The songs of singers representing Korea and Japan have begun the ‘Korea-Japan match’.
The MBN entertainment program ‘2025 Korea-Japan King of Singers’, which aired for the first time on the 2nd, is a music competition featuring the top 7 trot representatives from Korea and Japan.
This broadcast was organized to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Korea-Japan diplomatic relations, featuring the top 7 from MBN's competition program ‘Current King of Singers’ and the top 7 from ‘Current King of Singers Japan’ competing as national representatives in a battle of pride.
The Korean team consists of Park Seo-jin, Jin Hae-sung, Enok, Shin Seung-tae, Kim Jun-su, Choi Soo-ho, and Kang Moon-kyung, while the Japanese team includes Takenaka Yudai, Masaya, Takuya, Juni, Shu, Kimoto Shinnosuke, and Shin.
As a fateful rivalry match that ignites passion like no other sport, attention was drawn to who would emerge victorious in this competition. MC Shin Dong-yeop expressed curiosity, saying, “Last year, the Korean team won the ‘Korea-Japan King of Singers’. If the Korean team wins again this year, it will be a two-time victory, and if Japan wins, it will be a chance for revenge.” Lin, who participated last year and is now a judge, explained, “I barely won last year,” while Daesung remarked, “It’s not easy to win.”
The Korean team declared, “We will make you cry,” “In the Korea-Japan match, we were told not to lose even in rock-paper-scissors. We cannot lose in singing,” “It must have been tough to come such a long way, so we will let you rest well,” and “Japanese TOP7, be prepared,” showing their competitive spirit. The Japanese team responded, “In soccer, baseball, and singing, isn’t Japan strong? We will surprise Korea,” “No matter what happens, we will win,” “We will definitely beat Korea, a hundred times a hundred victories,” “Last time we lost to Korea, but this time we will win,” and “We will show a different level,” expressing their determination not to lose.
This Korea-Japan match will be conducted in a way that the team that wins two out of three matches first will be crowned the final champion.
Winning in the preliminary round gives a benefit of starting the main competition with 1 point. The preliminary round is a ranking exploration where each country's representative TOP7 teams determine their rankings and face off against teams of the same rank. The 1st place teams will compete against each other, and the 7th place teams will face off as well. The evaluation will be determined by votes from the audience panel present, rather than judges.
Judge Seol Woon-do expressed curiosity about the outcome, saying, “The Japanese team is very young. In our country, younger participants tend to receive higher scores, so I’m worried.”
In the first match, 7th place Kang Moon-kyung and Shin faced off with Kim Soo-hee’s ‘Who Are You’ and Hashi Yukio’s ‘Fate’. Shin captivated the audience by singing in Korean from the middle of the song and won.
In 6th place were the youngest members from both countries, Choi Soo-ho and Kimoto Shinnosuke. They competed with Gu Chang-mo’s ‘Wandering’ and The Checkers’ ‘Tears Request’, with victory going to Choi Soo-ho.
The match between Kim Jun-su and Shu ended with Shu’s victory, while Shin Seung-tae won against Juni. Masaya won against Jin Hae-sung by a margin of 42 points.
With Japan leading 2 to 3, the top representatives from both countries, Park Seo-jin and Yudai, selected ‘Set Sail’ and ‘Walking with You’, respectively. The powerful performances of each team’s top representatives captured attention, leaving viewers curious about which team would win as the results were not yet revealed.
The competition of the TOP7 representing each country. Last year’s season 1 ended with a victory for Korea in the women’s singers’ Korea-Japan match. It remains to be seen whether Korea will secure victory again this year or if Japan will achieve revenge.
‘Korea-Japan King of Singers’ airs every Tuesday at 9:50 PM on MBN.
[Kim So-yeon, Star Today Reporter]
