SHINee's Taemin Talks About His Struggles To Improve As A Singer

SHINee’s Taemin recently gave an interview in a video for sellev where he talked about his uphill road in becoming the singer he is today.

He shared, “When I auditioned for SM in sixth grade, I got in through my dance skills. I thought that I would improve my singing in time. But I was kind of stupid at the time – my voice was breaking and I only audited my vocal lessons, thinking my voice would be damaged if I tried to sing. But when I needed to sing, my voice obviously did not come out well. When it came time to record the album, I couldn’t sing the part and it went to another member.”

He added, “It was written as my part, but it felt more like a chorus. I was told that my voice was the type shouldn’t stick out and needed to merge with others. I decided I needed to improve and I sacrificed many hours of sleep to practice in the training room. I used to get nosebleeds [because of lack of sleep] and once I fell asleep and collapsed in the middle of singing. When I couldn’t sing well, I would shout and damage my voice.”

However, Taemin has come a long way since then. “At my recent solo concert, I tried a lot of live singing. But I was really afraid of singing live. When I’m with a group, I only have to sing my part and can do well, but when I’m alone, I have to sing from beginning to end by myself.”

He then gave some great advice for other aspiring dreamers, saying, “Even sometimes when you try hard, there are times when you don’t succeed. But I think that if you don’t feel pressured and work really hard at something, the reward for that will come one day.”

You can watch the interview with English subtitles below!