ATEEZ Was Just Crowned The Champion Of “Immortal Songs”, Making Them The First Male Rookie Group Ever To Win
If you aren’t familiar with Immortal Songs, each episode of the show covers a famous legendary singer or singer-songwriter in Korean music history, and currently popular idols and singers are invited onto the show to compete against each other by covering the chosen artist’s songs. The participants go through a series of rounds with each round’s winner chosen by an audience vote, until the winner of the entire episode is determined and given a trophy.
The episode on August 29 was the 2nd part of a two-part series on Turbo/Kim Jong Kook. Turbo was a duo that was popular in the mid to late 1990s, of which Kim Jong Kook was a member.
Last week, Jo Kwon, ASTRO‘s MJ, and Shin Joo Hyub won the first part of the special after their performance of “Twist King” with dancers from Jamie, the musical that they’re all starring in.
This week, new performers included ATEEZ, MONNI, Car, the Garden, Yook Joong Wan Band, and Lim Jeong Hee.
After Kim Jong Kook and former Turbo member Kim Jung Nam performed old Turbo songs “Love Is… (3+3=0)” and “Twist King”, Car, the Garden took to the stage with “Jazz Bar”. Next to perform was MONNI with Kim Jong Kook’s song “Standstill”. Car, the Garden took the win for the first round.
Yook Joong Wan Band performed next with “Goodbye Yesterday”, and took the win from Car, the Garden.
Fourth came ATEEZ. Though they admitted they were nervous, they put on a stunning performance of Turbo’s song “Black Cat”, which they put a new twist on with their signature powerful, charismatic choreography. With this performance, they overtook Yook Joong Wan Band’s win, and kept the first place position even after Lim Jeong Hee’s rendition of “December” as the final performer of the show, making ATEEZ the overall winners of the episode!
This also made them the first male rookie group and first group of the 4th generation of K-Pop to ever win the show, which is a huge accomplishment for the talented performers.
still processing the fact that ateez just won immortal songs and they’re the first rookie group to do so i think they’re insane
— valeria (@ateezent) August 29, 2020
ateez’s win in immortal songs is just on a different level than winning on music shows, because it’s not about popularity and charts. it’s purely based on talent and stage presence. being proud is an understatement 💗
— zeus (@woohwa14) August 29, 2020
Kim Jong Kook himself was impressed with the idol group’s performance, saying, “I was shocked when I saw the rearrangement. It’s impressive.” Another commenter, LAPOEM, added on, “We felt in our bones that this is what dancing is. They were able to sing perfectly even in the middle of such powerful dancing.” B.O.Y member Kim Kook Heon even stated, “This is the only team in Korea that could pull off a performance like this.”
The reactions of ATEEZ’s members were, understandably, emotional.
Congrats to @ATEEZofficial for being the first rookie group ever to win at Immortal songs!🏆🎉🎊#ATEEZ #에이티즈
— ATEEZ Community (@ATEEZcommunity) August 29, 2020
Check out their full impressive performance here!
