Singer Son Tae-jin mentioned the prize money from his audition win.
On the 22nd, MBC’s ‘Radio Star’ featured guests Yoon Jong-shin, Kim Young-chul, Son Tae-jin, and Choi Sang-yeop.
On this day, Son Tae-jin introduced himself, saying, “I am indeed an addict to competitions and auditions. I won ‘Phantom Singer’ and ‘Burning Trotman’, and I am grateful to be hosting ‘Son Tae-jin’s Trot Radio’ since last year.”
Son Tae-jin sparked curiosity by saying that he was scammed by Yoon Jong-shin, who is from the same agency. He said, “It was groundbreaking that ‘Phantom Singer’ brought together various genres into a quartet. I sang Kim Dong-ryul’s ‘Old Song’ in the preliminaries, and after that, I had a separate meeting with (Yoon Jong-shin). He started talking about contracts and said he would create a ‘second Kim Dong-ryul’. So, I trusted only Yoon Jong-shin and joined the agency.”
He continued, “However, Yoon Jong-shin’s interests shifted faster than I expected. At that time, he was really into ‘Phantom Singer’, but then ‘Super Band’ came out, and he got into bands. I remember feeling like a duckweed in the Nakdong River,” he joked.
After joining Yoon Jong-shin’s agency, Son Tae-jin said the genre changed, stating, “I received a lot of love in classical music. I thought I had to keep working hard, but I hit a wall. Since it was foreign songs, the entry barrier was high. Later, I heard that a trot audition was coming up, so I discussed it with the company.”
When Yoon Jong-shin said, “Son Tae-jin hesitated a lot at first. I had to persuade him a lot,” Son Tae-jin recalled, “I thought, ‘I can find my own music too,’ and decided to participate in the audition. But as expected, there were many reactions saying that my operatic singing was unfamiliar.” He added, “But rather than imitating other singers during the audition, I thought I would maintain my own color while incorporating operatic elements. That shone through and received a lot of support from many people.”
In particular, Son Tae-jin drew attention by stating that he received 630 million won in prize money for winning ‘Burning Trotman’. He said, “After taxes, I received about 400 million won. At that time, I moved from a semi-jeonse to a jeonse. Since it wasn’t originally my money, I also donated some.”
[Lee Se-bin, Star Today Guest Reporter]
