While YG Entertainment always complained about the confusing promotional strategy for their
groups the company has recently surprised everyone with their marketing strategy for
BABYMONSTER, keeping the group’s reputation afloat even before their officially entering
to the Kpop race.
Despite having introduced all seven members, Yang Hyun-suk announced mid-way through that
the final line-up would very likely be only five.
Even in the last episode, he still kept people on their toes, revealing only five official
members of the act.
Here, Rora and Asa were eliminated as Yang Hyun-suk believed Rora was too young to debut,
which made her better off as the main vocalist for his future girl group, and Asa was such
an all-rounder that she could shine better as a piece for YG Entertainment’s upcoming
Japanese project.
However, he took a sharp turn, saying all seven members would debut since he was impressed
by overwhelming support from fans, 99% of whom wished none of the members would be left
out.
So, what is so special about these seven members that the public was extremely insistent on
seeing all of them debut?
Let’s dive into the profile of each talented baby monster of the future Kpop.
Ahyeon
Initially getting massive attention for a visual sharing staggering similarity to Kim
Garam, Ahyeon was once afraid that her talents would be overlooked since people were too
focused on her visual.
However, with the impressive performances, Ahyeon has shifted the public’s view, proving
herself one of the most promising IT girls of Kpop.
Ahyeon’s full name is Jung Aheyon, born as a native South Korean on April 11, 2007.
While there was no exact information about her family background, many believed she was
born into a fairly wealthy household since the house in her childhood video screamed
money.
Besides, her educational background also spoke volumes about her family status as at the
age of five and seven, she had respectively started learning English and Chinese.
With a huge passion for performing, Ahyeon decided to audition for YG Entertainment in
2018 and after three years of training, Ahyeon quickly perfected her competency, becoming
extremely good at all aspects.
That’s why she was appraised by Jang Hyun-suk as the warrior fully armed with sharp weapons
and by Lee Jung as the most suitable member out of the seven for the center position.
And surprisingly, Lee Jung’s prophecy doesn’t even need BABYMONSTER to officially debut
to be fulfilled as with the cover Dangerously, Ahyeon has not only become the member with
the most viewed video but also made the hit viral everywhere.
Chiquita
When seeing Chiquita, Yang Hyun-suk was so impressed that right after her very first
monthly evaluation, which happened three months after her joining YG Entertainment, he had
to secure Chiquita a ticket in BABYMONSTER’s project.
Chiquita’s real full name is Riracha Phondechaphiphat.
She was born in Thailand on February 17, 2009.
While there isn’t much information about her family background, it is believed that
she was raised up in a wealthy family, explaining why both she and her brother Copper, who is
a 789 Trainee, could pursue a celebrity career at an extremely young age.
According to YG Entertainment, Chiquita joined the family around the beginning of 2021 and
has trained for one year and nine months, an extremely short period compared to the
average training time of most YG Entertainment’s idols.
As many noticed, she has proven herself a strong main dancer material and coincidentally,
besides the bubbly personality similar to Lisa, her talents were also said to remind
people of her senior.
Especially regarding her dancing capability, with the big moves always sharply positioned
in perfect angles, Chiquita was said to soon follow the footstep of Lisa and become the
next big phenomenon in Thailand, which was also the high hope of Yang Hyun-suk toward
Chiquita when letting her in the team.
Pharita
Similar to Ahyeon, Pharita initially drew lots of attention for her visual and on Pann,
she was even referred to as the defining visual of BABYMONSTER thanks to the innocent Korean
mainstream beauty.
Even Yang Hyun-suk exclaimed that Pharita looked as surreal as coming straight out of
a Disney movie yet regardless of the fragile visual, Lee Jung said Pharita was the type
of person who would garner more curiosity everyday, which is pretty much like a Pandora
box.
Pharital’s full name is Pharita Chaikong.
She was born into a Thai family on August 26, 2005.
Respecting her background in the homeland, many believed had YG Entertainment not scouted
her, she would still lead the best life ever thanks to her early career as a child model.
She even won the Champion of the Inter ModelThailand contest and in 2021, she managed to become
a contestant on Thailand’s Idol Paradise survival show.
Pharital is also said to have a musical household, exemplified by how her brother appeared on
The Star 10, a Thai competition talent show, and various Thai dramas.
Besides Thai, she can also speak fluent English for going to an international school at a
young age.
Thanks to the early public exposure, Pharita always confidently carries herself on stage
and eventually managed to secure a ticket to BABYMONSTER’s project despite a rather
short training period of two years and five months.
Her skills have improved so much that despite auditioning through dancing, she has been
constantly appraised for a unique vocal color special that reminded people a lot of Rosé.
In the Gone cover with Ahyeon and Ruka, Pharital was the one receiving most attention and compliments
from netizens.
On Youtube, many comments with most likes were about Pharial and how her voice sounded
uniquely soothing and angelic.
Many were also surprised to know about her short training period because she appeared
to have been singing for most of her life.
Rora
Being especially given the stage name Rora, which stems from the word Aurora, by Yang
Hyun-suk as he believed she could become an artist shining brightly like this phenomenon,
Rora’s competence as an idol is noticeably all-rounded.
Many netizens also recognized her visual, saying she could be the face of BABYMONSTER
along with Pharita for surprisingly giving off a Wonyoung vibe.
Rora’s real name is Lee Dain and for being born on August 14, 2008, she was the maknae
of the act.
Despite the extremely young age, which partially made Yang Hyun-suk almost drop her from BABYMONSTER
had it not been for fans’ support, Rora has never failed him once since joining the
family.
Being brought up as a South Korean with a beautiful face, she used to be a child model
and even debuted in a kid girl group U.SSO Girl along with NewJeans’s Hyein.
As she also featured in other entertainment activities like the Korean cooking show Man
vs Child Korea in 2018 and the 12th Yulgok Student Music Festival, many believed her
family must be at least in the upper middle class to give her such opportunities.
According to Rora, YG Entertainment proactively invited her to audition and in 2018, she joined
the company.
Despite the lacking performance on the first evaluation month where she ended up crying
for forgetting the lyrics, Rora quickly improved and became the certified ace.
Besides being recognized by Yang Hyun-suk, Rora was also said to be the member with greatest
improvement in the first two years by Lee Jung and Kim Hyun-jung, a trainer of the company,
also said she was proud to look at Rora’s ability to deliver emotions through her voice.
Ruka
Despite being the last member to be introduced by YG Entertainment, the heat around Ruka
still spreads like wildfire as she is the very first Japanese idol to ever debut under
the company.
Ruka has an extremely cute real name, Kawai Ruka, and was born on March 20, 2002.
It seems like Ruka has been in the entertainment industry almost all her life as before joining
YG Entertainment, she was a member of a Japanese girl group Shibu3 project and between 2017-2018,
she was under a famous Japanese talent company, Platinum Production.
This background explains why she had actually danced for ten years prior to joining YG Entertainment
in 2018 and as Lee Jung said, Ruka was the master of all the building blocks making up
a choreography.
With a long training period and the fact that entertainment agencies are debuting younger
and younger idols, it seems that Ruka has been stressed out a lot about her path.
However, she managed to shine through and until now, her dancing has been so good that
Yang Hyun-suk has never been criticized once.
Ruka was also assessed to have a natural hip-hop vibe, a signature thing of YG Entertainment,
and even when standing still, that aura is still vivid.
Haram
Haram, similarly to many other members, had also had experiences in the entertainment
industry as a child model.
What surprises people most is that despite being the same age as Ahyeon, Haram gives
off a completely different vibe: elegant and classy mixed with a little Western pop star
aura.
Haram’s real name is Shin Haram and at the age of ten, she had already joined the company
in 2018.
As she was a child model, many believed her family background was affluent enough for
her to not stress out about sticking to the academic path only.
When first auditioning for the company, Haram admitted to having been rather average compared
to other talented constants, but netizens believed it was just a humble act as she was
assessed by Yang Hyun-suk to have an inherent talent for singing.
She has also come such a long way that now, her capability could be put against any renowned
pop-singers out there.
However, that doesn’t mean she lacks when it comes to dancing as according to Lee Jung,
she is the best one to leverage her slender physique and make every dance her own.
Asa
Having a candy sweet visual and a soft personality, many thought a person like Asa could hardly
ever fit into the hip vibe of YG Entertainment.
However, as soon as seeing her determination to debut and everything she has done, from
traveling alone to South Korea at twelve to developing top-notch rapping skills despite
initially knowing nothing about Korean, they all understand why YG Entertainment wanted
to save her for the prime position in his upcoming Japanese girl group.
Asa’s real name is Enami Asa, born into a Japanese family on April 17, 2006.
It seems that she was raised up in a musical household as predebut, she had already done
musical theater and participated in the Japanese LADYBIRD Green Musical in 2017.
After auditioning for YG Entertainment in 2018, she has trained for about five years,
perfecting not only her vocal, dancing, rapping but also self-composing skills.
As assessed by Lee Jung, Asa has always been the most efficient girl who picks up things
the fattest through questions.
BIGTONE, YG Entertainment’s core rap trainer, also had flattering words for Asa’s wit
and skills, saying she was indeed a perfectionist who would swiftly learn everything and upgrade
what he taught to the next level to pull off even the hardest tasks.
What singles Asa out is that it appears her impressive rapping and attitude has made her
BIGTONE’s favorite student and in one session where she pushed herself a little too hard,
he was also moved to tears when she cried.
With such talents and visual, netizens believed she would be BABYMONSTER’s lead rapper and
a prime fan attractor in the Japanese market.
So, do you think BABYMONSTER would be the next big girl group of YG Entertainment when
being home to such talented faces?
Which member impressed you the most and why?