Top 5 K-Pop Trainees Who Haven’t Debuted Yet Despite Years Of Practice

K-Pop life isn’t all glitz and glamour. For every successful K-Pop group in the industry, there are dozens that never see the light of day. Despite this, thousands of young boys and girls dream of becoming idols.

With K-Pop being such a difficult to-break-in market, companies can keep their trainees practicing from anywhere between a few months to even a decade. Below are five trainees who have yet to debut despite being trainees for years.

1. Bang Yedam

Bang Yedam was the second place winner of K-Pop Star Season 2. Although he was a pre-teen at the time of the competition, his singing, dancing, and rapping talent was evident to everyone.

He has been in YG Entertainment for six years since 2013 and is confirmed to make his debut with Treasure13.

2. SM Rookies’ Koeun

Koeun is SM Entertainment‘s longest-running trainee right now. She has been in the agency for 8 years, having joined in 2011.

Koeun is known for her beautiful voice which makes netizens speculate that she may be the next main vocal of SM Entertainment’s new girl group. She even sang a duet with NCT’s Doyoung in Mickey Mouse Club.

3. SM Rookies’ Lami

Lami was introduced to the SM Rookies lineup in 2013 alongside Irene and Jaehyun. She was born in 2003 and is known as the “second Yoona” for her outstanding visuals.

4. Moon Sua

Moon Sua is another trainee from YG Entertainment who stayed with the company for 10 years. She showed off her rap skills in Unpretty Rapstar 2.

Now a Mystic Entertainment trainee, she’s expected to make her debut with their upcoming girl group.

5. Park Sunho

Born in 1993, established actor and model Park Sunho gained attention when he joined Produce X 101 and revealed he used to be a trainee in Starship Entertainment for six years, before transferring to Sidus HQ for four and a half years.

By participating in the show, he showed his continued passion for music despite training for over a decade. He was eliminated in episode 11 at rank 25. Sunho has yet to make his official debut as a singer although he released his song “Still” in February 2019.