KOREAN MUSIC: Lee Hayi of SBS’s “K-Pop Star” (8)

케이팝 스타: 이하이 (Lee Hayi, or Lee Ha Yi)

Lee Hayi: "K-Pop Star"

Keyshia Cole: "Love" (aired on 04/08/2012)
Longer Version with Judges' Comments

I can’t stand when someone sings a song off-key the whole time (or even most of the time). I don’t mean, off-key “for a few notes” here. In that sense, Hayi “technically” stood out from the rest of the contestants tonight. Honestly, I didn't quite get why the judges raved about how good the other contestants sang. They didn't even point out they sang off-key. Perhaps I'm being a little too anal though. (BTW, YG picked Hayi. Yang Hyun Suk said he’d been waiting too long for that moment prior to her casting.)

Here’s what the judges said:

BoA: (To Hayi) You're a really good singer! How come you sing that well? You'd trained with SM last week and with JYP this week, and I think you fit in nicely with (the style of) JYP. It was really nice watching/listening to you perform – it was like the Hayi we used to know was back! But I’m sorry that you sang in monotonous tones the whole time except the final climax. Except that, you delivered a great performance. (93 out of 100)

Yang Hyun Suk (or Yang Hyeonseok): (To Hayi) I’ve listened to Keyshia Cole’s “Love” so many times so far as it is one of my top 3 favorites of all songs. And honestly, I was really surprised when I heard you were going to sing this song; for I thought it was Park Jimin who would sing it really good. But what I like the most about your performance tonight was you sang the song really well without copying its original singer. Your low-pitched voice was soooo attractive. I don’t know where Park Jimin will end up (among JYP, SM, and YG) for the next round, but I think it’ll probably be fun for TV viewers (and live studio audience) to watch/listen to her sing the same song, I mean, just for kicks. Anyway, you did great today. (93 out of 100)

Park Jin Young (or Park Jinyeong): I guess some of you TV viewers (and live (gymnasium) audience) will probably be wondering why these two judges (respectively) gave Hayi 93 points. Some of you might think her performance doesn’t deserve as high of scores as it got. But I’ll tell you what. This song is really difficult to sing, and these judges know it. It’s truly hard even for very talented professional singers to sing. While singing this song, you gotta bounce to the rhythm, lend your soul (to the song), and sing some adlibs (on a song)…. It’s really a challenging song. And that’s why the tones of Hayi’s voice got somehow monotonous as Boa pointed out. (To Hayi) Ah! I really, really liked your performance: The quality and texture in your low-pitched voice, a feeling of soulfulness…. I really loved it. You did great. (93 out of 100)