WINNER

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Aw I miss writing here. Hi, long time no see! I'll try my best to write without feeling scared or upset over what people would think like in other social networks because unlike the others, I actually own this page, this is my blog and people come here to see what I post.

This post is 6-months late hahahah I mentioned that I plan to write about WINNER since last year but it just slipped my mind I guess.

Winner's performance last December for MAMA in Hong Kong.

I don't know if I can be called as being late to this fandom or what because it was already a large fandom since a year before their debut. 

If you're a K-Pop fan you might have seen their names popping out everywhere; they won against SM Ent. Red Velvet and JYP Ent. Got7 as the Best Newcomer for various award shows, with them being the latest to debut out of the rest last year. You might have wondered, who are they? What's the big fuss with them? (which were questions I wondered mysef before this).

Let's start with the survival show WIN : Who Is Next in 2013. When SM has so many boygroups (TVXQ, SuJu, SHINee, EXO) and girlgroups (SNSD, f(x)) by then, JYP too (2PM, 2AM, Miss A, Wonder Girls), YG Entertainment only had TWO groups - Big Bang and 2NE1, the former debuted EIGHT YEARS ago and the latter debuting four years later. In this show, among two teams of trainees of YG Entertainment who has trained for years, they will compete so that only one team will debut as the WINNER (Who Is Next, WIN, WINNER, get it?). Kind of cruel. To think that some of them are young boys who quitted school at such a young age to become idols and not being able to debut at all after years of training is sad.

There was Team A with five members and Team B with six members. The average age for Team A members is 20-ish years old while in Team B the average age is 18? So.. imagine if Team A lost, they'll have to wait another four years and by that time they probably will have to go to the military. In the end, Team A won and became the WINNER we know today. Here's a brief description of the members:

Kang Seungyoon/Leader Kang/KSY/Seungyoon/Yoon

Second youngest in the group, leader, main vocalist, writes and makes most of WINNER's songs. He replaced Mino as the leader during WIN after he got injured and became the leader since. I ship him with Taehyun hurhur. He was in this competition called Superstar K years before and got a high ranking and became reaaalllyy popular but then he entered YG where as people say, he was 'locked in the YG dungeon', with no news of him for years and then boom he's in WIN. They call him Zico's twin, he's also friends with A-Pink's Eunji and SHINee's Key. Know him by his thick lips teehee. He nags a lot hahaha. Plays guitar, can be in a band too tbh.

Lee Seunghoon/Seunghoon/Baby Lion (lol)/Hoon

 Rapper and choregrapher in WINNER. He's very funny and hyper. He was from the first season of K-Pop Star (with Lee Hayi and Junhoe). When he was eliminated in that show CEO Yang actually cried. He dances really really well but he gets injured because of it too at times sigh. He has the longest legs haahhaha.

Kim Jinwoo/Jinwoo

The oldest but the youngest looking wth. People who dislike YG is attracted to Winner because of his handsomeness, and people call him "the SM-looking/Japanese actor-looking guy". It's hard to believe but he is born with that face. He was born in an island, a fisherman's son. He trained the longest in YG, is very clueless most of the time and loses his way a lot. I ship him with Mino. Know him by his BIG O_O eyes. (Aisyatul wants me to write that I ship him with her here there u go)

Nam Taehyun/Taehyun/Namtae

 This man is the youngest in WINNER. He is famous for his 50:50 middle hair parting and his drooping eyebrows. His voice is.. is.. angelic.. Can be very weird. Looks really pretty as a girl. When he first auditioned for YG, people thought he was gay so he cut his hair and changed his singing style because of that :/ Most of the songs in WINNER's first album is made or written by him too, since YG likes his music. He's also my favorite in WINNER hurhurhur. People either ship him with Seungyoon or Mino. p.s: some of you might not know but he's half-deaf, he can't hear with his left (?) ear I think after working and listening hard in the middle of WIN. Yet he still makes good music.

Song Minho/Mino/Hugeboy (pfft)

Main rapper. During WIN, he was the original leader and judges commented that among the other rappers B.I, Bobby (who won SMTM 3) and Seunghoon, he was the best. Makes WINNER's music too. His face resembles G-Dragon and Taeyang somehow. Very good friends with Block B members especially Zico and Kyung as he was a part of that group before. Probably the most popular member? His thick eyebrows are legendary.

Please watch this short video of each of them doing a solo performance which showcases each of their talents for Melon Music Awards last year (don't be too dazed by Jinwoo and Mino pls):

from beginning: Seunghoon, Jinwoo, Taehyun, Seungyoon, Mino.

ok enough with the formalities so how did i found out about them well in 2013 when WIN started i saw people tweeting about it and i checked out their profiles but didn't remember anyone except for b.i and bobby and yeah i was indifferent about them winning yela zaman focus for pmr right. then they came to malaysia last year in may and i still was like o k wutever. 

THEN. DUN DUN DUN. I was on Youtube one night waiting for BTS's Danger MV to come out and after watching it, I saw my timeline exploding with tweets about WINNER's newly released MV, Mino here, Mino there, at the same time so I was like ok I'll check it out. My first thought was that they look weird soz and I thought Taehyun looked like Hong Jonghyun in 2NE1's Falling In Love MV. I didn't care about them much but the DARADATDATDATDATDATDATBABYDONTWORRY part got stuck in my head for the next few days so catchy o k.

Watched some of their first live performances and I'm sorry but those thigh-length shorts were hideous aurat tu ok. Sometime during August test while resting/procrastinating I watched the video of 2NE1 visiting WINNER's dorm and Jinwoo singing Who You to GD and I thought hey they're funny ok let's stalk them after the test. And I did. Watched WINNER TV haih so funny I liked Taehyun from the start and when I saw everyone commenting about Mino instead I was like o k. I didn't plan to watch WIN because it looked very stressful and scary, but then as a deprived fan I watched videos of Taehyun singing in WIN. One thing led to another- I watched Team A's performance videos and scoffed at Team B's ones (sorry) and watched WIN in the end. I got anxious for Team A, got emotional with the harsh treatment they got annndd like everyone else, I cried during Team B's Climax. It took me three times to watch it without bawling over ok. But yeahh, the look of disappointment was obvious in YG when Team A was announced as the winner. The post-WIN feels stayed with me for more than a month, I was singing their songs in school, writing it in my notebook etc. Here's some pictures from my notebook:

Started following their activities after that. Before them, I never listen to full albums (except for EXO's, but I listen to their songs separately on Youtube) but I would play S/S 2014 while doing my homework ^_^ Don't Flirt was my favorite song and I got so excited when they would promote that song at that time too. Watched the live airing of them in Weekly Idol online when it came out and I laughed along even without subtitles lol iT'S SO RARE TO SEE YG ARTISTS NOWADAYS BEING SO SOCIAL AND GUESTING SHOWS O K. Most of the time I was facepalming and throwing the pillow on the screen because RUINED IMAGES AHAHHA. Watched the live streaming of Melon Music Awards online for them too and yeah gotta admit that their performance was too long and I felt bad as the other fandoms were angry. Not that I didn't enjoy it though teehee. Was weeping when Taehyun hugged the girl. Didn't get to watch MAMA 2014 live because I was in Turkey and the time difference.. yeah.. but when I was supposed to be asleep at my foster family's house I was watching the whole thing and although their performance was short, it was impactful and emotional ok. Mino really was the highlight with his reactions and his performances with Epik High and IU. During SBS Gayo Daejun, I missed their performance by a few minutes but my timeline was flooded with gifs of Taehyun x Wendy and Mino x Irene. HAVING SO MANY FEELS TO SEE ROOKIES OF YG, SM, JYP AND WOOLLIM COLLABORATING OK PLS PERFORM TOGETHER MORE. Their outfits and their Empty performance though.. why.. 

I would like to thank my friends who became Inner Circles (their fandom name dON't Judge!!) and watched WIN/WINNERTV too, Ihdini, Zhee Qi, Aisyah, Aisyatul, Valvet and Maryam :D Thank you for fangirling with me and getting embarrassed together over the stuff they do especially now during WWIC. I actually made a WINNER Starter Pack for some of them last year hahahahah it's the must-watch videos for new fans:

WINNER STARTER PACK

 

Here are some of my favorite videos of them:

WINNER's The Heirs Parody

SO HILARIOUS HAHAHHA how can two guys look prettier than the rest of the female population tho. There are few inside jokes here and there related to the previous episodes of WINNER TV but it's still super entertaining if you haven't watched it!

WINNER's cover of 2NE1's Missing You (MR Removed)

I once told a close friend of mine about WINNER and she told me "oh I saw them on the TV once. They can't sing." so I showed her this video and she took back her words hahaha. They covered the song so beautifully and I get goosebumps at Taehyun's singing parts. Listen to it!!

WINNER - Intro in Style Icon Awards

They look so so good in black. I might've mistaken them as models in the beginning. Loved the intro so much, the music is so cool (sounds like Taehyun/Mino's creation) especially with Taehyun's voice going W I DOUBLE N E R and Mino's voice booming "You can dress like me. Never." Such a great entrance. Empty was normal though.

Aaanndd, that's all for now. Please support them and ahdhdjkskl can't wait for their comeback. Thank you for taking your time to read this!

p.s do anticipate my next post about ikon