#universeticket — Public Fediverse posts

In the next episode of #UniverseTicket #유니버스티켓 the contestants will have a chance to vote for the person they want to be eliminated.

As this is a talent survival show, they finally reached the point where they can upset the judges, the investors, and the fans.

How?

Currently, it is already obvious who will take the first 5 slots:
1. Elisia 🇵🇭 center, one top, all-rounder
2. Kotoko 🇯🇵 main dancer, main visual
3. Gehlee 🇵🇭 main vocals, visual
4. Nana 🇯🇵 lead vocals, visual
5. Seonwon 🇰🇷

And then there are 4 contenders for the remaining 3 slots:
a. Hyeon-ju 🇵🇭🇰🇷 leader, choreographer, lead dancer, vocals
b. Narumi 🇯🇵
c. Nizi 🇯🇵
d. (I can't recall her name)

There are currently a total of 24 contestants and only 8 will debut.

When it comes to fan voting, at least 3 people above are always ranking in the Top 8.

That leaves everyone desperate, and will, more likely than not, vote for the favourites to get eliminated. Which is understandable and not wrong.

It is not clear if contestant voting has the same power as the judges, that is, immediate elimination. If it is the same, and the judges are not given veto power, then it can definitely upset everyone.

We can only hope that the contestants, with low fan votes and/or low chance of getting the attention of the judges, would at least vote fairly. This would be their last act to show that they recognise talent and skills, and they know their own limitations and room for improvements.

You see, if they vote for anything but talent and skills, and if they continually project an image that they're the best, even if they win, the investors and agencies wouldn't give them chances after their 2.5 years contract ends. The investors and agencies would more likely hunt down those they voted for elimination, barring contractual obligations.

Whenever contestants are given the opportunity to:
* rate/vote themselves
* rate/vote the other contestants

There are a lot of things that people can learn from it. Some of it are (in this competition's context):
* Do you truly know yourself, or you're blind and/or boastful?
* How do you value yourself and others?
* Are you in it for the team (remember, they'll debut as an 8-member group)? Or, you just want to win as an individual, so you can debut solo later?
* Will you become a team player? Or, going to be a headache?

They can debut in this new girl group, but it doesn't mean their career is sealed. They only have a 2.5-year contract as a girl group from this competition, after that, it's a matter of if an agency will take you in or not.

These girls are probably not aware that their attitude will be exposed with the way they're going to vote.

So, I hope, they do well and vote fair, based on talent and skills, not because eliminating a contestant will give them a higher chance of winning.

If you are from #Korea #한국 and you're wondering why a powerful talent like #Elisia is trying to debut in the #Kpop industry, there are a lot of reasons and some of it are the following based on my own observations.

(in no particular order)

1. No opportunities.
2. The idol industry is still in its infancy, even though it has been around for more than 10 years.
3. It is very hard to promote talents.

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NOTE: This is my own analysis of the situation.

I. The P-pop industry

The Pilipino Pop (a.k.a. #Ppop) industry is focused on bands and solo singers. In the “solo singer” category, one has to have gone through an intensive proper singing lessons, or born with the talent in singing. One can probably say that this became unwritten criteria because Filipinos are generally great singers.

Let's face it. Before #Jpop and #Kpop became popular abroad, P-pop was already making waves, it just wasn't called “P-pop” (Pilipino Pop or Pilipino Popular Music). Also, the subclassification #OPM (Original Pilipino Music) was pushed in the 80s and became more used as a label for anything Filipino music (even though it was not “original”). There were also a lot of P-pop which topped the charts in #Japan and Korea; and many of those were also translated in Japanese and Korean languages.

This made the P-pop industry very competitive, to the point that, talent agencies will only give an opportunity to those who had proper singing lessons from reputable schools and/or well-established mentors. Then the 1997 economic crash and the dotCom bubble crash happened, many talent agencies closed, and investors after those only want to invest if there's a very high guarantee of success.

Talents like #Elisia, #GehleeDangca, and #AyaNatsumi (all from the Philippines) have no choice but to try to debut in the K-pop industry because there, they have a better chance (as compared here in the Philippines) to be recognised.

II. Projects and promotions.

The Philippine entertainment industry is dominated (if not controlled) by only two networks: GMA and ABS-CBN. If you are promoting in other local networks, it won't look good for the investors. The problem is, these two big networks almost always get what they want: exclusivity. And if you do sign to be exclusive to either of them, there is no guarantee they'll give you exposure and projects. After all, they already have a lot of talents under their own labels, and you are from a label they do not have a majority shares.

Even if a talent signed for the labels under these two networks, there is still no guarantee. They have far too many talents signed, but they can not produce enough projects for even half of them.

There are 110 million Filipinos in the Philippines, compare that to the 52 million Koreans in South Korea. Yet, there are far more talent agencies in Korea than the Philippines, and talents from different agencies can appear in any Korean network; which you rarely can do in the Philippines.

For example, talents from agencies not under GMA or ABS-CBN rarely appear in music shows produced by GMA and ABS-CBN unless they signed an exclusive deal with them. If you are a producer, and you want to produce a music show where anyone can be invited, they won't allow it. Or, if they'll allow it, the labels won't allow their talents to appear in the show (because they either signed an exclusive deal already, or planning to).

III. Conclusion

So, think about it. How can talented Filipinos have a chance in the P-pop industry if the industry itself is gatekeeping it? No wonder the Philippine idol industry is still in its infancy even after more than 10 years has passed.

Talented Filipinos, like Elisia (who is receiving the highest praises from the judges of #UniverseTicket and K-pop producers), are targeting the K-pop industry. They have a fighting chance there to achieve their dreams. Even the Korean contestants started to see how different Elisia is.

Let's not forget #GehleeDangca. Her group did not win in their match, so only two from her group can earn the “Unicorn Ticket” (judges pick who will advance to the next round/level automatically). Gehlee was the second choice from their group.

If these two are so talented, why have they not debuted in the P-pop industry?

Well… #Philippines #필리핀

P.S. To the respectable Senator who complained about Filipinos focusing too much on foreign entertainment instead of local, the problem is not that Filipinos don't like local, we do, the problem is the industry. Instead of complaining, create laws that will make the industry better (like eliminating the improper use of exclusive contracts).

@pinoy @[email protected] @[email protected] @philippines