On the 24th, the latest episode of “Super Star K6” was released live with its remaining top 8 contestants, Jin Eon Kwak, Feel Kim, Yu Bin Song, Woo Ram Jang, Bustered, Do Hyeok Lim, Jun Hee Lee, and Mica. The theme of this latest episode was dubbed the “Se Tai Ji Mission” with a surprise guest appearance of the legendary Korean pop star Seo Tai Ji, a former member and leader of “Seo Tai Ji & the Boys”. The panel of judges also announced that 2 of the contestants will no longer be able to continue in the tournament.
Because the theme of this episode was Seo Tai Ji, each participant was asked to select and remake their version of their favorite Seo Tai Ji song. The first in line was the 4-member Filipino group Mica. They chose “I Know”, one of Seo Tai Ji’s iconic hip hop songs and added some high notes to make the sound more dramatic. Do Hyeok Lim selected “To You” which is also well-known as the theme song for the Korean mini-series “Reply 1994” (TvN).
Both contestants however received somewhat negative criticisms from the panel. They commented that Mica had made some mistakes while rapping, and expressed some disappointment regarding Lim saying he was “unable to perform at his full capacity”.
Woo Ram Jang chose “I Try To Erase You”. The judges did not offer too much criticism regarding Jang’s performance, simply telling him he had the best overall performance so far. The band “Bustered” played their own version of “Victory”. Here, the panel showed mixed reactions. While one stated that the main vocal lacks the kind of charisma and rhythm that was required for a song like “Victory”. On the other hand, others simply expressed praise for their daring endeavor.
Next in line were 2 teenagers, Yu Bin Song and Jun Hee Lee. Both these rookie singers had showed off great talent in ballad songs throughout the audition, but this time, both of them had decided to try out something new. Song chose “Moai”, and Lee decided to sing “Take 5”. The judges told both the young singers that they needed to work on their technique more, but overall they had succeeded in delivering the style and emotion that was often felt through Seo Tai Ji.
The last 2 performers were Feel Kim and Jin Eon Kwak. Feel Kim showed off a rock’n roll song “T’ik T’ak” and Kwak performed “Sogyeok Dong”, a recent collaboration by Seo Tai Ji, and IU. Feel Kim received somewhat positive reactions from the panel that told him that they could not detect any kind of awkwardness from his switching of genres. For Kwak, the panel fired praise after praise, eventually placing him in 1st place out of the TOP 8 survivors, with a score of 387.
Jun Hee Lee, who received the lowest score of 344 was eliminated from the audition program along with Mica who scored 346.
Before the episode came to a close, all the contestants had a combined performance where they sung together. It was here when Seo Tai Ji himself showed up on set surprising all the participants, judges and audience who were present. He expressed that after hearing that his songs will be sung by the “Super Star K6” contestants, he thought he wanted to drop by and encourage all the participants as well as enjoy the show. He also expressed how glad and thankful he was that he chose to be a musician.
There are now only 4 weeks until the end of the tournament, and online votes will continue until the 2014 champion of “Super Star” will be decided.
