Watch: NCT's Doyoung Talks About How He Got Into SM + Covers Red Velvet's Seulgi's "28 Reasons"

Apr 18, 2023

NCT’s Doyoung brought his own flair to Red Velvet’s Seulgi’s solo debut track on “Leemujin Service”!

The singer appeared as a guest on the latest episode of Lee Mujin’s talk show, where he chatted about NCT DOJAEJUNG’s unit debut and more.

After kicking things off with a solo version of NCT DOJAEJUNG’s debut track “Perfume” and a cover of HYNN’s “The Lonely Bloom Stands Alone,” Doyoung blessed viewers’ ears with a gorgeous rendition of Red Velvet’s Seulgi’s solo debut song “28 Reasons.”

Doyoung explained, “I really like this song, but there was no place for me to sing it [publicly]. And I thought that if I didn’t sing it well, it would ruin the song. So I thought this was the right place.”

After hearing his cover of “28 Reasons,” Lee Mujin marveled at Doyoung’s beautiful vocal tone, which he compared to ASMR. Lee Mujin then praised Doyoung for having recorded his own backing chorus for his vocal ad-libs in the song, noting, “Don’t you also usually record the chorus when working on NCT’s albums?”

Doyoung replied, “That’s right. Like you mentioned earlier, I do have a lot of air in my voice, so they say it’s a voice that can go well with anyone’s voice when mixing vocals [during the production process].”

Lee Mujin went on to ask Doyoung about how he wound up at SM Entertainment. “When I was in high school, I participated in a singing competition, and I was cast there,” said Doyoung, explaining that he was then called into the agency for a private audition.

“Since I was scouted, I was the only person at my audition,” he recalled. “So rather than songs I prepared beforehand, I wound up singing over 10 songs on the spot that I don’t even remember. They really have you sing a lot of songs. I kept singing for about two to three hours straight. They’d ask, ‘Do you have anything else to sing?’ And I’d search for a song. ‘Do you have a high-pitched song you can sing?’ And I’d look for one. That took about two hours.”

At Lee Mujin’s request, Doyoung then sang an impromptu snippet of the song that got him scouted by SM Entertainment at his fateful singing competition: Ha Dong Kyun’s “Rain or Snow.” He also went on to team up with Lee Mujin for a duet performance of The Ade’s “It’s Strange, With You” at the end of the show.

Check out Doyoung’s full episode of “Leemujin Service” with English subtitles below! (His cover of “28 Reasons” begins at 14:02.)