She almost did not trust them.
Aespa‘s Ningning was the latest guest on Lee Mujin Service. Besides amazing fans with her sweet voice in various song covers, she also answered questions related to her career. One of them was about her pre-trainee years and how she was recruited.
SM Entertainment is infamous for their “scam-like” way of casting their trainees, approaching young kids in a way that they are often mistaken for kidnappers. Lee Mujin brought this up when he asked, “How does SM do casting so that everyone thought it was a scam?”
Ningning recounted her experience, saying that SM Entertainment directly contacted her on social media.
After watching the videos where I participated in those auditions, SM sent me a direct message on my old social media account.
— Ningning
Their message was a shady one, with Ningning saying that it looked like “a typical scam.” She did not reply to it at first because of this lasting impression.
It said, ‘I’m working for SM, your singing was impressive, I’d like to see you in Korea. Are you interested in becoming idol?’ Something like that. It was a long message, but it looks like a typical scam. So I thought, ‘This is a scam.’ So I didn’t reply in the first place.
— Ningning
After a little while, however, she decided that there was nothing wrong with responding once. She took a chance on the SM Entertainment agent and was greatly rewarded.
Lee Mujin: But, there’s nothing you will lose if you message back to them, right?
Ningning: Exactly, I also thought there’s nothing to lose if I message back, so I replied to him. And he asked me right away when I’ll be able to come to Korea, and booked the flight ticket. So at that time, was thinking, “Maybe it’s not a scam?”
Though she initially thought the agents were scamming her, Ningning ended up in South Korea the very next day. She signed her contract with her current company and eventually debuted in aespa.
Afterwards, I flew to Korea. And I signed up with SM.
— Ningning
Check out the full interview below to learn more about Ningning!
