“Universe Ticket” Under Fire For Malicious Edit Of DIA Eunchae’s Performance

Previously, DIA’s Eunchae (also known by her real name, Kwon Chae Won) came under fire after her “disappointing” vocal performance on survival show Universe Ticket. The performance was criticized by both viewers of the show and the judges.

Many wondered how she could sound like that, given that Eunchae was the main vocal in DIA. They questioned the song choice, which may have been wrong for the star.

Over a week after the initial broadcast, a fan uploaded a comparison between Eunchae’s performance during the broadcast versus a fancam version of her performance. In the fancam version, Eunchae sounds way more on pitch than in the broadcasted version.

The broadcast version is aired after taking audio clips directly from the microphone audio. As for the fancam version, all the surrounding echo noises and more are factored in. This is why broadcasted performances often sound cleaner than the fancam versions. Even so, Eunchae’s voice and pitch sounds totally different between the two versions.

Netizens criticized SBS for processing Eunchae’s voice, calling it a “malicious edit.” They accused SBS of lowering the pitch on her voice for the broadcast version purpose.

• No, but isn’t it too much of them to make her performance look poorer through processing? I’m so speechless.
• I hope this becomes controversial such that no one feels wronged… This really isn’t it… How has the world come to this?
• Huh, isn’t this insane? Isn’t this grounds for a lawsuit?
• She was a vocalist that had a charming way of ending her notes. It’s because the processing erased all of that, that the result ended up like that. They totally made her sound off pitch at the lyrics “Baby” and “Juingong.”
• Aren’t they crazy? It’s at the level where they need to be reported to the broadcasting regulation committee.

It is not the first time that a survival show has edited a contestant’s voice. During My Teenage Girl, the show

also faced controversy for editing Kim Yoo Yeon’s voice in a re-upload of her performance to make her sound better and more auto-tuned.