Red Velvet’s Yeri reveals she initially refused to join the group: “I won’t make a debut then”
Red Velvet member Yeri has revealed that she initially refused to join the girl group when asked to by her agency, SM Entertainment.
Three members of K-pop girl group Red Velvet – Yeri, Seulgi and Joy – recently guest starred on the South Korean YouTube talk show Zzanbro, which is hosted by comedian Shin Dong-yeob, per SBS Star.
During their appearance on the programme, Joy revealed how the fifth member of the group had “kept changing” during their training period, before the girl group debuted as a quartet in August 2014. Notably, Yeri was added to Red Velvet half a year later in February 2015.
“Yeri was supposed to debut as a centre in a new group with younger trainees more in line with her age. So she received training along with those trainees, not with us,” Joy added. “The group Yeri was supposed to be in had a culture and atmosphere that was completely different from ours.”
Yeri then opened up about how she initially did not want to join Red Velvet. “My loyalty to the friends I trained with was bigger than my desire to make a debut,” she recalled. “I told the company, ‘I won’t make a debut, then. I can switch to acting.’ I don’t know where that confidence came from.”
The K-pop star then explained that joining Red Velvet had “felt like betraying my friends” and not because she didn’t like her now-members. “I left school to focus on my training. To me, the people I trained with were like my school friends,” Yeri added.
Last month, Red Velvet released their latest mini-album ‘Cosmic’, which also commemorates the girl group’s tenth anniversary. The girl group also announced their upcoming 2024 ‘Happiness: My Dear, ReVe1uv’ Asia tour, featuring shows in Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and more.
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Puah Ziwei
NME
