idol
career, Hanni has already proven her inherent superstar glow.
Not only having impressive dancing capabilities, she was also showered in compliments for her
visual and stage presence
Starting out as a member of a highschool dance club, dancing seemingly has already been a
passion of Hanni even before becoming a trainee under HYBE.
However, she wasn’t born a competent dancer and also started on a low note as after watching
the remaining videos of her dancing in the pre-debut days, many said it was clear that
she used to have no idea about how to control her body.
However, when Hanni debuted as a member of NewJeans, things have changed 180 degrees
and looking at her, many found it hard to believe she and the girl doing Kpop dance
covers two years ago was the same person.
Hoping on the trend where Kpop acts would stop assigning a fixed position for the members,
ADOR also directed New Jeans to be a group where all members are expected to be viewed
the same talent-wise.
However, Hanni is still believed to be the main dancer of the act because netizens always
see ADOR giving her solo parts to highlight her dancing capability.
Especially during her dance in Cookies, despite its lasting for just a several seconds, Hanni
had already impressed netizens for the groovy moves and the smooth body control.
In fact, if you pay some close attention to the whole choreography, you will see her parts
were the hardest to dance because it required lots of practice, for example the head movement
that must be done in sync with the shoulders movements.
However, she made it look easy and according to Knetz, this is one of the biggest signs
confirming whether a person has the legit dancer-material or not.
There is also nothing to complain about her vocal and based on the way ADOR let her do
the Into The New World cover on MCD VOCAL CHALLENGE with Dannielle, aka the unofficial
main vocal of NewJeans, and other main vocalists of famous acts like Miyeon, Eunha and Sieun,
many believed ADOR themselves also recognized the vocal capabilities of Hanni.
Her visual and stage presence is also undeniable, which explains why she is chosen to be the
youngest ever House Ambassador of Gucci despite having no fashion-related background like
Hyein.
When Hanni had just performed for a few stages, she was already assessed to be the member
with best stage presence thanks to the capability to capture camera and add her own vibe to
the performance, naturally drawing all eyes into her direction in parts she didn’t even
stand in the center.
Not only that, Hanni also proved herself to be a potential songwriter after contributing
to HYPE BOY and besides the technical fields, she was also believed to be extremely smart
in relationships with people.
Of course no one could tell for sure but considering the way Min Hee Jin personally sent gifts
to her parents and screenshotted her convo with Hanni about the present, many could already
see how wise Hanni was in connecting with other people.
LE SSERAFIM’s Kazuha
With the professional background in ballet, many once thought all Kazuha had ever had
was her dancing skills and a pretty face that made HYBE go all the way to the Netherlands
to scout her.
However, as time passed and Kazuha got room to showcase her skills, many started to realize
they were actually looking at another ace of this new Kpop generation.
Ever since day one, Kazuha has already made headlines for her top-tier visual.
In fact, she is favored by not only netizens but also national outlet channels of South
Korea for the striking resemblance to Suzy, which is an extremely rare case because Knetz
often hold a strong prejudice against foreign idols and almost never put idols outside their
country on the same pars with South Korean celebrities.
About her dance capabilities, it’s now super duper abundant to keep complimenting because
with the famous professional ballerina background, everyone knows she’s good at dancing.
Some may say that Kpop dancing and ballerina are two different genres of dance with two
different sets of standards, which means it’s impossible to tell she’s a good dancer based
on her ballet skills.
However, with the most recent comeback, Kazuha has proved them with the impressive capability
to control her body, portray a unique mixture of sharpness and silkiness in her moves.
As how an ace should be, Kazuha can also sing well despite her role as the rapper of LE
SSERAFIM.
When Kim Garam left and the act needed someone to cover her part in Sour Grapes, Kazuha was
given some lines and people immediately went crazy over her singing [chèn clip Kazuha
hát đoạn đó - âm thanh gốc].
On Youtube, there was even a video titled “Le sserafim Kazuha singing this Garam line
of Sour Grapes so good” and most recently when Yunjin had to take a break due to her
testing positive with COVID-19, Kazuha also impressed everyone with her ability to hit
high notes in Yunjin’s parts.
Under the video, the opinion focusing on her impressive vocal even got most likes out of
the whole comment section and although LE SSERAFIM had Chaewon as well as Sakura, aka
two experienced idols that had been in the industry for four years, Kazuha is still believed
to be the unofficial lead vocal of the act.
Besides dancing and singing, Kazuha also has a hidden talent: being capable of speaking
three languages fluently: Japanese, English and Korean though as shown in LE SSERAFIM’s
documentary, she could barely speak a proper Korean sentence just six months ago.
This is also the point implicitly proving that Kazuha has both the brain and the beauty
rather than being just a clueless visual in Kpop.
aespa’s Karina
When Karina debuted, many flocked onto big forums and bash her for failing to continue
the visual bloodline of SM Entertainment.
Not only that, her dance teaser was also said to be the most disappointing dance performance
netizens had ever seen out of all the stages that main dancers of SM Entertainment brought
to the table.
Basically, in the eyes of Knet, Karina used to be nothing but a misfit of the agency’s
standard but somehow still got to be boosted overly compared to other girls in the group.
However, as time passed and Karina got more opportunities to prove why SM chose her to
be the representative face of their gen4 girlgroup, people also held less critical judgment against
her.
In fact, they even started to praise her for being one of the new aces of Kpop as besides
the surreal CGI visual, they also see in Karina the impressive skills of dancing, singing,
lingual speaking and leadership.
When Karina appeared on Knowing Bros, her dancing to Bola Rebola by Tropkillaz went
viral and in the comment sections, rains of compliments were showered on her because people
didn’t think she could dance that well.
Some even specifically pointed out why she was such a good dancer and for the most part,
it probably came down to her ability to naturally vibe and add rhythm to her dance.
Plus, because this kind of dance required an exhausting balance between sharpness and
silkiness, which is very different from the heavy-sharpness-choreography of aespa, many
said they felt like SM was overshadowing Karina’s talents with their direction.
About the visual…Well, I believe it will be extremely lame to praise her visual now
because you can literally just type “Karina visual” and tons of threads complimenting
her beauty would pop up.
On Pann, aka the most extreme Kpop forum where idols can be criticized for the stupidest
reason on earth, there are still countless posts praising her visual.
Most recently, Karina even got 90% of the votes when female netizens voted for the “signature
face of aespa” and if all these weren’t enough to confirm her beauty then I honestly
don’t know what is.
Besides all these, Karina’s singing is also impressive, which you can easily spot through
the way she hits high notes in aespa’ songs.
Most recently, she even proved her stable live singing skills at Coachella and combined
this with her fluent English, Japanese, Korean as well as the capability to lead aespa, it’s
obvious that she was nothing but a new ace of this generation.
Lapillus’ Chanty
Despite coming from a rather small company and also just being in the industry for sometime,
Chanty has already been a famous name in the K-community.
As people get to know about her more, many also start to believe she can very be one
of the next aces of Kpop as besides the viral visual, Chanty also has an impressive stage
presence, dancing, singinging, multilingual skills, and as some predict, a high potential
for the shining acting and modeling career.
First, about her visual.
Because it would be so lame to just describe how good she looks, I will show you the reaction
of netizens when they first saw her.
When Chanty was only one month into the industry, she had already caused a stir among Cnetz
because of the striking resemblance to Dilraba Dilmurat, the visual goddess of China.
As Chanty also had a background in modeling and acting before joining MLD Entertainment,
it’s not an exaggeration at all to say her reputation can go beyond the South Korea and
become the next favorite face of Cnet, aka one of the most lucrative markets that not
even SM Entertainment can give up despite their allegedly strong antipathy against Chinese.
Besides, her singing and dancing are also top-notch although it is said that she has
just spent eight months as a Kpop trainee.
Honestly, there's nothing worth discussing about her singing skills as it's already proven
so clearly in her cover Part Of That World in English and Spanish which shocked all the
listeners.
Her dancing and stage presence also got people hooked and thanks to this fancam of her covering
choreography of famous hits, Chanty also became a viral topic online.
As people often hold the prejudice that foreign idols have sloppy skills and without a long
training period, they could hardly amount to anything, the fact that Chanty debuted
after a short span of practice yet could still make groovy moves and enjoy herself naturally
on stage changed their opinions 180 degree.
So, do you also agree that these idols are the next aces of this generation?
And which one impresses you the most?