On the recent episode of SBS 'Strong Heart League', Koyote members Kim Jong Min and Shinji made an appearance where Shinji confessed that she lost so much weight that she weighed only 44kg due to extreme stage fright.
On this day, Shinji revealed that the reason she refused an invitation for the show 'Immortal Song' for 10 years was because of 'stage fright'. She said, "In 2008, when Kim Jong Min and Bbaek Ga weren't around, when I was preparing for a solo, my agency suggested a duet with a new male junior singer. I was caught on a music broadcast, so I did well until the dry rehearsal, but my heart suddenly felt strange during the camera rehearsal."
She continued to share how the moment affected her saying, "The live broadcast started, but I felt my hand holding the microphone shaking so much that I was going crazy. Even though I held it with the other hand, it continued to shake. I still remember the camera director who was filming me shaking his head to the side of the camera because I was so nervous, and his eyes were worried about me. Somehow, I fainted as soon as I went down after finishing the stage.”
Shinji said, "I took the top spot in popular search terms for a week. I thought that everyone was looking at me like that, so I couldn't sing or perform. Standing on stage itself was terrifying." She confessed that she had spent three years disconnected from the world, hardly leaving her house for fear of people seeing her.
Shinji then revealed, "I only weighed 44kg for my height. I wanted to do it, but I just couldn't handle food, and I had to sing, but I couldn't get enough strength because I wasn't eating. The more I stood on stage, the harder it was."
Shinji also shared that she took medication and received counseling due to stage fright to no effect, and how thankful she was to Kim Jong Min for keeping her by his side, saying, "Since I suffered from social phobia, stage fright, and bipolar disorder, Kim Jong Min had a really hard time because of me. He checked up on me and gave me pocket money."
Kim Jong Min sounds like a total hero, people with that collection of disorders are very hard work, but he's come through for her. It sounds like she's now had the medication and support she needs, I'm glad, it's a terrible thing for a performer to develop stage fright (and for her on top of everything else, it must have been crippling), I'll never forget Robbie Williams announcing he'd suddenly got it, it kept him off stage for a long time.
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