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Lately, the top #1 rated entertainment is SM Entertainment. SM has succeeded in making the best boy group EXO with millions of fans not just in Korea but all over the world. The agency is a type of entertainment that does modern Kpop music, it has more of the ballad and dance type of songs. SM Entertainment is one of the entertainments that most K-pop idol dreamers want to go to. This entertainment is one of the entertainments that can make you the best. The audition isn’t really hard but there are a lot of rivals to get past to pass the audition.

**SM Entertainment is rumored to look 60% face and 40% talent, but they look about 80% talent and 20% face. Don’t worry, even though you aren’t pretty or handsome, you have a big chance to pass. But, there is one condition that later they will recommend you to do plastic surgery.

USA Monthly Audition

Where? 4322 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 300 Los Angeles, CA 90010

When? The third Saturday of every month

What time? 2PM ~ but you can only apply in the time between 2PM ~5PM

If you are applying in the singer section, you have to be able to sing without an MR (background music)

If you are applying in the dancing section, you have to be able to dance to the give music.

1. When you go straight in, you will need to fill out an application form.

2. You will receive an auditioning number and you will wait in the waiting room. If you came with a friend who isn’t auditioning, you will have to be apart for a bit.

3. You will need to sit in the section you are auditioning for. In the waiting room , there will be a bunch of SM artist posters and there will be SM Artists M/V playing.

4. During the process, there will be a staff that will be explaining what to do when you audition and telling you about the rules when auditioning.

5a. If you are auditioning for the singer section, you can start at any section of the song. They don’t really mind what song you sing to, they will only look at your voice to see your skills and if it meets their standards.

5b. If you are in the dancing section, you will start ddancing when the random type of music starts. The random type of music will be provided by SM Entertainment.

6. The judge will probably cut you at a point when he/she sees enough of your skills.

7. After the audition, you are free to go and you will have to wait about a month for your final results.

**When you audition, you will be auditioning with a bunch of others that are auditioning.

If you pass, you are given a chance to make a contract agreement with SM Entertainment. Also after the concert agreement, you will be 100% funded in whateve they ask you to do.

Also, if you are accepted as a trainee you wil probably be provided with a ticket to Korea to spend your trainee life. You will still go to school, but right after school, you would need to go straight to the SM training center.

Audition Tips

Even though you are nervous, try not to show it too much because your voice can get shaky if you are singing.

Sing loudly, there is a less likely cance to pas if you have a small voice.

If you are dancing, make your moves big and wide, don’t make them too cramped up.

Only look at the camera at all times even when you are dancing.

Try to have some confidence in yourself at all times.

When auditioning, avoid putting on too much make up. Putting on some to cover agnes and pimples are fine.

There are many tips but I picked some tips to help you the most during the audition.

Sorry for the long the long paragraph and thanks for reading.^^ If you are auditioing I hope that you pass.

For the SM audition website:

For you guys who are scared shitless, I’m here for you.

I was terrified. We got to L.A at around 11, giving us time to walk around and shop. (Signed AOA album really lifted my mood) After we went to eat, we started walking to the building. Keep in mind that Wilshire is like 80 miles long probably, so as were walking, we were dying. Having done auditions before, I knew pretty much what to expect, and it made me scared to the point I was shaking. I don’t know why, but when my friend’s dad said we made it, I expected a bit more. I don’t know why. The building was tall but very small looking width wise. Nobody was outside really, but we noticed girls eventually walking in. We shoved our merchandise into our bags and went in.

Holy shit.

I stuck out like a sore thumb. Well, me and my friends did at least. I was shaking again, and we faced the door in plain fear. Lucky for us there was a 8x11 hallway thing that was between a window and the door so I got to practice before hand. These girls came up to us and comforted us, saying it wasn’t so bad and it gave me confidence. Plus this girl walked out saying she had danced the worst she had danced in her life, which also helped me out. Problem eventually arose that we had to go to the bathroom. They were all locked. So we worked up the courage to go inside to ask for the key, and opened the door together. I didn’t really get a good look around because we REALLY needed to use the bathroom. So once we walked back outside, I SPRINTED to the bathroom and unlocked it. There were 2 stalls, and apparently one of the doors didn’t work. I was in that door. My little group of 3. My friend stayed outside the stalls and was brushing her hair into the mirror- Until she realized my door was open. I didn’t notice until 4 seconds after, and i panicked and quickly closed it shut, asking for my friend to hold it.

So after being embarrassed out of my mind, we walked back into the application room. The (very pretty) girl handed us our application, and we filled it out. She didn’t look at me weird, which really made me feel better. It had general identity questions, height, weight, ethnicity, background culture, english/chinese/korean name, etc., and also had questions as to why you deserve to be a trainee. I simply put that my dream was to make people smile with my performances and dances. I turned the paper over and read the privacy policy, signed it, and handed it back. I finally got a good look at the room. There was a tv playing mvs, a giant henry cutout, a glass case of like 8579894 albums( not really but it was alot ), and little plaques and posters covering the room. I didn’t look for long though. We were called in immediately.

I was next to a girl named Wonru, my friend Cassie, and my friend Gabby was last. We walked in order to the door, and the judge inside gave us our numbers. My shirt was lower than the other people, so she was like: “ Is it okay if this is like half on your shirt and half on your skin? “ I laughed and said yeah. 

First up was her introducing herself. I never got her name but she called herself the LA judge. I later decided to call her Juju, so lets go by that. Juju is one of the nicest judges you’d ever meet. Even the company knows shes the nice judge. She told us what was expected of us and she joked around alot, and she was very pleasant to talk to. Tip: TALK TO THEM. Get into the conversation. Compliment them. Smile. SMILE. Back to the story. So, she told us to do our introductions, and if we were singers, to just start. Wonru went first, introducing herself in English and Korean, and oh my god. I just about had my heart leap out of my chest and run away, or just simply asked her to punch me in the face. She sang beautifully. Apparently she was rejected by SM 6 times. Step up your game, SM. She sang once in Chinese, and then she was asked to sing in Korean. Then it was my turn. I did my English and as much of the Korean introduction I knew, and I was allowed to wait until the end for the Rhythm test. My friend Cassie was next. She did her English introduction, but she doesn’t know Korean, so she awkwardly just said hello. She went to start, but she forgot her lyrics. So they moved on to Gabby. Gabby also did her English intro, not doing the Korean intro, and then went to start. She also forgot the lyrics. Apparently the mvs in the main room threw them off, so they forgot their lyrics. I tried to sing a few lyrics of the song as quiet as I could that she did know so that shed remember, but she shook her head and said she couldn’t do it. She started suggesting that we could try out for other things. Not meaning to pinpoint people, she pointed at Wonru as she said: “ Acting, modeling, “ Then pointing at me, “singing, “ In my head I said “” Shit. She heard me.” And then just looking at Cassie and Gabby as she said “ dancing.”

 Juju turned to me and said, “Would you rather have them be in here, or do it alone?” I shrugged and said, “ While it would make me feel most comfortable doing it alone, I’d have to get used to dancing in front of people anyways. “ This honestly seemed to take her aback. She smiled and said that she’d give me the privilege of doing it alone. They walked out, and Juju told me to stand on an ugly spot on the floor and told me my distance maximum. She told me I’d dance for about 20 seconds and then she’d stop me, and then she started the song. I knew about 6 seconds of the song from vine, but the rest was new to me. I don’t even remember what I did honestly, but I noticed I was dancing a bit long, the longest 20 seconds of my life. I later found out she kept me going for an entire minute, a thing judges do when they like what they see. She told me to stop, and I bowed. She asked if I had questions, and I nervously asked how I did. She smiled and said this word for word and I’ll never forget it: “That’s confidential….but you definitely did not do bad.” I got extremely happy from this, and bowed and said my thank you, leaving. I immediately ran into my friends’ arms, crying. I was, and still am EXTREMELY proud of myself.We ran into Wonru outside, and she told my friends to audition next time and once again I would’ve let her punch me. We said our goodbyes and I told her good luck, and we got on the bus to go back. Getting off the bus, we ran into Wonru AGAIN, and we all laughed and said our final goodbyes.

Getting into the kpop world would make you want to audition for Korean entertainment companies, which can probably range from the famous companies, such as SM and YG to the less popular ones, such as &August and 101 Doors. The huge companies usually broadcast their auditions across the world, such as the SM Global Auditions.

I applied for the global auditions that was going to be held in New York City. (February 21, 2016) Honestly, it was a fun and exciting experience, despite me screwing up in front of the camera. For some basic information, the SM Global Audition in New York took place in the Radisson Martinique on Broadway. It’s at the edge of Koreatown, which is pretty much self explanatory. 

The audition time I received was 2PM, as I did apply pretty late. I convinced two of my friends to come with me since I didn’t want to go alone. (I applied on Wednesday night, and the audition was on Sunday) This left me barely any time to prepare, and I would surely apply earlier for the next audition. I kept practicing for it, changing the endings of the song and mixing it In the end, I decided to sing Rolling in the Deep by Adele, but I mixed it up by doing the iKON version. (Does that make sense?) One of my friends, let’s refer to her as A decided to sing Just the Way You Are by Bruno Mars and the other friend, B, dropped out the morning of the audition because she wasn’t prepared for it. 

I got there with A an hour early, and it was pretty easy to spot honestly. The bright pink SM sign was on the door of the Radisson Martinique, and the second we walked in, the doorman went like “Auditions? This way,” as if he was used to the process by now. The moment I entered the waiting room I could tell why. There was already roughly 500 people there. On the way, I had received half a sheet of paper, which consisted of the basic information. Name, birthday, weight, height, school, grade, address, contact information. I also received a sticker that said “10991 S.M Entertainment” I was told to place it on my upper left chest. 

After filling in the form, a Korean lady collected it, and me and my friend basically sat down and started talking about how nervous we are, and how we might screw up..etc. I use the bathroom a lot when I’m nervous, and since I was sitting in the middle of the row, I think the people who had to get up when I was rushing to the bathroom got annoyed by me. 

So to briefly describe the waiting room, there was a huge presenter in the front of the room, and SM music videos were on repeat the entire time, with an advertisement for a music app from time to time. There was probably 50 rows of chairs, with around 24 chairs in each row. These seats where separated in the middle, and there was a pathway in between them. However, even with each seat filled, there was still a bunch of contestants who had to stand in the back. There were many Korean workers who were scrambling to get everything done, screaming at people to sit down and to pass their paper up. 

We sat there for around 4 hours, with me fidgeting with my phone most of the time, annoyed by the amount of time it took. (I was also starving so..) So my row was finally called up (It was a group of 10 people) and we were led into another waiting room. This one was smaller, and didn’t have much seats. There were around 40 people inside that room, and they were split into half, 20 of them would audition in Room A and the rest would audition in Room B. 

We waited approximately 10 minutes before entering our audition room. (Room A) During that time, we could hear singing from inside the audition rooms, they weren’t soundproof. When we finally got inside, there was 2 people, one acting as a judge, and a cameraman. The judge was sitting with a huge pile of papers facing down in front of her, and the cameraman was standing to her left, adjusting the camera angle. The cameraman then told us to look at the camera while auditioning, and not at the judge. 

This time, our group of 10 was separated into 2 groups of 5. The first 5 would stand in a row in front of the camera while the second half would sit on chairs on the side of the room, watching. I was part of the first 5, and I had to go 4th. We actually messed up the order at first, we lined up in a column due to our nervousness and I swear you could have heard our heartbeat if you listened hard enough. There was a huge pink poster behind us, filling up the wall. It said SM AUDITIONS 2016 on it, with pictures from current artists. 

At that point, me and A were so nervous we were grasping each other’s hands tightly.The first person started to audition. She was an Asian, and sang a Korean song. I’m not quite sure what the song was, but it sounded like K. Will or Eddy Kim. When she stopped singing, the judge said thank you, and placed the girl’s application in the huge pile in front of her. The second girl went after, singing a song by John Legend. She was decent, like the one before her, and also got eliminated. (Going into the big face down papers) My friend, who was before me, sang in a loud clear voice. The judge was looking down at her phone, probably due to boredom, but looked up after the first note. Soon after, she also went into the reject pile. Finally, it was my turn. I practiced a ton between Thursday and Sunday, and my voice got sore. Screwing up the first note, I also went into the huge pile. However, the lady still let me continue through the song until I was done, like the contestants before me. The fifth girl, who was a nonAsian singing a Korean song, barely got through 3 lines before the lady told her to stop. 

And that was my SM Entertainment Audition experience. It was fun, and nerve wreaking, but I would love to go again. Below, I will list some tips and things I wish I knew before the SM Audition. If you plan on auditioning for SM or any companies soon, I wish you the best of luck. Just go up and have fun. 

SM Audition Tips:

-Bring a Bottle of Water (In case you get a case of hiccups or end up practicing in the bathroom before the audition. Staying there for a long amount of time would also get you dehydrated if you don’t consume enough water, so make sure you bring at least one!)

-Don’t Practice Too Much (This contradicts the idea that “Practice makes perfect.” However, if you were to get a sore throat before the audition, you wouldn’t be able to give it your all.)

-Bring Earbuds / Headphones (Not all 500 people have the same taste in music you have. Bring earbuds allow you to listen to your music without having to worry about the people around you judging your taste.)

-Wear Comfortable Clothing (If you’re dancing, just wear a loose shirt and some sweatpants with sneakers. If you’re singing / MCing / VJing, wear a sweater and some jeans. If you’re modeling, make sure your clothing isn’t really revealing. Your fashion choice won’t really matter during the audition, so don’t worry too much about it.)

-Choose a Backup Song (If you decide on a popular song, chances are, there are other people who are going to sing that exact same song. Picking a song that is unique but still fits your style allows you to stand out, and not in a bad way.)

-Bring a Pen (When they ask you to fill in that half sheet of paper, they don’t give you a pen to use. Bringing a pen is extremely important in these occasions, since there probably won’t be enough pens to go around.)

-Don’t Fangirl / Fanboy (This one is sorta hard to explain. Don’t go in singing a song that the company produced. They don’t want another Super Junior wannabe. Plus, they probably heard the song a thousand times, and they might be tired of it. During my audition, I saw a guy who was wearing an EXO sweater. While I adore EXO, wearing a company’s clothing shows how desperate you are, and can lower your chances of getting in.) 

-SMILE SMILE SMILE (Even if you mess up lyrics, or fall down in the middle of your dance performance, SMILE. Don’t ask for another chance, or bow and say sorry over and over again. Even idols can mess up lyrics from time to time. During Taeyeon’s audition [SNSD / Girls Generation] she forgot the lyrics, and just stood there and smiled.)

-Have Fun (Despite all the nervousness you might be feeling, loosen up. There are so many people who are having the same fear at that moment, who are right there with you. Make some new friends, exchange contact information, joke around. When you audition, go and give it your best.)

“If you don’t give up your hopes and dreams, then there’ll always be a good ending.” (Minho, SHINee)

Until you actually get accepted as a trainee you should try and up your chances!

PRACTICE! While auditioning for different kpop companies practice you should try to practice in between.

I currently get lessons in Korean, Japanese, vocal, guitar/piano, dance, and practice rapping privately.

I remember seeing the ‘Grading’ scale for SM back in the day: (singing:~ dancing:~ rapping:~ Language:~) and they would give you a grade. Apparently this is this is something that many kpop agencies share: periodical evaluation/grading

Practicing can help you score higher on evaluations; 1 step closer.

IMAGE!

Physical and mental. Don’t change who you are exactly, but get to know yourself and if you feel it’s good for YOU, change a bit.

Know this answers to the questions fans will be asking you, no matter how minuscule. For example the questions on those kpop profile websites. Know your favorite food, hobbies, color. Don’t be too indecisive. Know yourself and promote yourself.

When it comes to physical I don’t personally like plastic surgery, but I’m a hypocrite. Don’t just jump at plastic surgery if you don’t want it. Your company will defiantly give you their 2cents about it when the time comes. When it comes to weight if you are underweight maybe gain some weight and tone yourself. If you are overweight(like me) lose some weight. I know it’s easier said than done, but T.O.P got into YG after losing some weight. Besides, when you become a trainee you will be put on a diet to maintain and/or to lose weight along with a strenuous workout regiment.

Also face & skin,

Kpop idols in the have been known to have past and current acne problems. If you do too try a skin care regiment.

Skin bleaching: Now I know this is a touchy subject, but at the end of the day if you prefer your skin lighter LIGHTEN’ dat Ish! It’s your body. I personally prefer my skin at its lightest because it looks prettier to me and I don’t have to waste money on 4 different shades of makeup for all the for seasons my skin goes through #MixedGirlProblems

🎤CHARM work on personality. Charisma can make or break you in this industry. Charisma and charm are what makes people interested in you. And there are different types: like the shy mysterious type, but not too mysterious; or the outgoing super confident. Or a combination. Little habits like biting your lip, having a sly smile, having intelligent conversations, or the way you speak. Anything that’ll make people wonder about you.