HyunA and E’dawn

Hailey Cutter

https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/entertainment/cube-entertainment-withdraws-decision-to-expel-hyuna-after-public-backlash

Singapore Press

Over the recent months, rumors of solo artist HyunA and boyband member, E’dawn, (

both under Cube Entertainment,) dating have been circling around, but Cube denied all accusations. Even knowing that this could get her into extreme trouble with her agency, and even fired, HyunA took matters into her own hands, deciding that it was only right to be honest with her and E’dawn’s fans. HyunA posted to her 7.9 million followers on Instagram on August 3^rd, admitting that the two them have been together for two years so far, and the news quickly spread. The next day after HyunA’s confession, Cube cancelled all upcoming performances, fan events, promotions, and on-air appearances for both of them.

                 

In the Western countries, celebrity’s dating lives and that sort of drama is usually a pretty hot topic, but it isn’t that way in South Korea. There, artists often sign contracts that they must follow that include not being allowed to date and limited public exposure of their everyday lives. It may be hard for some people to wrap their head around this concept, but it is very expecting in South Korea and many other Asian counties. In the public eye, they are often viewed as perfect and also have to accommodate to the high expectations of the public.

                  On September 11^th, Pentagon released a mini album, thumbs up, that E’dawn was not allowed to promote. A song included in the album called “Just Do It Yo” is believed to be directed to E’dawn. At a fan-signing, (that E’dawn was not allowed to go to and later apologized for) a member of the group was asked what the song was about. He started to explain, trying to be discrete about the situation, but then became emotional and handed the microphone to a different member.

                  On September 13^th Cube came to the decision to remove both of the artists from their label, stating “After much deliberation, we’ve concluded that the trust between the company and the artists had damaged to the degree that it cannot be restored, leading us to believe expulsion is necessary,” For their decision, Cube received loads of public backlash and an extreme stock price percentage drop of 6.57 in only one day. On Cube’s Instagram, the comment section was filled with tons of angry and upset fans saying that they have lost respect for Cube entertainment. After the losses that the company faced, they officially retracted their statement the next day, allowing the two individuals back into their label.

                  Personally, I am a fan of Pentagon and HyunA, so when I was made aware of their potential removal, I was very upset. HyunA is Cube’s most successful act and makes the company the most money out of everyone and E’dawn is the face of pentagon, so to me, this was very unexpected.  Something that I also found annoying was that the agency was using their contract against them. Although they did sign a contract saying that they wouldn’t date, Cube was aware of the two dating but didn’t do anything about it until it became aware to the public. I believe this is inappropriate because the agency can’t just decide to enforce the contract when they find it necessary, they have to follow it all the time. Although HyunA and E’dawn did not follow the contract in the first place, Cube Entertainment did nothing about it, which is seen to be very unprofessional.

I also believe that the whole contact isn’t okay to begin with. Artist should be able to have their own personal life outside of their celebrity one, and they shouldn’t be held up to such high expectations, because they are people too. I believe that this situation will have a big impact on the K-pop industry and other relationships will start to pop up more often. I’m very jubilant that the two now again are able to promote themselves and I hope that this situation does not disquiet anyone anymore and we’ll all be able to move on.