Hongbin, a member of K-POP group VIXX, has apologized for his recent controversial remarks disparaging the group SHINee and INFINITE.
When SHINee’s stage video of “Everybody” suddenly appeared during Hongbin’s live-stream on Twitch, he frowned and said, “Seriously, who throws this kind of idol music on band music? It’s so sloppy.” Also by the end of the streaming, he also flipped his middle finger at the camera. In addition, Hongbin recently commented on INFINITE’s “Be Mine” choreography by commenting that he would have punched the choreographer if he was a member of INFINITE.
After Hongbin’s broadcast and remarks were made public, on only did SHINee fans and INFINITE fans took issue with it but also other netizen started demanding an apology. In response, Hongbin started another live-stream at 5:30 a.m on March 1 to make official apologies.
During this two-hour broadcast, Hongbin explained how he wanted to distinguish his broadcasts related to games from his idol activities, but failed to do so as he got drunk. He said, “I never meant to belittle you. That was clearly my mistake. I’m sorry.” He also apologized several times by repeating, “I wasn’t thinking straight. It’s a mistake. I hurt someone else. Everything is my fault. I’m sorry for causing this stir.” He also admitted that he was drunk during the live-stream.
An official from his agency stopped by, during the second live-stream, temporarily suspending it. When he returned, Hongbin said that he was told to leave the team if he was going to act this way, adding, “I think that’s right. I was only thinking about myself. If the team asks me to leave, I will.” He also requested to leave the team out of this matter since everything happened because of him.
As the controversy continued, he wrote on his Twitch channel, “I will carefully review the posts of this date and study them as I delete them one by one so I won’t harm others as I broadcast. I’m sorry.“
That same day afternoon, he apologized again.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9LimD_napN/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
He wrote, “I sincerely apologize to the artists and their fans who got hurt by my demeaning words and actions during my personal live broadcast last morning. I’m also sorry to have caused concerns to VIXX members and fans. I have no excuses to not thinking straight and I deeply regret my rash behavior. I’m so sorry once again to all those who are disappointed in me. I’ll be more careful and reflect on myself so that something like this never happens again in the future.”
[…] will continue as a five-member team. Previously, Hongbin suspended all his activities after he made disparaging remarks about other idols, and at the time, he and his label apologized. Earlier the same day the label made an official […]