Former SM Entertainment trainee Kim Yoon-yi is moving on to the next round of SBS’ singing competition "The Ballad of Us".
On the Oct. 7 episode, Kim entered the show to mark a fresh start. She revealed she trained at SM for five years, overlapping with the now-debuted Hearts2Hearts and aespa.
Watching her former peers debut from home was “bittersweet,” she shared, recalling how surreal it felt to see friends she used to practice with “all glammed up on a big stage.”
For her first-ever ballad performance, Kim chose Yoon Sang’s debut classic “In the Shade of Parting,” explaining she discovered it on a train ride back to Daejeon after packing up her dorm at the end of her trainee days. “It echoed exactly how I felt―letting go of a dream I’d chased for five years,” she said, adding that because it was Yoon Sang’s debut song, it felt like a meaningful way to begin her own new chapter.
Singing through nerves, Kim delivered an emotional rendition―and just before the final moments, the pass light flipped on.
Actor Cha Tae-hyun praised her focus: “The way you honored every single note was striking. I could feel how much this meant to you.” Host Park Kyung-lim added that Kim’s tone “felt like it could carry on SM’s main-vocal lineage.”
Mimi also cheered her on: “I could feel the same emotion you felt when you first heard this song. I even worried you might get overwhelmed listening to it on the train today. It’s impressive that, as a former idol trainee with different training, you chose to challenge yourself with a pure ballad.”
(SBS Entertainment News | Kim Hyo-jung)