“Still slayed it”: Fans praise TWICE’s Jihyo for handling mic malfunction at the 2023 Billboard Women in Music Awards

Fans praised TWICE’s Jihyo for handling a microphone malfunction on the live stage like a professional at the 2023 Billboard Women in Music Awards. The awards ceremony took place on March 1, 2023.

The Alcohol-Free singers were the only K-pop group attending and performing at the event. The nine-member group showed up in chic outfits and performed their latest release, MOONLIGHT SUNRISE, at the awards ceremony.

During the performance, fans noticed that group leader Jihyo was struggling with microphone issues. Later, the singer texted fans on the Bubble app, confirming that there were technical difficulties with her mic and in-ear. Despite the issues on the big night, the 26-year-old singer sang live and made fans proud.

As soon as the performance ended, fans couldn’t stop gushing over the professionalism showcased by the TWICE leader on stage.

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TWICE’s Jihyo handles mic malfunction like a pro at MOONLIGHT SUNRISE’s first-ever live performance at the Billboard Women in Music Awards

The Korean music industry earned monumental achievement on March 1, 2023, when TWICE, Min Hee-jin of ADOR, and Shin Seon-jeong of HYBE attended Billboard’s Women in Music awards. The MOONLIGHT SUNRISE singers became the first ever Korean group to attend the ceremony and even receive the Breakthrough Award.

Amongst loud cheers, TWICE also performed their latest release, the English digital single MOONLIGHT SUNRISE. Videos of the audience dancing to the song and hyping up the K-pop group also trended on Twitter, showcasing their popularity. Apart from the elegant performance, the singers’ fandom, ONCE, began trending "Proud of you Jihyo" after they noticed the leader struggling with her mic on stage.

A clip posted by Twitter user @jypesmyoui is currently going viral on Twitter with over 467k views. The 10-second video showed Jihyo keeping her calm and giving it her all while singing her part. She held her in-ear with one hand and continued the performance despite the technical issues she was facing.

ONCEs were proud of their leader’s professionalism, as they showered her with praise and compliments, as well as commending her live vocal skills.

In another clip posted by Twitter user @emilyblunty, Jihyo looked uncomfortable. Her expression changed in a split second as soon as her part was over, and the camera began zooming out. She quickly glanced back, probably at the staff, and continued dancing.

Billboard’s annual Women in Music Awards was established to recognize significant contributions made in all aspects of the music business by women. These include composers, songwriters, singers, music educators, conductors, music critics, and journalists, among others.

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In other news, TWICE’s red carpet outfit at the Billboard Women in Music Awards was criticized by ONCEs. Their styling received a mixed response, although they were majorly negative.

Fans believe that the agency, JYP Entertainment, could have given the singers better outfits since they seem to be wearing the same clothes as their MOONLIGHT SUNRISE music videos. The group even performed the song in the same outfit, leading many fans to call the agency’s lack of styling efforts “lazy.”

Meanwhile, TWICE is gearing up to release their new mini album, READY TO BE, which is scheduled to drop on March 10, 2023, at 2 pm KST (or midnight ET.) They will release a performance video of their title track, SET ME FREE, hours before the album's release on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on March 9.