The road to debut is long and arduous for any aspiring idol. However, for some, life decides to take them on a detour instead. Some of the most successful idols today almost didn't even debut. Needless to say, thank God, they finally did. 

3/7^th of BTS

Now sitting on the throne of K-Pop royalty, BTS Jimin, J-Hope, and Jungkook almost didn’t debut with BTS for various personal reasons. On JTBC’s variety show, ‘Please Take Care Of My Refrigerator,’ Jimin divulged details about why and how he almost didn’t even make it into BTS, let alone debut with them. It is a commonly known fact that Jimin is one of the best dancers in the industry. Yet, it was his dancing skills that almost made his position in BTS shaky. Jimin was a dance major, and his field of expertise was modern and contemporary dance. Idol dance, being heavily influenced by hip-hop, krumping, and other such styles of dance, was difficult to pick up for Jimin. On the other hand, J-Hope almost didn’t debut with the group either as he had decided to leave during his time as a trainee. However, he returned when RM convinced their agency that BTS would not be complete without him. He returned because he trusted the members. Jungkook, the main vocalist of BTS, favored dancing professionally over having a career as an idol and couldn’t sing when he was asked to during evaluations because he was shy about it. Trepidations about which direction to take at such a young age are natural. Still, Jimin convinced the maknae that he was incredibly important for the group and that they cannot possibly go on without him. The rest, as we know, is history.

2/9^th of TWICE

TWICE was created through the survival reality show SIXTEEN and was originally chalked up to be a 7 member group. According to the show results, Tzuyu and Momo were not going to be part of the original line-up of TWICE, but that was until Park Jin Young decided that it was imperative for TWICE to have 2 more members, specifically Tzuyu and Momo. Tzuyu was added to the group owing to her immense popularity and Momo, for her unmatched skill and talent in dance and performance in general. The decision was clearly a genius one as TWICE is now honored as the national girl group and for good reason too!

2/8^th of STRAY KIDS

STRAY KIDS was another K-Pop group that had to undergo the rigorous screening of a survival reality show judged by Park Jin Young himself. In contrast to SIXTEEN, this show, titled ‘STRAY KIDS,’ proceeded with the goal of a set of trainees debuting together. Despite being judged as per the synergy of the group as a whole, an internal selection process was also carried out where the individual trainees had to prove themselves and justify their role in the group. On episodes 4 and 8, respectively, Lee Know and Felix were eliminated. However, JYP soon realized after giving the boys a second chance that Stray Kids could only be complete with all the members intact. As a result, both Lee Know and Felix were brought back in the 9^th episode.

SUPER JUNIOR's Heechul

One of the most entertaining, loved, and adored idols in the industry is SUPER JUNIOR’s Heechul. There is not one person in the entire K-Pop industry who does not sing his praise. However, it might come as a shock to many that Heechul was once kicked out of his company! At the young age of 20, Heechul was a little bit of a rebel as a trainee. One time, when asked what music he had been listening to and having answered rock, his trainer expressed her disapproval as it was not something that would help his own musical ability. However, despite being reprimanded, Heechul did not back down and instead retorted by saying, “You don’t study rock music?” For obvious reasons, his trainer did not take kindly to his attitude, and it only got worse when he refused to write a sincere apology letter because, according to him, he didn’t do anything wrong. As a result, Heechul was kicked out of SM Entertainment. However, he was eventually brought back (as he figured he would) because SM, too, must have known just how crucial Heechul was for SUPER JUNIOR as well as for SM.