The legendary war for the crown of Mnet’s idol competition show ‘KINGDOM‘ finally ended with breathtaking performances from the competing groups. Among the six participating groups, Stray Kids took hold of the final crown and slashed their way to the top.
It was not an easy win, for the other competitors were going head to head with their performances. Here’s a recap of the legendary happenings of the show: (Note: This might take a while to read.)
Things went pretty intense on the introduction stages of the groups which marked the start of the battles. Round 1’s mission was ‘To The World‘, where they perform one of their hit songs showcasing the group’s potentials, not just to their fans, but to the people all around the globe.
The criteria for judging was divided into four parts: experts’ evaluation (25%), group evaluation (25%), performance video view count (10%), and global voting (40%). In the end, ATEEZ won the experts and group evaluation with their ‘Pirates of the Caribbean‘-inspired performance of ‘Symphony No. 9 (From The Wonderland)‘.
Stray Kids won the global fan voting and performance video view count with the mashup performance of ‘God’s Menu‘ and ‘Side Effects‘. BTOB performed ‘그리워하다 (Theatre Ver.)‘. The Boyz dazzled fans with their ‘No Air (A Song of Ice and Fire)‘ performance; SF9 performed ‘Jealous‘, while iKON with the remix of ‘Love Scenario‘ and ‘Killing Me‘.
Round 2 kicked off with ‘RE-BORN’, where they cover each other’s songs and perform it like their own, with the same criteria as Round 1. Bagging their second win, ATEEZ rose again to first place after winning the experts evaluation with their version of iKON’s ‘RHYTHM TA‘. Stray Kids won the fan voting and performance video view count with their version of BTOB’s ‘I’ll Be Your Man‘.
Together with SF9 who performed their version of The Boyz’ ‘The Stealer (The Scene)‘, BTOB tied for first place in group evaluation with their rock version of Stray Kids’ ‘Back Door‘. On the other hand, iKON performed ATEEZ’ ‘Inception‘, while The Boyz performed SF9’s ‘O Sole Mio (The Red Wedding)‘.
On the 6th episode, the groups had fun playing with each other in the ‘KINGDOM Spring Track Meet’, where BTOB’s Minhyuk was named the ‘Visual King’.
Going back to the competition, the third round ‘NO-LIMIT’ was divided into two parts: first, the unit stages, where the six groups form a team of two and collaborate on unit stages for rap, dance and vocals. Team MAYFLY consisting of ATEEZ, Stray Kids and BTOB competed with ‘Team It’s One consisting of The Boyz, iKON and SF9.
For the rap unit stage, Team MAYFLY wowed fans with their witty performance for ‘COLOURS‘ which tackles racism.
For the Dance Team, Team MAYFLY again triumphed with their ‘WOLF‘ performance.
For the vocal unit, all eyes and ears were on Team MAYFLY again as they sing their rendition of IU’s ‘Love Poem‘.
For the second part of NO-LIMIT, iKON brought BLACKPINK’s Lisa into the scene with the ‘Classy Savage‘ performance. Stray Kids mixed their ‘God’s Menu‘ into BLACKPINK’s “DDU DU DDU DU‘.
ATEEZ performed ‘Answer: Ode to Joy‘; BTOB casted G-IDLE’s Miyeon into their ‘Blue Moon (Cinema ver.)‘ performance; The Boyz performed ‘Monster (Stormborn)‘; while SF9 did ‘MOVE‘.
The final round finally commenced, where each group performed a new song live. Stray Kids howled for victory with their ‘Wolfgang‘ performance after combining the total amount of points accumulated.
The Boyz performed a level-transcending ‘Kingdom Come‘ performance. ATEEZ had fun performing ‘The Real‘ while BTOB mesmerized fans with ‘Finale (Show and Prove)‘. iKON made a final impact with ‘At Ease‘ while SF9 wows fans with ‘Believer‘.
For the last time, the groups collaborated to form the unit ‘King’s Voice’ to perform one final song entitled ‘Boy’s Diary’.
Stray Kids takes home the KINGDOM trophy and gets to have their own reality show plus a ‘Kingdom Week’ special show. –Hallyulife.com
