Chapter 29: First Live Show

"Welcome one and all to JYPE's Christmas eve showcase! We thank you all for attending, and hope you enjoy the performances to come!" The MCs Ok Taecyeon and Lee Jun-Ho of 2 PM were introducing the showcase. "We have a great lineup in store for you all tonight! First off, Miss A will be performing a couple of their new songs, as well as a Christmas song for you all!" With that, the showcase began with a bang. Miss A was up and performing Bad Girl, Good Girl, Touch, Goodbye Baby, and Santa Claus is coming to town. Following Miss A 2 PM performed Heartbeat, Handsup and 10 out of 10 before it was time for the trainee performances. We were all backstage getting prepared. Hyun-Shik and Chan-wook were going back over their choreography, Akira and Youngjae were talking in a corner, Seol Young and Ho Jung were getting ready to perform first, while I was busy trying to get Kyu-Bong to calm down. He was beginning to panic, going through the motions, I was giving him water and having him sit down. I was constantly reminding him that he had done well in practice and there was no reason he wouldn't do well on the stage. "How are you not nervous?" He asked me.

"I am nervous, everyone gets nervous when performing. I know that no matter what happens I have to perform. Once the music starts you forget your worries and enjoy it. Feed off the crowd's energy and you'll be fine" I tell him. He seemed to calm down a little after my last comment.

"Ok, everybody! I'm sure by now, you are all aware of the survival show that is being run by JYPE at the moment?" Jun-Ho asks the audience. They all cheer their answer out.

"By now 6 episodes have been released of the show, but today we have a special treat for you all!" Taecyeon announces.

"The trainees from the show will be performing one song each for you all tonight. This is going to become the next episode of the show!" Jun-Ho tells everyone.

"The rules for this challenge are simple! The trainees are to perform a Christmas song for you all in duos today. They can be a cover or an original song, it doesn't matter as long as it is Christmas themed. You guys will then vote on your top 3 trainees' performances tonight. That will decide the popularity rankings for the episode. The popular vote is split into 3 sections. First is the amount of followers on social media that the trainees have, second is the remote live vote, which can be accessed from the app that will be shown on screen. All remote viewers are welcome to vote on the app. Finally, the live vote for everyone in the audience, there should be a device beneath your seats. You are to use that to cast your votes." Taecyeon explains to everyone.

"With that, let's enjoy the performances. First up is the due of Seol Young and Ho Jung!" Jun-Ho announces. The two boys, dressed in red and white then appear on the stage from below. They perform a cover of Jingle ball rock, that has been sped up and had the beat changed slightly. They are singing the song in Korean, but it is pretty good. The audience seems to be enjoying it. Following them, Hyun-Shik and Ra Chan-wook perform their rendition of last Christmas by Wham!. The audience all seem to love it. Next up is Akizuki Akira and Nam Younjae's performance of All I want for Christmas is you by Mariah Carey. I'm glad we did;t decide to go with that song. The audience all sing-along, to the very popular Christmas song. They had upped the tempo and changed the backing track to make it a more upbeat version that they could dance to easier. It sounded pretty good, and the dance was catchy. I began cringing mid-way through however after they began to send hearts out to the audience. The penultimate duo to perform is Hayashi Roh and DongBang, who appear on stage. They are dressed in a red and white military-style uniform. They ended up performing SHINee's Haru OST Christmas version. They performed well. Hayashi's smooth vocals and DongBangs dancing ability meant that they had a top performance. DongBang managed to rap live as well, even though his breath control was a little rough. Overall, it was a great performance that had the audience singing along the whole time. Finally, it was my and Kyu-Bong's turn to perform. We got up and headed over to the elevators below the stage. As we got ready to be raised onto the stage, the music began. It started slow, like a ballad. I began with singing Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle the Italian song I learnt from my mother when I was little. I was raised up to the stage on my own as Kyu-Bong waited below. I continued to sing for another 4 lines before the music began to change. The speed picked up and the beat began to become lighter and contained more bounce. We introduced a bit of base to the backing track too. Kyu-Bong then began to sing Feliz Navidad. The audience heard the lyrics and began to sing along, they recognised this song that was very popular all over the world. Very quickly the backing track changed again as the song neared the bridge. I began to sing Silent Night, to which the audience continued to sing along. Kyu-Bong's rap came up. He walked into the centre of the stage, forgetting all of his worries and began to rap. Slowly at first, but soon he began to pick up speed. Very soon he was smiling while he rapped. The audience bounced along with him. The backup dancers began to line up around the stage as the performance continued. We changed back to Feliz Navidad and swapped to Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle again. Finally, we began to near the end of the song. We started to harmonize as Do they know it's Christmas started to play and we sang. Right at the end of the song we had the whole audience swaying and singing along to the lyrics "Feed the world, let them know its Christmas time!" began to echo around the stadium. The song could be heard from miles away as a crowd of around 69,000 all sang together. The song faded out and we received a huge amount of applause. With that, the trainee performances had finished, and the voting would begin.