Fans Suspect SM Entertainment Rejected A “Rolling Stone Korea” Interview With NCT’s Haechan After He Won It In A Poll

Fans are upset after working hard to win him the interview.

SM Entertainment is receiving criticism from fans after Rolling Stone Korea failed to interview NCT‘s Haechan, despite him having reportedly won the interview in a poll.

Haechan | @nct_dream/Instagram

Earlier this year, Haechan won first place in a poll on the app, called IdolChamp, after fans voted him as the idol with the best/most unique voice.’ Placing first supposedly won him a special interview with Rolling Stone Korea, which reportedly partnered with IdolChamp for the poll.

Yet, several months later, fans are raising questions after finding out that Haechan’s interview with the magazine never took place. Instead, a simple article was published about Haechan winning the poll, while the second-place winner was reportedly given a two-page interview.

| @idolchamp1/Twitter

Fans are particularly frustrated to see that the magazine mistakenly printed a picture of Jisung instead of Haechan on the spread. IdolChamp explained in a statement that this was due to an editing issue at Rolling Stone Korea, and a corrected version would be uploaded soon.

The uncropped picture mistakenly included in the article | @NCTsmtown_DREAM/Twitter

Yet, what concerns fans the most is the reason why the interview didn’t happen. According to the statement from IdolChamp, Rolling Stone Korea tried to coordinate with ‘the artist’ to schedule the interview but was ultimately unable to make it happen.

Rolling Stone Korea, which organized the vote, tried to conduct the interview by coordinating with the artist as much as possible, but the final consulation between Rolling Stone Korea and the artist failed. Then, Rolling Stone Korea published the special article instead of the interview article.

— IdolChamp

Seeing as Haechan is managed by SM Entertainment and all his activities have to be approved by the company, fans have taken this to mean that SM Entertainment did not approve Haechan’s interview with the magazine.

| SBS

This comes as a disappointment not only because Haechan undeniably deserves that interview…

…but because fans themselves put a lot of effort and spent a lot of money to make sure he won first place.

IdolChamp apologized to the fans who had participated in the vote in their statement, yet fans still have mixed feelings about the missed interview.

Given that Haechan has such a busy schedule as a member of two NCT units, it could very well be that it was simply a scheduling issue. Yet, it is not clear whether Haechan himself knew about his win on the poll or not. In fact, fans are hoping to ask him about it!

At the end of the day, fans just want to see Haechan be recognized as his own individual artist, especially given how hard he works as a member of NCT.

Read IdolChamp’s full statement right here.

| @idolchamp1/Twitter
Source: Twitter

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