Lee Soo-jeong wins 'K-Pop Star 5'

Lee Soo-jeong

By Kim Ji-soo

Lee Soo-jeong, a Korean-American singer from Chicago, became the winner of SBS’s talent show Sunday.

Lee, who performed two songs with fellow contestant Ahn Ye-eun, also won the 300 million won cash prize. She then chose Antenna Music as her talent agency, headed by Yoo Hee-yeol. It is the first time the winner has chosen Antenna over the two other top talent agencies and its chiefs that serve as the program’s judges. The three judges are Park Jin-young of JYP Entertainment, Yang Hyun-suk of YG Entertainment and Yoo of Antenna Music.

Lee and Ahn each performed two songs; they chose the first, while the second was selected from a list of songs they chose for each other.

While Lee’s rendition of the Korean song “Letter” by Kim Kwang-jin was not received well, her performance of Ahn’s song “Sticker” gave her the top score of 100 from the three judges. Ahn performed once again her own song and for her second selection, Stevie Wonder’s “Part-time Lover.”

Korean-American contestants have fared well in the SBS audition. The 2014 winner Bernard Park, and the runner-up Sam Kim and the 2015 winner Katie Kim are also Korean-Americans.