ZE:A’s Lee Hoo Going Against His Company?

 A few days ago, the leader of an idol group Lee Hoo decided to stick up for his team members. He wrote on his SNS that his company, Star Empire Entertainment wasn’t paying them what they deserve. He said that out of 10, the company takes seven and the nine members are left with three. They have to split the money from the remaining three, so if they were to make $100, the company would take $70 and the members are only left with $30, but they have to split the $30 nine ways, which will only leave them with $3.30 per person. When more and more people started to read what he wrote on his SNS, they bashed the company saying they deserve better and that they’re not treating their artists’ right. This issue spread instantly and became public on every Korean site.

The fans cheered him on wishing the best for the group and they became very angry with the company for treating their artist this way.   Everything was fine, but in less than 12 hours, Lee Hoo updated his SNS and wrote that everything worked out fine and he wrote about his love for the members and the company. This is when it got serious. People who have been cheering him on felt like they were used. If this problem was to be solved this quickly, from the beginning, it wasn’t necessary for him to post it online where everyone could see it. He should have thought about this issue more carefully and it should’ve been solved between the members and the company. But, because he made it public, it involved everyone, which is why people are now bashing him.

The foreigner fans do not understand this issue as much as Koreans, because they don’t understand everything he said, which is why they’re sticking up for him. Koreans think that he only brought up the issue to get people to support him, which would give him the power to possibly win against the company. His sentence structures were also very messy. At first he made the company and the CEO the bad guys, but less than 12 hours later, he posted another comment saying that everything has worked out and that he loves ZE:A and the company. It makes no sense that the problems were solved so quickly and if it was going to be this simple, why did he made it public? He could have just talked with the CEO and the problem could have been fixed just between them. And, if you haven’t noticed, none of the members have said anything about this, and they probably would have if this were such a big issue like the way Lee Hoo made it sound like, but it wasn’t.

He also talked about other companies and TV producers, which wasn’t necessary to get them involved, because they had nothing to do with this problem. Even though this issue is over now, because he mentioned other companies and TV producers, it might be hard for him to get future jobs in the entertainment industry because they will be afraid he will say things about them. I do give him credit for sticking up for the team, but this whole thing could have been easily solved if he’d talked with the company first before he made it into a big deal. I can’t imagine how the company felt hearing such news from the Internet.  They probably felt backstabbed or something. What people don’t understand about this issue is that it takes up to $3 to $10 million to produce a group and if you think about it, Star Empire isn’t that big of an entertainment company. So, for them to provide the groups with traveling, food, home, tour, etc., that would literally equal to 7 out of 10.

My point is that instead of complaining about it online, why not just go talk with the company and try to get the problem fixed?

—- Juyeon Oh