2PM‘s Wooyoung appeared on Knowing Bros where he recalled how he first started his road to stardom with JYP Entertainment.
When Wooyoung was in middle school, he decided that becoming an idol and dancing on stage was his passion. But knowing how smaller companies ask for investment deposits, he decided to audition for bigger companies so that his parents wouldn’t have to hold the financial burden.
And out of all the companies, JYP Entertainment called out to him for some reason.
For some reason, I started getting hooked on JYP even before I got cast.
I knew this road would cost a lot of money. I knew I had to make the right decision or it would make my parents suffer.
— Wooyoung
And so, Wooyoung decided to audition for JYP at any chance he could get! Out of the many auditions, Wooyoung wanted to join JYP so bad that he even auditioned for the newest member of Wonder Girls!
I was desperate and really wanted to join JYP. It didn’t matter who they were looking for. They were looking for a Wonder Girls member but it didn’t matter to me because it as JYP’s audition.
I waited all day to audition but of course, I immediately didn’t make it.
— Wooyoung
Although he didn’t make it during Wonder Girls’ audition, Wooyoung decided to keep auditioning for JYP every 6 months. Whenever they didn’t accept him, it only fueled his motivation to get better and try again.
I auditioned for JYP once every 6 months but that only meant that I wasn’t good enough yet. I told myself, I’ll see them again in 6 months when I’m even more skilled.
— Wooyoung
And after seeing Wooyoung’s determination with each audition, JYP finally decided to invite Wooyoung to join their training program!
But instead of signing him as an interim trainee, they wanted him to start right away as their exclusive trainee!
I remember when it happened. JYP called me and said, ‘Wooyoung, we’d like to sign a contract with you.’ But usually, it’s a 3-month contract where they try you out like an intern. They wanted to sign that with me.
I couldn’t believe it. I was practicing dancing at the time too. After the phone call, I didn’t know what to do when about 10 minutes later, they called again and said, ‘This is JYP and we want to sign a full contract with you.’
Within that 10 minutes they apparently had a meeting again and decided to keep me.
— Wooyoung
The fateful audition was JYP’s first ever official audition. After all of his hard work, Wooyoung ended up placing 1st at the audition! He also revealed that Baek Yerin had placed 2nd and joined JYP at the same time too.
And the rest was history! Within a couple of years, Wooyoung was chosen to debut with 2PM and became one of the hottest boy bands in K-Pop history!
That’s what it takes to become the next top star under JYP Entertainment!
