Jang Won-young of K-pop group IVE. [Yonhap]
Jang Won-young of K-pop group IVE. [Yonhap]

Jang Won-young of K-pop group IVE has been caught up in lip-sync allegations following a recent performance.

A post titled "Jang Won-young lip-syncing again?" recently appeared on Ppomppu, an online community forum.

Video footage attached to the post showed IVE members at an event held Aug. 16 at Caribbean Bay in Everland, Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.

The members, dressed in white and blue outfits, performed "I AM" live, drawing admiration for hitting high notes without faltering. However, the volume sounded noticeably different during Jang's parts, sparking lip-sync allegations.

[Online community]
[Online community]

An Yu-jin, who is recovering from a knee injury, sat while singing as the other members stood, then rose to her feet during the high notes and gripped a tent support pole as she belted out the song. Her voice sounded distinctly live compared with the recorded track, prompting netizens to draw comparisons to Jang's parts in their comments.

Reactions to the video were mixed. Many commenters wrote things such as "Only Jang Won-young's part sounds like lip-syncing," "Can you really slip in lip-syncing mid-performance like that?" "Something does sound different," and "Is this lip-syncing again?" Others defended her, writing "Her visuals are on a completely different level" and "She might have just sung so well live that it sounded like the studio track."


yeonjoo7@heraldcorp.com