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[Herald Interview] NCT Wish aims to live up to group name

By Hong Yoo

Published : April 4, 2024 - 13:59

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NCT Wish (Hwang Yun-ha/The Korea Herald) NCT Wish (Hwang Yun-ha/The Korea Herald)

It would be a lie for the bandmates of SM Entertainment rookie K-pop boy band NCT Wish to say they did not feel the pressure of their debut as a subunit of NCT.

Yet, NCT Wish hopes to continue to do its best to live up to the group’s name.

“Our seniors from the group NCT are outstanding live performers, so we try our best to live up to their name by practicing hard for our performance and monitoring our rehearsals meticulously for improvement. We still have a long way to go,” Sion said in a group interview with local reporters Wednesday in Seoul.

NCT Wish is a Japan-based unit of NCT that debuted in South Korea on March 4. Other subunits include NCT U, NCT 127, NCT Dream and WayV.

NCT Wish consists of Korean members Sion and Jaehee alongside four Japanese members Ryo, Riku, Yushi and Sakuya.

Marking a month since the group made its official debut in Korea, the group says they’ve improved their live performance on stage as well as the way they communicate with fans.

“The motto of our group is to enjoy what we do. But the first week on stage, we were really tense, so we could not enjoy performing on stage. Our producer BoA advised us to enjoy performing, just as we did when training for our debut. That helped us a lot to get more comfortable on the stage,” Sion explained.

“We also got better communicating with our fans. We used to be super shy in front of our Korean fans because we were used to communicating with our Japanese fans only," he added. "But they not only gave us so much love, but also helped us out by starting the conversation during fan meetings."

NCT Wish (Hwang Yun-ha/The Korea Herald) NCT Wish (Hwang Yun-ha/The Korea Herald)

Shortly after the group's debut, NCT Wish made the remarkable achievement of selling around 500,000 copies of its debut single album and topping the daily Oricon Singles Chart.

“We were surprised that our debut single album sold so much. We realized how much love we are receiving from the public and we are thankful for our fans. We hope to become a group that can give back to our fans as much love we’ve received from them,” said Sion.

“A month flew by. We receive positive energy from our fans in Korea when meeting them at various events, including fan meetings and local music TV programs. The way they support us with fan chants and the neon-colored fan lights when we are performing gives us the strength to perform,” Jaehee added.

NCT Wish is preparing to show several diverse facets of the group this year.

“We are working on our next release and I can tell you that it’s good. We hope to show more of our charms through the next release,” said Jaehee.

“We are just sprouts at this moment but we hope to grow into trees that can bear fruits of happiness to share with the public.”