Australian Singer Who Was a K-pop Trainee in US Revealed Hellish Training

By
Jia Hui
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Anyone remember the hit song 爱你 from 2012?

This song now has 89 million views on YouTube!

It was sung by Australian singer Kimberley Chen, who’s now based in Taiwan.

More about her

When she was just 9, she played the role of young Nala in the musical The Lion King in Melbourne.

She then went on to perform in Shanghai.

Kimberley was coached by a world-famous conductor for 10 years.

When in Singapore doing an audition with an entertainment agency, someone suggested her to go for JYP Entertainment‘s global audition too.

For those of you who didn’t know, the Korean entertainment agency has brought up artists like 2PM, Wonder Girls , GOT7 and Twice.

So she went ahead with the audition, sang a Whitney Houston song and also showcased some dance moves.

The judges liked her, negotiated the contract for a year, and sent her to train in New York (because she speaks English).

While Kimberley was in the Big Apple, she had a very tight training schedule, like what most people would expect K-pop trainees to have.

This was her schedule, according to a recent interview.

1000-1200   dance

1200-1300   lunch

1300-1500   dance

1500-1800   singing

1800-1900   dinner

1900-2200   dance/sing

Slimming pills

She also said that during meal times, the company will give them five slimming pills to chuck down.

The recommended dosage is one pill per meal.

They wanted her to keep her weight at 38kg, which is far from possible for most girls nowadays.

Kimberley noted that she’ll have difficulties standing up after eating the pills, due to the overwhelming biological reactions.

She will feel very dizzy and her heart will beat very fast.

Breaking bones

During her dance lessons, Kimberley broke every single toe (not at the same time tho).

She explained that it is common for artiste to break their bones in order to grow taller.

This is because when bones are left to heal on its own, they will become longer to fill up the gap.

She did not visit the doctor because she had to continue to perform.

Thumbs up for her professionalism!

Here’s the rest of the interview:

強制吃減肥藥.腳趾頭斷掉 陳芳語揭密韓練習生辛酸

還記得《愛你》 陳芳語嗎　「一條龍」行程揭韓練習生辛酸 #長腿編：這也太辛苦了…社群新聞 許家驥 蕭雅文 採訪報導影片提供：Kimberley Chen；YT/1theK、ddloveaavideo；達志影像；索尼音樂；福斯#韓國 #Kimberley #練習生

Posted by 東森娛樂 on Monday, 22 January 2018

Venturing to Taiwan

Kimberley was with JYP Entertainment for about seven months, before she had the opportunity to develop her career in Taiwan.

Having grown up in Australia all her life, she struggled with the language barrier and often made a fool out of herself.

The 24-year-old singer struggled for a very long time and can now speak in Chinese fluently.

(More fluent than some of my colleagues I would say)

Kimberley has now released three albums in total, and also took part in song-writing every now and then.

Here are some of my personal favourite tracks:

Looking back, she’s still thankful that JYP put her through all the hardships and discipline.

I hope she has a bright future ahead!

Since you’re here, why not watch a video about a guy who lodged a Police report here in Singapore because he was friendzoned? Seriously. Here, watch it and do remember to share it (and also subscribe to Goody Feed YouTube channel)!

This article was first published on goodyfeed.com

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Featured image: YouTube

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Jia Hui
Email: [email protected]