so yeah the title kinda explains it all o u o;;
I attended the global auditions for smtown in Singapore just two days back on the 28 of March and I decided to create this blogpost to share with you guys and also hopefully clear some doubts about the audition process for those of you who are interested to join or have already applied and do not know what to expect.
im being lazy on a whole new level recently but I wrote this out just to help you guys
can you feel the love? e u e < 3 okno lets just get started-
so firstly, the application process.
you can skip this if you've already applied for the audition and you can go straight to the audition process which is the gist of it all.
but for those who do not know how to apply, I'll explain and walk you through the entire process - which may be a little bit long winded because I wanna help you guys be as clear about the applying process as possible.
firstly, go to smtown's website. https://www.smtown.com
I'll just give you the link for those of you who are too lazy cx
( switch to the pc version pls, for those of you who are in the mobile ver. )
firstly, you'll have to create an account. the advantages of creating an account and applying through the smtown website instead of using your email and sending your application is that you can click on the 'apply' button ( I'll explain where you'll be able to see this so called button later on ) once you have created an account and the application format as well as blanks you need to fill in will automatically appear in front of you so you won't have to type out the application format manually by yourself. this is especially for those of you who are lazy , like me .
then, click on the audition segment right at the top of the page, where all the other segments are at and click global auditions.
select the country that you are gonna be participating in and this is where the use of the 'apply' button comes in.
under the how to apply section where there's the rules and stuff and description of how to apply, there is a 'registration' section
scroll down and you'll be able to see the 'apply' button. click on it and tada~ the whole format of the for, appears for you with some sections already automatically input for you such as your name, age, email etc. ( if I didn't remember wrongly )
you just have to fill in the rest of the sections where it's marked as compulsory. I want all of you guys to take it seriously because once you've sent it out, there's no turning back. sment. doesn't allow people to resend their application if they've input their information wrongly and your application may be marked as spam or you may potentially be blacklisted if you do so. so please
DOUBLE AND TRIPLE CHECK ALL YOUR INFORMATION AND MAKE SURE THAT THERE'S NO MISTAKE WHATSOEVER THAT MAY POTENTIALLY RUIN YOUR CHANCES OF JOINING THE AUDITION. ALSO,PLEASE BE TRUTHFUL. DO NOT PUT IN ANY INFORMATION THAT IS FALSE. LIKE IF YOU AREN'T FLUENT IN KOREAN, PLEASE DO NOT TICK THE BOX THAT SAYS KOREAN IN THE LANGUAGES SECTION. AND ADD IN EVERY PIECE OF INFORMATION THAT IS COMPULSORY.
and now that you've checked and click sent, you just have to wait.
an automated confirmation email will be generated and sent to your email almost immediately, but that is not he actual email that allows you to have access to the audition. so don't go around jumping and screaming that sment has finally noticed you and wants you to be in their company or whatever. the actual email that you actually want to receive is the email that confirms your application as well as the venue and scheduled time of the audition. PLEASE DO NOT BE LATE.
another thing, if you apply the same day as your friend, that doesn't necessarily mean that you both get the same timeslot. the timeslots that are allocated are assigned at random. at least that's what I think.
if you're curious about the period of time you have to wait to receive the email, I'll just share mine with you.
i sent the application at around 22 or 23 February and I received my confirmation stating the timeslot and venue allocated like around two or three days later. and on the day itself, I received yet another email, a reconfirmation email. my friend however states that she didn't receive it, I wonder why though lol.
but it really varies. they sent me the confirmation really quick compared to the other applicants because I heard of others who sent their application in at around December and had to wait around two months plus before they received it. but that also doesn't mean that the later you send it the earlier you receive the confirmation though. my friend sent in his at around two days later than mine and he didn't get it until around two weeks later. and some didnt even receive their application on the day itself so they weren't able to go. so it's really up to you though, if you wanna send it earlier and wait or send it in later and risk it. smtown however, did state that they will allow applications up till ONE DAY before the audition. in my opinion, it does seem a little risky. so yeah
moving on to my audition experience
the most important part of this blogpost lmao
so, I arrived at the venue with a friend at around 3? if I didn't remember wrong haha
and my audition timeslot was at 4.
when we entered the building we were like kinda lost because we didn't know what to do and where to queue but we spotted this queue leading to the interior of the building and we practically just followed and joined the line like lost sheeps o v o
that line moved really fast and soon, we were inside the building. there was a staff standing at the door to maybe kinda direct people and answer any queries about the audition(?) anyways he was korean duh and he kinda resembled JUNHYUNG YEP SO I FREAKED OUT. NOT REALLY RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM THOUGH. I WAS JUST INTERNALLY FANGIRLING. DON'T JUDGE.
and me and my friend shared that gaze which meant 'I'm on the lookout for hot korean guys' BAHAHAHA XD
ok now I'm really off topic.
continuing--
the queue lead up to a flight of stairs to the upper floor and when we reached the front of the queue, there was a counter at the front where two staffs were giving out stickers which had our queue numbers on it and we were supposed to paste it on our left chest. and we were also given an application form that we had to fill in ( again. yep. ) we were then directed to the door of the waiting room which was actually right beside the counter.
so me and my friend inhaled sharply ( and a little bit too dramatically ) as we were preparing ourselves to see thousands of people buzzing around and practicing their dance moves or warming up their vocals. we counted 'hana, dul, set' before swinging open the door to see....
a dead silent room with everyone seated down, no movement and sound in the room except for the staff in front holding a mic to give instructions for us to take a seat in an empty spot.
we were both like whaaaat?
but it was probably because of the venue. it was held in a church. yep.
the waiting room was a hall inside the church.
holding an audition inside a church? that's a first for me ..
i kinda expected people to practice ya know? and everybody was so relaxed LOL
and while we were taking a seat, the staff in front suddenly mentioned something which made me freeze. like literally. on the spot. he said that we should pay attention or some thing like that because we never know when our numbers were gonna be called. which meant they wasn't following the sequence. ( but I'll explain more on that later like how many people are grouped in a batch. )
I WAS SHOCKED. THIS SEEMED LIKE SOME REALITY PROGRAM WITH AN ELEMENT OF DRAMA IN IT.
LIKE THAT REALLY GOT ME NERVOUS WHEN I WASNT REALLY THAT NERVOUS UNTIL THEY STARTED CALLING THE NUMBERS.
so anyways, there was a stage right in front of the hall and there was a huge screen that projected smtown artists' music videos ;
which you can guess, was majority EXO videos HAHHAHAHAAA. HA.
totally unexpected sm, TOTALLY UNEXPECTED.
but what kinda threw me off was that they didn't seem to bother playing videos with ex-members inside of it.
they played wolf ( Chinese & korean ver. ) which was soooo long ago lmao , growl, overdose ( chinese & korean ver. ) oh and miracles of December.
THAT MAKES IT SIX EXO VIDEOS.
OK SO F(X) HAD ONE, SHINEE HAD ONE, GIRL'S GENERATION HAD ONE, SUJU HAD TWO, JONGHYUN HAD ONE, KYUHYUN HAD ONE, HENRY HAD ONE, ZHANG LI YIN HAD ONE, BOA HAD TWO, ZHOUMI HAD TWO ( REPLAY - KOREAN AND CHINESE VER. ) AND RED VELVET HAD THREE. WHICH WAS ALMOST ALL OF THEIR MVS TBH ( HAPPINESS, BE NATURAL AND ICE CREAM CAKE )
WOW. OKAY. YOUR BIASNESS IS TOTALLY NOT BEING SHOWN SM. HA.
okay so it was already maybe 3.10pm when we got seated and we took out our pens to fill in our application form.
the application form was pretty much the same except that you had to include your school and ethnicity.
and AT THE BACK OF THE FORM, YES PLS REMEMBER TO TURN TO THE BACK. YOU HAVE TO SIGN THE BOTTOM WHERE IT STATES THAT YOU AGREE TO SOME TERMS AND CONDITIONS BEFORE YOU TAKE PART IN THE AUDITIONS. IT BASICALLY STATES THAT THEY CAN USE YOUR VIDEO FOR WHATSOEVER THEY DEEM FIT AND MAY EVEN RELEASE IT TO THE PUBLIC FOR PROMOTING PURPOSES ETC. THERE ARE ALSO A FEW OTHER CONDITIONS BUT I THINK THAT THE ONE I STATED ABOVE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT POINT ESPECIALLY IF YOU'RE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH RELEASING YOUR AUDITION CLIP TO THE PUBLIC. BUT OF COURSE IF YOU ARE AND YOU DON'T SIGN IT, THEY HAVE THE RIGHTS TO BAN YOU FROM THE AUDITIONS BECAUSE YOU WASTED THEIR TIME. THEY WILL ALSO PROBABLY PREVENT YOU FROM TAKING PART IN THE AUDITIONS IF YOU REFUSE TO SIGN IT.
okay another important point.
BRING A PEN / PENCIL TO FILL OUT YOUR APPLICATION FORM.
because the people behind us didn't bring one so they had to borrow from us, which tbh kinda made them seem unprepared.
the experience videos I watched really helped so I reccommend you to watch some of those as well, to get a better idea.
but since you have me, it's probably fine if you don't. ( /flips le hair . ) e u e
after filling out he application form, it was another long wait. we waited for like around three and a half hours btw. which was getting kinda boring because they had the same playlist all the way through and I think it replayed like three to four times. which made it annoying tbh expect for when Jonghyun and SHINee's mv played. especially jonghyun's. bcs ABS OH GLORIOUS ABS ( /slapped. )
no kidding, it made me calm down. ok maybe no because it probably made my heart beat faster. BUT I WAS DISTRACTED FOR LIKE THE THREE MINUTES THAT IT PLAYED.
anyways to split it up, it took us three hours and fifteen minutes of waiting in the waiting room and we were led up to a corridor on the highest floor ( I think ) where we waited for another fifteen minutes for the previous batch to be done with their auditions.
we probably waited longer than we should've because after around an hour or one and a half hour of waiting, they asked the dancers to sit in the center at front and cleared all the dancers first because majority were singers. like obviously. oh and I applied for singer btw forgot to mention that little detail haha.
they were supposed to go according to the numbers and there were around 20 people called up to the front at any one time etc. like from numbers 25670 - 25690. and the first 10 people would go up first and after awhile, the next 10 would go up. but apparently I guessed they just wanted to clear the dancers first, which tbh made me slightly disappointed bcs I wanted to see the dancers dance and I was curious to what kind of music they would play for them to freestyle to.
( yeah dancers are supposed to freestyle btw. if you didn't already know. ) so yeah don't ask me what kind of music they played because I honestly really wouldn't know haha my batch only had singers, and one model . A GUY
OMG THAT MADE ME REALLY SURPRISED ON SO MANY LEVELS. HE WAS THE ONLY MODEL I THINK I SAW THAT DAY.
and according to my friend, he was so awkward doing the modeling poses.
OMG WHAT WOULD I GIVE TO SEE THAT XDDD
when we led to the outside of the audition room that our batch was supposed to audition in, ( there are several rooms on that floor that were being used for the auditions to make everything faster perhaps. ) the staff told us to put our bags and take out our shoes and put it next to the wall. ( oh and he also further split the ten of us up into another two groups. a group of six, and a group of four. I have no idea why they did that lol but I think it was because there was not enough standing space in the room for all six of us to be standing in a line. and my friend happened to be in that group of four where they would audition later while I was in the group of six where we would audition first which is why I wasn't able to see her and that model guy audition lmao. ) and before we went in, he was also really nice though because he was like having all these little small talks with almost each one of us to keep us from being nervous. he also flipped through our application forms and asked us a few questions. he talked to me first which caught me off guard tbh. he was like ' oh we have a 01 liner here? I saw another girl that was a 05 liner' and he called out my name and was like you're the youngest in this batch which was pretty evident lmao. like almost everyone one else except my friend were either in their last year of high school or in college and some even already graduated. so if you're gonna shy away from this audition because you think your old. you thought wrong haha. just give it a shot, I mean I see no harm. he also asked me how I was feeling, if I was feeling nervous etc.
at that point in time, I was starting to be really nervous. because in the waiting room I was actually getting bored of all the waititng and I was actually HOPING for them to call our numbers because I was so bored and my phone was dying but now that I was RIGHT OUTSIDE the room and minutes before the audition, I was really starting to feel the pressure,but there wasn't a lot of time to dwell on it as soon after, we had to enter the room. surprisingly, was weird as it may seem, the moment I entered the room and saw the setting of the room, I was feeling a whole lot more relieved. the reason?
the room looked a whole lot more private than what I expected it to be. there was a judge ( well I wouldn't really call her a judge since she was just sitting there and gave us the cue when to start and to end. ) and there was another staff sitting in front of the camera where should would direct the camera to the person who would sing. ) so yeah the whole set up seemed a lot more personal and relaxed somehow. we then stood opposite of the judges, lined up against the backdrop where the poster of the global auditions was hung. we had to stand behind a line where each one of us would just take turns to sing. the group of four had to sit on the chairs at the side of the room. I was the last person of the group of six so after hearing the people in front of sing, I felt a lot more 'comforted' .
well.. let's just say that they weren't great singers. most of their voices werent controlled and kept what do you call that? uh wavering? like shaking? like they were going from one pitch to another pitch which made it sound kinda annoying. and also, the wrong song choice perhaps? this girl which didn't have such a strong voice sang ailee's 'I will show you' so yeah that was pretty inappropriate for her vocal range as well. and this girl who had this really cutesy voice sang grenade - Bruno Mars which got on my nerves tbh. most of them were probably not using their diaphragm to sing and were using their head voice which made their singing sound really thin and airy. so yeah again, if you ever feel like you aren't talented enough, just go really. it was just horrible like I don't feel my expectations can go any lower after hearing them sing. but the girl beside me was not bad though. she was using the proper breathing and her voice didn't waver and stuff. she was stable, unlike the rest. but I still wouldn't say that she had an amazing voice. it was just pretty average but I guess after hearing the people before her sing, she was considered good to me cx that was how bad it was. so don't ever feel like you're not enough. because there are tons of people out there that are far worse. I'm not kidding just so you guys can have confidence. I'm being serious. I expected everyone to have like some kind of ailee standard voice at the auditions which was why I was being kind of nervous. I wasn't nervous for auditioning, I was nervous that I would embarrass myself in front of all the 'good' singers. but I was let down I guess hoho.
and when it was my turn, i calmed myself down and made sure I was breathing properly, and deeply, using my diaphragm before I sang. I felt like I could have done better though, but I didn't regret going to the audition at all. it was overall, a really fun experience and I would certainly go again if there was another audition being held in Singapore.
oh and before I forget, after I sang, the so called judge thanked us and we bowed and thanked her as well and we had to leave the room. which is why I couldn't see the rest of the four audition so I had no idea how they did. but my friend told me that her group was worse than mine XD there was this girl that rapped in korean and my friend said she was reallly bad lol. but there was also this girl,that was kinda pretty but she her singing was worse than average according to what my friend told me and the judge let her sing for the full two minutes and even told her to step in front so that they could take a photo of her.
typical sm. always looking for looks before talent. HA.
anyways I highly encourage those of you who are contemplating if you should go or not to seriously go and give it a shot. take it as a meaningful experience , and a milestone for those of you dreaming to become idol singers. and as for those of you who are insecure about your appearance or your talent, don't be afraid to try out new things, get out of your comfort zone because trust me, you'll be proud of what you have achieved and even have fun in the process! and as I said, the people there aren't exceptionally talented , at least the people I encountered so you don't have to be so scared of going to try out.
and if you've already confirmed that you're attending, I wish you good luck and all the best!
if any of you have any enquiries or questions regarding the auditions or my experience, you can just comment down below and I'll try my very best to answer you if I can, and thanks for reading throughout this long post ;u; < 3
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