Park Seo-jin, who ranked first in 'Current King of Singers 2', announced plans to donate the prize money of 100 million won.
At the press conference for the top 7 of MBN's 'Current King of Singers 2' held on the 12th at Nuri Dream Square in Sangam-dong, Seoul, Park Seo-jin expressed, "Since this is my first time being first, I still can't believe it. I think I need to think about how to lead from here on out."
After the announcement of his first place, Park Seo-jin shared that he first video-called his parents, saying, "'Now that I see you really succeeded, I have no regrets even if I die' were the frightening words they said. I also heard that my parents distributed a lot of rice cakes in Samcheok the next day," adding some behind-the-scenes details.
Park Seo-jin, who was brought into the competition midway along with Shin Yoo, mentioned the controversy over fairness and expressed the weight of the first-place crown. "When it was just (Jin) Hae-seong and me left, I thought to myself, 'I just hope it's not me,' but after becoming first, I had more thoughts of 'Oh no, this is a big deal' than joy," he candidly shared, "I was thinking about how to bear this heavy weight."
He continued, "I think I became first thanks to the many votes from the public. Since I showcased something Korean on stage, I thought that when I go to Japan, I could promote it well, which might have led to the increased votes."
Regarding the prize money of 100 million won, Park Seo-jin said, "There was a controversy over fairness, but since I became the king through the choice of many people, I thought about 'how can I give back the love?' I believe donating the prize money is the right thing to do. I plan to donate after taxes, and as promised, I will also buy beef for the top 7 members," he added with a smile.
In the final broadcast of 'Current King of Singers 2' aired on the 25th of last month, Park Seo-jin was ranked first, Jin Hae-seong second, and Enok third.
The total score for the final was 5000 points, calculated by combining scores from on-site voting (44% from the first and second rounds), national support voting (10% with differential scoring from second place), new song streaming (6% with differential scoring from second place), and real-time text voting (40% with proportional scoring from second place). Notably, the 'real-time text voting', which accounted for 40% of the total score, determined the final rankings.
