It’s no question that the K-Pop industry has been hailed as one of the most successful entertainment industries in the world. K-Pop idols and groups have fanbases all over the world, international media outlets cover their movements, and consistently top charts. With an industry that’s often under the microscope, it’s no secret that everyone wants to know what happens behind the scenes.

In the past few years, a number of former K-Pop idols have gone to social media to open up about their experiences of being in the industry. You have Tina (from Blady) and her Idol Insider YouTube series, as well as CLC’s Sorn in different interviews she’s done revealing what it’s like for non-Korean aspirants to break into the K-Pop world.

Most recently, MOMOLAND’s Daisy and her TikTok Q&A videos have gone viral on the platform. It started when she revealed why she became the rapper of the group, saying that when she was auditioning, she decided to rap Nicki Minaj’s “Superbass.” It eventually impressed the company officials because she could rap in English.

With that, check out some of her most surprising revelations below.

Some companies award trainees that lost the most weight in the group

Daisy started talking about her experiences as a K-Pop trainee and idol in January of this year on TikTok. In one of her first videos that went behind the scenes of the industry, she revealed that when she was a trainee at one of the entertainment companies she was in pre-MOMOLAND, the company held a year-end “awards ceremony” that was supposed to be more fun than their regular monthly evaluations.

“It was kinda giving year-end award show vibes,” she explained in her TikTok video. “It was less serious than other monthly evaluations. Because it was like an ‘award show,’ they gave out ‘awards,’ like these would be basically custom-made trophies that you can order online.”

“These awards were very unserious and like, light-hearted in spirit. The categories were like…the person who used the practice room the most, the person who improved the most…but the last category — I didn’t think anything of it at the time — I was like ‘oh, this is kinda weird.’ The last category was literally called the ‘diet award’ given to the person who lost the most weight. I get the company’s intention of rewarding hard work and I think that’s great. But I can’t seem to put my finger on why this rubbed off on me in the wrong way.”

She went on to say that it was a weird award to give, given that every trainee in the room was either middle-school aged, high-school aged, or were even young as 11 years old.

Line distribution depends on the producers

Daisy revealed in a later video in March of this year her experience of how parts in a song get distributed to the different members. In her experience, some producers will sit down with the members of the group and have each one sing parts of the first verse to the chorus to hear how everyone would sound like singing the song. Other times, the members would go into the recording booth to record the song as if they were doing it for real.

For producers that are already familiar with working with the group, Daisy explained that the producers already come in with a vision of the song and who would be singing each part. She even shared of one story she heard from another idol that they would intentionally mess up singing a part of a song so that they would be deemed as “unsuitable” to sing that part.

If there was a person that wouldn’t be able to execute their part in the song, some producers would have another member go to the booth and do the part for them, with sound engineers processing the result to make it sound like the original assigned member’s voice. Daisy went on to say that the reason they do that is just in case that the part was the only part of the original member in the song.

On how to answer questions for the media

One of the go-to questions South Korean media outlets ask idols is “what’s your ideal type?” According to Daisy’s video, self-profiles and public image training are part of the processes they go through when becoming idol trainees. On one instance, Daisy and her fellow trainees were given papers to fill out with different questions.

After they submitted their papers, Daisy said that a member of the entertainment company got mad about answers for the question about the ideal type. Most trainees answered physical indicators like they prefer those who are tall and the like. “One of the employees said that, ‘oh you can’t say that because it’s going to make people who aren’t tall feel bad,'” she said. “I was sitting there and thinking like, you can say that about literally anything else!”

She went on to say that the employee offered an alternative, which was to say “funny” or “kind” instead of other physical features.

Another instance she shared was that trainees were told to not say certain words or slang phrases when in public. Although she didn’t feel like she had to change her personality that much, she did mention that she had to appear “nicer” and “kinder.”

K-Pop skincare essential: Vitamin C serums

It’s no secret that K-Pop idols have near-perfect skin — spurring trends like “glass skin” or “dewy skin.” According to Daisy, one of the most effective and her go-to skincare essential are vitamin C serums. The serums help with her acne scars, discoloration, and more. She also shared that her idol skincare routine was composed of double cleansing (using two cleansers).

“Since idols are supposed to have seamless makeup, and more product is used everyday, the makeup removal process is so important,” she shared. She went on to say that she’s seen idols at music shows that cleanse their face immediately after performing.

What about you? What are some K-Pop industry secrets that you would like to know?