5 Idols Who Got Ignored During Their Debut…But Are Now Extremely Popular

1. Super Junior‘s Kyuhyun

Kyuhyun joined Super Junior in 2006, a year after the group debuted, and actually received a lot of hate for changing the dynamics of the group as the 13th member.

He had only trained for a couple of months before debuting and was immediately given lead vocals, not only for Super Junior but Super Junior-M and later Super Junior K.R.Y, a ballad trio with Ryeowook and Yesung.

Kyuhyun during debut.

But only did he have to endure hateful comments, the existing 12 members did not seem to immediately accept him. He revealed on an episode of Happy Together 3 that was treated coldly by the members at first, especially leader Leeteuk, and didn’t feel part of the group. This changed when they won their first award, and Leeteuk hugged Kyuhyun, telling him he had worked hard.

Shindong reveals Leeteuk once risked his life to save Kyuhyun’s

Together with members Leeteuk, Shindong and Eunhyuk, Kyuhyun had a car accident in 2007 that left them quite badly injured. Although Leeteuk was bleeding badly himself, he made sure Kyuhyun was treated first. The love between the members became known to the public, and any doubt that he was a member of Super Junior disappeared.

Ever since then, Kyuhyun went onto prove his talents and place in Super Junior. With a solo career and success as part of four separate groups (Super Junior’s sub-units and SM’s project group SM The Ballad), he is now one of the most popular SuJu members!

2. PENTAGON‘s E’Dawn

When PENTAGON debuted in 2016, E’Dawn wasn’t the most popular member of the group since he had actually been eliminated from their formation show Pentagon Maker.

He debuted anyway as the lead rapper and dancer, and had a unique image but it wasn’t immediately recognized as interesting – not until he formed Triple H in 2017 with Hyuna and fellow PENTAGON member Hui.

And this year, when PENTAGON came back with “Shine”, he really shined(no pun intended) as the lead rapper and dancer. He is also more involved in the group’s lyrics and producing their songs.

He also released the track “Do It For Fun” earlier this year as part of PENTAGON’s rap unit with Yuto and Wooseok, which helped skyrocket his popularity.