Jeon Soyeon hits No. 1 on Melon TOP100, keeps vegetable mukbang promise
Soyeon's debut solo title track '퇴사할게여' hit No. 1 on Melon TOP100, beating Lisense, IOI, and IU. Then she had to eat a lot of vegetables on camera.
Melon TOP100, first regular album, one very public promise
Soyeon's title track 퇴사할게여 (Narr. 기안84) from her first regular album 끝내주는 인생, released September 7, reached No. 1 on the Melon TOP100. It knocked out Lisense, IOI, and IU. The win came with a catch.
Weeks earlier, Soyeon appeared as a special DJ on MBC FM4U's 정오의 희망곡 김신영입니다. She promised that if the song topped major music charts, she would set up vegetables like a buffet and eat them on camera.
She kept it. On September 22, the (여)아이들 official YouTube channel hosted a live broadcast titled 1위 가수 전소연의 끝내주는 야채 먹방쇼 — a full vegetable course that ran from appetizers through dessert.
The full course, reviewed honestly
The menu:
- Appetizers: broccoli with ssamjang, carrot-apple and coconut juice, cucumber cold soup, Vietnamese wraps, witch soup
- Main: Moroccan home-style dish rook
- Dessert: carrot cake, freeze-dried vegetable chips, green beans
Carrot juice got the most diplomatic response. "It's okay. Not bad. I don't know why people drink it, but it's drinkable." Broccoli prompted a grimace. "It feels like soaking thread in water and dipping it in soy sauce. Not as bad as I thought, but I don't want to eat it again."
Cucumber cold soup was the breaking point. After smelling it she said, "If I eat this, I'll die" — then tasted it anyway. "This is really tasteless. This is not it." She reached for water.
(Soyeon had previously released a children's song called 야채싫어송 — "I Hate Vegetables Song" — and recalled that as a child she asked for water naengmyeon and her mom made cucumber cold soup instead.)
"I hate breaking promises more than anything in the world"
Soyeon explained the original radio moment: "It was my first time being a radio DJ in my life. I was so nervous that nonsense just came out. When they suddenly asked me to make a promise, 'I'll do a vegetable mukbang' came out. Even as I said it that day, I thought 'oops.' I wanted to do so well, but I didn't know this day would come."
On why she followed through: "I had to keep the No. 1 promise. I hate breaking promises more than anything in the world."
After finishing every course, she addressed fans directly: "Thank you so much for loving 퇴사할게여. Thanks to that, my self-esteem has increased a lot. Even the moment of eating vegetables was happy." She had worried throughout the album-making process about whether she could produce herself effectively. "I was confident about producing others, but producing myself felt overwhelming." She worked with composers of completely different styles, revisited past collaborators, and tried making tracks alone before landing on the final record.
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