On Ocotber 20th, fashion editor Kang Kook-Hwa wrote on her Instagram about an unpleasant experience with a celebrity she had to endure, claiming she had been verbally insulted and that said celebrity had a past history of such outbursts against staff members, closing her statement with the hashtags "#psycho" and "#monster". That quickly drew people's attention to both being names of Red Velvet songs, prompting them to start rumours about the person being one of their members, mostly Irene or Seulgi, who had participated on the group's subunit that released "Monster". Later, Irene admitted and wrote an apology on her Instagram about the incident. However, it was too late.
Red Velvet at Redmare press conference. August 5th, 2018. L to R: Joy, Yeri, Irene, Seulgi, Wendy.
Abuse of power is an issue that is not taken lightly, especially coming from a celebrity, therefore, what followed has been major backlash. Even members who had been completely apart from the controversy, such as Joy, received attacks on social media. From one of the most loved groups in Korea, Red Velvet turned into potentially the most hated in a snap, which raises the question about the future of the quintet. Can they recover from this or is it truly a career ending scandal?
Red Velvet has yet to have a comeback in 2020, only releasing the already mentioned "Monster" from the subunit featuring Irene and Seulgi. Considering the group's extremely busy schedule up until 2019, that's a major change from previous years, to which both the group starting to age (it turned 6 years old in August) but also the accident suffered by member Wendy, which left her in the hospital for two months. Even though Wendy has been discharged and appears on the group's only release of the year, the cover in tribute of legendary singer and fellow SM Entertainment labelmate BoA's "Milky Way" as part of the celebrations for her 20th anniversary of debut, the singer has yet to appear in public with the group and has not participated at any performances in 2020.
A few months ago, Irene lost some of her endorsements, which raised questions considering her enormous popularity. First it was Lemona, who had Irene as their endorser since 2018, but opted for boyband BTS, later soju brand Chamisul, which decided to return to its old endorser IU despite good results following Irene's endorsement. Makes you ask if her attitude issues indeed played a role on her getting dropped by those brands, plus her lack of endorsements and activities during this year in general, with many people in the industry being aware of her attitude issues that have now surfaced.
Truth is that Red Velvet has never faced so much uncertainty about the future of the group. Like it or not, Irene has been the most popular member for a long time, and the one who has drawn the most attention to the group, which obviously amplified the scandal even more. The group is already dealing with the consequences of the scandal, as its scheduled appearance on "K-Culture Festival" last October 24th got canceled. When your most popular member is in very bad terms with the public, it's very difficult to isolate the group from the effects of such bad relationship. Case in point the hate comments thrown against members Joy and Yeri. Members Seulgi and Wendy have largely been exempted from the narrative but they are still part of a group under a very complicated situation. The possibility of SM placing them on a hiatus is very likely, including the very likely cancellation of a comeback that had been rumoured to happen at the end of the year.
Also there are more things working against the group. Next year the contracts of the members expire. Considering Wendy's injury and Irene's issues, no one knows which decisions SM Entertainment or the members will make regarding their futures individually and as a group. Especially with the rumours of a new girl group on the way. It's not like SM has handled issues like this correctly in the past, instead opting to distract the public from the problems by throwing new idols straight into the fire. Six years later, it seems like they have come full circle.
Edit: turns out SM is indeed debuting a new girl group.
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