Recently, NewJeans attended the 2024 The Fact Music Awards (hereinafter referred to as TMA 2024) in Japan, where they won the Bonsang Artist of the Year award. Besides attending the award ceremony, the girl group from ADOR delivered a mashup performance of 7 songs, including five hits “ETA”, “OMG”, “Ditto”, “Hype Boy”, and “Attention”, along with the 2 latest release “Bubble Gum” and “How Sweet”. Additionally, members also get to perform solo parts with the full spotlight.
Over the past 2 years, NewJeans has consistently put significant effort into their award show stages. Each performance is refreshed with new music arrangements and unique choreography.
However, NewJeans has recently found itself caught in the ongoing dispute between HYBE and their “creator,” Min Hee Jin, leading to public controversies and speculation that they might be abandoned by their parent company. Thus, their appearance at TMA 2024 held special meaning for fans.
Despite the anticipation, NewJeans’ performance at TMA drew heavy criticism, particularly during the solo parts. A video of Haerin’s solo dance and singing performance of “Attention” has been widely criticized. Viewers pointed out moments where Haerin was out of breath, off-key, and her dance expression was considered as lacking.
Moreover, the group’s performance of “Bubble Gum” and “How Sweet” was criticized for having an excessively long dance break, during which the members appeared to be only dancing with minimal vocals. The performance was deemed as “disastrous” by some harsh netizens, with Haerin’s live singing becoming a focal point of criticism.
Some netizens remarked that compared to other girl groups of their generation, NewJeans’ skills were “overrated”. Some even started to compare NewJeans to LE SSERAFIM, who previously came under fire for their lacking vocals at Coachella.
In particular, some stated that while LE SSERAFIM has been criticized for poor vocals, their dancing skills and stage presence have been highly regarded. These people also claimed that LE SSERAFIM’s performances are considered more visually appealing than NewJeans, with a balanced lineup, strong concepts, and complex choreography being their strength since debut.
As a result, many netizens said that NewJeans’ lacking performance have basically “saved” LE SSERAFIM from previous criticism.