NCT Universe: Lastart

(Mission 2, Group Mission with SM Hits, the 2nd performance)

It's 1 of the SM hits that was released in 2006.

- Super Junior won first place... - Gosh.

- for the first time with this song. - Yes.

It's "U."

To be honest, I thought the title for this song was "Because I Can't Stop."

Wasn't that the title at first?

Right. That was the title for the demo.

So I thought, "Super Junior released a song, 'U?'"

And people know this song as "Mustard Ketchup Chicken Spatula."

(The song is known as "Mustard Ketchup Chicken Spatula.")

That's what people called our song.

- Can you tell them about these jokes? - Right.

The trainees need classes like this.

- Right. - They need to laugh.

Come to think of it, there were 13 of us.

We had to make an impression when we got a chance to briefly be on TV.

- Of course. - So...

we thought about what to do with the lyrics to leave an impression.

We thought a lot about that.

That's why there was a time all of us winked.

- Really? - In one song.

After one of us winked, the rest of us winked too.

Winking was a quick fix.

- Right. People react pretty fast. - Yes.

Gosh. A long time ago... Was it when I performed "MOTO?"

For some reason, people started to have high expectations about my ending pose.

Back then, we used to perform for 4 weeks with 1 song.

- "What should I do?" - I'm so curious.

- "What should I do on the music show?" - Right.

- It had to be different. We had to think. - Yes.

Come to think of it,

when we were performing "U," this wasn't part of the dance.

- Hee Chul came out with a fan. - Right.

- It wasn't part of the choreography. - He did use props.

Right. In the end, he threw the fan.

- He did it. No one told him to do it. - Right.

But that becomes memorable.

- Right. - That's important.

When we evaluate them, we always tell them...

to make good facial expressions and be confident.

But this must be tough for them.

- I can't wait. - Yes.

I'm looking forward to the members on the next team.

As for this group, it's a mix...

of trainees who ranked high and low.

- They're even. - Yes.

Right. Last week, some of the trainees were ranked low.

I wonder how much they've changed during this week. I should check that out.

It's the Group Mission with SM Hits.

Let's watch the performance of Team "U."

Let's watch their performance for "U."

What? Already?

- Gosh. - I'm nervous.

- I'm nervous. - Right now...

"Hurry."

I've never seen anyone do a cover of "U."

- Same here. - Right.

I've seen a lot of people do a cover of "Sorry, Sorry."

- But not with "U." - It's the first time with "U."

(a successful performance in front of Super Junior?)

Gosh. I can't believe I'm watching them get in position for this.

("U" by SION, YUSHI, MINJAE, RIKU, RYU, HARUTA, SAKUYA)

Oh, my. Their movements are super sharp.

Listen to him rap. My gosh.

They were good.

That was energetic.

Can't stop!

- They were good. - Yes.

Drink some water and come back.

(Before getting the feedback, they catch their breath.)

That was a nice performance.

You guys performed "U" by Super Junior.

Can you introduce yourselves?

Two, three.

- Hello. - Hello.

- We're Team "U" of Super Junior. - We're Team "U" of Super Junior.

(Perfectly reenacting their signature greeting)

"We're Super Junior."

"That's us."

That's cute.

Are you satisfied with your performance today?

No?

- Are you disappointed? - Yes.

No. You guys did well.

Did Dong Hae visit them when they were practicing?

- Gosh. - Dong Hae?

I told him not to do stuff like that.

What did he tell you guys?

He told us to try to win you over...

during our turns to be in the center.

To take his advice, we looked in the mirror by ourselves...

and tried to come up with a way to win you guys over.

From what I heard,

he told you to seduce BoA.

That was a big part of my performance.

No wonder. They kept looking at me.

- They kept pointing at her. - Yes.

They kept pointing their fingers at me.

(They pointed at her countless times to win her over.)

I thought, "These guys have great facial expressions."

That crossed my mind.

I think SION's face got red.

(He's the most innocent guy off the stage.)

- "I think I did it." - "I did it."

Since this is our song,

I observed a bit more thoroughly.

As for Team "U,"

you guys made the song your own.

- Right. - Overall,

I could feel that all of you were focused on this song.

First of all, I was happy to see that.

We practiced a lot for this song.

And it was tough.

We even talked about how to hold the microphone.

- We had to hold the microphones then. - Yes.

I remember how tough it was to prepare for this performance.

Gosh, you guys didn't even hold the microphones.

You guys used both of your hands.

It must have been tough.

(Their hand gestures grabbed the directors' attention from the get-go.)

To tell you the truth, the vocal part of this song...

- can be tough. It has many high notes. - Right.

- You would have to improvise a lot too. - Yes.

That's true. With this performance,

personally, I would like to give high praise to YUSHI.

When he was given the vocal part, as you all saw,

he pulled off this live performance.

(He pulled off this part with his own style.)

I think you definitely carried your own weight and some more.

I agree. He was the most memorable vocalist of all.

And I could see that he had a lot of potential and talents.

- Right. - I became curious about him.

Right. I did get the same feeling.

- YUSHI keeps grabbing my attention. - Yes.

People use this phrase, "solid live performance."

He was solid and gave us a satisfying performance.

It was nice to hear you sing live.

Thank you.

If we have to mention things you could improve on,

I would say the range of their tones...

- It's narrow, right? - It's narrow.

(Due to the shape of his mouth, the range of notes is narrow.)

I think you can open your mouth a bit wider when you sing.

(It's an important tip to improve as a vocalist.)

- And RYU. - Yes.

When you sing,

the way you sing the end notes is quite amateurish.

Singing the end notes.

Especially with the vibrato for the end notes.

(The performance was lacking in terms of techniques.)

In that aspect,

it could have been better. That crossed my mind.

She's the Queen of the Perfect Hearing.

The Queen of the Perfect Hearing.

- Seriously. Her feedback was spot on. - Okay.

Here's my feedback about his performance.

When you sang, "Don't leave,"

I really thought that I shouldn't tell you to leave.

You practically roared.

(When it comes to expressing emotions, he's a professional.)

Thank you.

(RYU is growing quickly after training only for 2 weeks.)

Your name is MINJAE, right?

You did a great job. Actually,

I could tell you tried to hit your notes well.

It was great to see you, trying to control your notes.

Earlier, he was improvising with high notes in the back.

I kept hearing the improvisation, but everyone was dancing.

I was wondering who was singing that. So I looked around.

It was MINJAE.

(MINJAE perfectly pulled off singing the high notes.)

He got the pitch right.

And he clearly sang those notes. That's what he did.

Right.

How did you practice that?

Mr. Jang always gave me this feedback.

When I was practicing to perform "U,"

he told me to match the tone of my voice to the song.

So I was told to raise my pitch a bit.

(There's another heartfelt story about Uncle Jang's lesson.)

So I kept practicing to match my pitch to the song.

But there were some minor parts that could have been more polished.

There were some parts you could've done better.

When they were doing the warm-up moves in the beginning,

his level was higher because he was tall.

I wanted him to squat down more.