The Top 3 Vocalists From “A2K” That JYP Chose As The Best Singers
JYP Entertainment’s new global girl group audition program, A2K, recently finished the vocal evaluation round, and each member was ranked for their singing performance.
A2K is an acronym for “America to Korea,” and the show is produced by both JYP Entertainment and Republic Records. With the plan to debut a girl group at the end of 2023, JYPE founder Park Jin Young, also known as J.Y. Park or JYP, described that they are looking for “American talent to create a girl group through a K-Pop system.”
After auditions in Dallas, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Los Angeles, selected members attended a boot camp held in Los Angeles, which will be held for a week. Each contestant received an A2K pendant with four empty slots during the boot camp. The four slots represent four criteria: dancing, vocals, star quality, and character.
After completing the dancing round, the contestants completed the vocal evaluations this week—and some stood out more than others. After all eleven contestants auditioned, he and the staff deliberated and ranked all of the contestants by their auditions.
Here are the top three.
3. KG Crown
In third place was KG Crown, also known as KG, a contestant from Los Angeles who blew JYP away in the first round of auditions with her unique vocal tone and singing skills. At the first audition, JYP gave her feedback to make her singing voice similar to her talking voice because her “talking voice and singing voice were too different.”
This time, she auditioned with Adele’s song “Easy On Me” with his feedback in mind.
He was impressed by her improvement and said that she had the potential to be the main vocal for the team if she made it. He also praised her voice tone, which is something one is born with, not something one can learn.
Although her dance audition was the worst of the contestants, according to JYP, her talents in singing were undeniable—earning her the third spot.
2. Melissa Kadas
In second place was actress and singer-songwriter Melissa, who blew JYP away with her flawless and comfortable R&B performance of “Love” by Keyshia Cole. She started her audition by sitting in a chair, then stood up and finished the song strutting around the audition floor as if it were a concert. JYP appeared to love her confidence on stage as he clapped along and cheered while she sang.
JYP praised Melissa for her performance, saying, “That’s what I call singing.” He stated he saw bits and pieces of a young Mary J. Blige in K-Pop and pointed out the changes she made in the melody of the song that was unexpected but worked.
In the previous episode, Melissa did not get a stone for her dancing evaluation, which made both Melissa and JYP nervous for this audition. However, he stated that all his worries disappeared because she blew him away, which made Melissa teary-eyed. He praised her singing and performance, saying that “the stage is too small for [her].”
1. Camila Ribeaux Valdes
JYP had difficulty choosing between Melissa and Camila, but the first place went to the latter. After the first audition, Camila focused on her high notes and making them more powerful because, in the previous audition, JYP critiqued her high notes for being unstable and shaky.
To show improvement in her high notes, she chose to sing the powerful song “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” by Whitney Houston. She practiced a lot, and it showed during her audition. Although Camila claimed she was shaking from nervousness, she performed freely, not showing any signs of anxiety. JYP and the other contestants were impressed by the power in her voice when she sang the high notes.
Camila got a standing ovation from JYP and the other girls, which brought her to tears. JYP was amazed at her improvement since her regional audition and praised her emotions and perfect rhythm.
Camila’s improvement, powerful voice, and flawless performance made JYP proud and won her the top spot in the vocal evaluation rankings.
Watch Camila’s performance in the episode of A2K here.
