Weki Meki 3rd Anniversary Celebration/Introduction Post

[adenar.livejournal.com]

As part of the third anniversary livestream celebration Weki Meki performed their two album tracks from their most recent release with Oopsy, Moya Moya and The Paradise, the latter of which is leader Suyeon's first released self-composed track! Click through to v-live to watch The Paradise!

Weki Meki debuted on August 8th, 2017 with their EP Weme and lead single I Don't Like Your Girlfriend. The group, as trainees, had been slowly promoting and revealing itself through V Live since March that year, a couple months after the disbandment of project group IOI and the return of members Yoojung and Doyeon.

The Fantagio girl group project was known as 'I-Teen Girls'. Maknae Lucy was the first final member to join Fantagio, and Lua joined not long after her. Within the time before their first public performance, Yoojung, Doyeon and Elly joined. Lucy and Lua were deemed too young to compete on Produce 101, so the latter trio as well as two former trainees were sent to compete. While Elly placed a respectable 47th, Doyeon and Yoojung were able to make it all the way and joined the debut team, and temporarily left I-Teen Girls to promote with IOI. With two of their trainees away, Fantagio set out to find other trainees to pad out their debut team. By the latter part of the year around 13 names were being thrown about as trainees, including fellow PD101 contestant Lee Seojung (Sei) who had made the jump from LOUDers in June, and went on to star in ASTRO's second comeback video. We know that more trainees than that were going through the Fantagio building, because two of the final debut lineup were unknown to fans until they were first officially revealed.

In March, Fantagio officially announced the beginning of a channel for their trainees, and confirmed that Yoojung and Doyeon would be in the final group. In the last week of March, the first official lineup revealed themselves; this lineup included PD101 trainee Chu Yejin, and previously unknown member Rina. With their debut originally scheduled for June, the debut was quietly pushed back, probably due to the last-minute, unannounced departure of Chu Yejin, and the need to find a suitable replacement vocalist. At the beginning of June the official lineup was finally revealed, as well as the last official member, leader and main vocalist, Suyeon.


MEET WEKI MEKI!

SUYEON

Name: Ji Suyeon
DOB: 20th April, 1997 (23)
Position: Leader, Main Vocalist
Height: 164cm/5'3¾"
Unit: Weki (Tall team)
Instagram

Leader Suyeon was the last member to be finalised in the lineup! She was so determined to debut that she didn't wear an ankle cast for a long-term injury so that her agency wouldn't think she'd be unable to do the debut promotions. Ji Suyeon is an expert mental mathmetician, and often gets tasked on variety shows with performing huge sums as quick as a calculator, and she always succeeds. She's been able to show off her vocals on programmes such as V-1 and King of Masked Singer. With Weki Meki's most recent comeback, she made her compositional debut by composing their synthwave B-Side, The Paradise.

ELLY

Name: Jung Haerim
DOB: 20th July, 1998 (22)
Position: Vocal
Height: 161cm/5'2¾"
Unit: Meki (Small team)
Instagram

Elly was one of the original Produce 101 contestants, one of the first batch of Weki Meki members promoted to the wider public. She placed 47th, and made it through several rounds of performances, lending her sweet voice to I Don't Know (where she unfairly received negative reactions for being picked as center over eventual IOI member Kyulkyung) and Me Gustas Tu. While initially overshadowed by the need to promote the IOI members and their main vocal, Elly quickly climbed back up the line distribution ranking and now shares joint chorus duty with Suyeon. She even did a solo OST! Most recently she's become famous as Loona Yves' number one fan.

YOOJUNG

Name: Choi Yoojung
DOB: 20th November 1998 (21)
Position: Main Dancer, Main Rapper
Height: 157cm (5'1½")
Unit: Meki (small team)
Instagram

Yoojung is one half of Dodaeng, the two Fantagio trainees who made it into IOI, the debut group from Produce 101. Yoojung is another unique part of kpop's history of tiny firecrackers, famed for her energetic dance covers of boy group songs in particular, as well as her natural comedic personality that makes her a regular on variety shows. As far as performance talent goes, Yoojung is one of the most well-rounded idols out there. Beyond dancing, she excels at rapping as well as singing. Unsurprisingly, she's one of the mood makers of Weki Meki, with a seemingly infinite supply of energy.

DOYEON

Name: Kim Doyeon
DOB: 4th December 1999 (20)
Position: Dance, Vocal, Visual
Height: 173cm (5'6¾")
Unit: Weki (tall team)
Instagram

Doyeon is the other half of Dodaeng; when her profile picture for Produce 101 was released she was already immediately tagged as a potential for the debut group with visuals alone, so what a good thing then that she comes armed with an incredible stage presence, excellent dance ability and a sweet but skilfull voice to top it all off with? Since Produce 101 Doyeon has continued a consistent pictorial/modelling career on the side, and has by far the most popular fancams. She's also one of the tallest currently-promoting idols, which makes her chemistry with Yoojung all that more appealing to fans, and together with Lucy she's known as one of the 'twin towers' of the group. She's also very charming, confident and witty, making her another popular cast for variety shows.

SEI

Name: Lee Seojung
DOB: 7th January 2000 (20)
Position: Vocal, Rapper
Height: 163cm (5'3)
Unit: Meki (small team)
Instagram

Sei was another Produce 101 contestant, only she competed under LOUDers and moved to Fantagio soon after the programme ended. Sei has a sweet, childish, but well-controlled voice, with a surprising amount of force in her rap. She can play the guitar. In Weki Meki she's now primarily a vocalist, filling in a lot of verse parts and post-choruses with her naturally energetic voice. Sei is another gag character, in a similar way to Dara from 2NE1 in that 50% of it is on purpose, and 50% of it is entirely unintentional, but always very sweet and endearing. She's repsonsible for the most iconic ending fairy there has ever been, ending fairies are now cancelled, no one could compare. Sei might not be the loudest or the most prominent on stage, but she's one of the hearts of the group.

LUA

Name: Kim Sookyung
DOB: 6th October 2000 (19)
Position: Main Dancer, Vocal, Rapper
Height: 166cm (5'4½)
Unit: Weki (tall team)
Instagram

Lua, owner of the cutest dimples in the world, elmo lookalike, and secret musical theatre nerd, is the latest to join CLC's Yeeun in the 'cuts hair short, ascends to visual godhood' club. Lua, along with Lucy, has been with Fantagio for the longest time prior to debut. She's another one of the moodmakers in the group, bringing her own brand of never-ending energy and chaos to the team. Another idol that would typically get 'where are her lines?!' comments on every comeback, Lua has recently been given a bit more time to shine on their lead singles, and was also given her own solo dance intro for Weki Meki's stage at Dream Concert. With all the members recently getting their own instagrams, Lua has been the most interactive with her fans, replying in a mix of Korean and also English.

RINA

Name: Kang Soeun
DOB: 27th September, 2001 (18)
Position: Vocal, Dance, Rap
Height: 161cm (5'2¾")
Unit: Meki (small team)

Rina (our very own squirtle lookalike, someone get JR over here for a family photoshoot) is our quiet artsy type. Predebut, she was part of a dance group called NYDANCE, and a lot of their covers featuring her are still online. Rina likes more insular hobbies such as drawing, and her favourite films are Studio Ghibli films. So far the maknae line don't have their own instagrams, but you can be sure hers will propably be super #aesthetic. Rina trained for a year at the company prior to debut, but her confident has blossomed over the years and she's found her stage presence as she's got older. She gets a lot more lines now too, typically on the verses, and sometimes in the bridge, and has moved away from any rap lines.

LUCY

Name: Noh Hyojung
DOB: 31st August 2002 (17)
Position: Dance, Rap, Vocal, Maknae
Height: 169cm (5'5½")
Unit: Weki (tall team)

Incredibly, maknae Lucy will only finally turn eighteen at the end of this month. She was fourteen when they debuted, turning fifteen during debut promotions, and her listed height is her debut profile height, which a lot of the fandom think is no longer accurate. Lucy is the final member of the troublemaker trio, Yoojung, Lua and Lucy, the mood makers of the group. She's been at Fantagio the longest despite being the youngest. It's interesting to think of an alternative timeline where the entire original Fantagio trainee lineup goes on Produce 101. Lucy's special variety skill is breaking an apple in half, which somehow never fails to impress people. She was scouted for acting, and has expressed hopes that now she's a little older, she'll finally be able to dip her toe into the business. She's been gaining attention for her maturing visuals, and has massively benefitted from Fantagio slowly evening out the line distribution, finally getting to stand out on stage.

Full Group; 180222 'La La La' @ MCountdown

Suyeon - 190516 Picky Picky @ MCountdown

Elly - 200223 'Dazzle Dazzle' @ Inkigayo

Yoojung - 181018 'Crush' @ MCountdown

Doyeon - 170812 'I Don't Like Your Girlfriend' @ Music Core

Sei - 190822 Tiki Taka (99%) @ MCountdown

Lua - 200619 'Oopsy' @ Music Bank

Rina - 200227 'Dazze Dazzle' @ MCountdown

Lucy - 200618 'Oopsy' @ MCountdown

Say My Name (Destiny's Child)/Rude Boy (Rihanna)

WTF (Missy Elliott) (Pre-Debut)

One More Time (Jewelry)

A Whole New World (Aladdin OST) - Suyeon & ASTRO Sanha

Y Si Fuera Ella (Alejandro Sanz/Kim Jonghyun) - Suyeon Solo @ V-1

"Thanks adenar, I really want to get to know the members, is there anywhere I can find a list of things to watch?" don't worry! GreenLuma over at reddit has you sorted. Happy watching!

omona, what's your favourite weki meki content? favourite members? favourite eras? favourite performances? favourite ridiculous variety show moments?

source: thalia prima, rosiy, loonatwice, seolhyejeong (2), somin, everqlow (2), kgoddesses, painepentaghast, M2 (2, 3, 4, 5, 6), 스브스케이팝 / SBS KPOP, MBC World, KBS Kpop, WekiMeki 위키미키 (2), JTBC Entertainment, Mnet K-Pop, tvN

Comments

[giriboy.livejournal.com]

i didn't know lucy debuted so young! i never really paid attention to them at the start (and still don't really like their older title tracks... sorry idlygf)

i love a lot of their b-sides, tho. their sound goes off the rails for their titles but their b-sides definitely are my more style, like a more throwback colorpop sound that i love




my fave members are def rina & lua, i ♥️ them both so much. i only really started paying attention to their perfs during picky picky, tho! and that's still my fave title from them, too

brb making a lua icon

[kyungwons.livejournal.com]

cute post op!

i've loved them since debut and i understand that their sound may not be for everyone but i'm still surprised they haven't hit it bigger yet.

for me their best variety is still their mohae videos and i really wish they had something more recent which had the same amount of content. they should have more variety opportunities in general cause for me thats their strength. loads of girl groups, through no fault of their own cause ggs are criticised far more easily for not acting perfect at all times, never really let go of their image but i've never seen this being a thing with weme either yoojung or elly is always acting over the top and elly in particular is deserving of more variety opportunities she's so funny.

i also think it deserves mentioning that some of their choreography is genuinely harder and more athletic than what a lot of boy groups are doing right now. i remember watching their dazzle dazzle dance practice and then a txt dance practice right after and noticing how much harder theirs was.

sadly they've also had their problematic incidents (https://twitter.com/soeunies/status/1229007506111975425) in the past so i also understand people choosing not to follow them for that reason.

overall though they're such fun and energetic people and they always give 100% for every performance and even if their titles are too noisy for some people they have great bsides like moya moya, metronome, iron boy and the paradise.

[myungung.livejournal.com]

thanks for this post OP! I did not know Lucy and Lua were confirmed so early in their careers, and considering they're like the younger ones. to think that the start of the group would be so dance heavy/focused. although Weki Meki's choreo is a little more complex than usual groups, I would really want them to do some dance heavy songs to showcase the number of good dancers they have.

I love their evolution, from focusing on DoDaeng and Suyeon, to now almost equal line distribution. I would have never thought that Elly was a lead vocalist at the start, and it's nice to see her taking the chorus and adlibs. their dynamic is adorable and they seem fun, so I can't wait for them to hit big, and I hope it'll be a steady rise for them.

also slight issue, I'm not too sure about the members age, but I believe that Yoojung is 99 liner with Doyeon!

[kyokomurasaki.livejournal.com]

I really loved The Paradise and I think it's a great sound for them Picky Picky and Tiki Taka probably have to be my favorite title tracks.