Controversy surrounding Irene, member of girl group Red Velvet, has put the popular Kpop girl band in a tough spot. Following the news of Irene insulting a stylist, the group is being forced to opt out of Kpop festivals and performances. SBS' decision to keep Red Velvet out of its festival is the latest in the development.
SBS decided to cut out the Red Velvet performances from the '2020 Ontact Gangnam Festival' while airing it. The concert was recorded on October 18, when Irene's controversy had not become news yet. But with the current situation of the group receiving hate messages online, the channel decided to cut their performances out. The concert was aired on SBS at 00:05 AM KST on November 2, without any numbers from Red Velvet.
SBS has not issued any statement regarding the issue yet. But the channel did not air Red Velvet performing Psycho, Bad Boy and Umpah Umpah at the K-Pop Concert held at Yeongdong-daero. Instead, it just ended the program giving a shock to the RedVluvs [Red Velvet fans].
Red Velvet's performances from the concert were streamed live in the YouTube channel SBS KPOP. But SBS has taken the videos down now, making RedVeluvs angry. Fans are slamming the channel for editing out the entire section of Red Velvet performance. "Why cut out the entire performance? It's not like the group as a whole committed a crime or anything. The performance already happened. People know it's a part of the show... If anything, the girls AT LEAST deserve an explanation," said one of the netizens.
"I feel bad for the other members... but it's probably not SBS acting on its own," said another comment. "Man, sucks for the teammates," wrote a netizen.
Irene's Brand Image Damaged
Red Velvet is facing flak from netizens after the news of Irene treating a stylist badly became public. Other people from the industry too came out with similar claims, damaging Irene's reputation. However, there were equal numbers of people who supported Irene and said that they had seen the good side of Irene. But the negative theory overpowered the positive clarifications and despite Irene's personal apology to the stylist, the issue is refusing die down.
In fact, Irene has been removed as the model of the brand CLINIQUE. The brand did not make any official statement in this regard. Irene was chosen as the brand ambassador of cosmetic brand CLINIQUE Korea in March 2020. Currently, CLINIQUE products are being shown on websites without Irene's picture. Popular cosmetic stores including olive Young and SSG.com have also removed everything related to Irene from display.
