Starvation Diets and Grueling Schedules: K-Pop Stars Collapsing on Stage

South Korean pop star Hyuna shocked the world when she dramatically collapsed on stage during a performance over the weekend.

And it’s sadly just the latest tragedy in an increasing number of incidents involving many of K-pop’s biggest names.

South Korea is notorious for being brutally strict when it comes to manufacturing pop idols.

The K-pop industry brings in billions of dollars for the country’s economy each year, so it’s no surprise that nothing less than complete and utter perfection is expected from the young hopefuls entering the music industry.

According to the investigative book titled K-pop: Idols in Wonderland, as many as eight out of 10 female K-pop trainees stop menstruating due to extremely restrictive diets, reports the Korea Times.

Other factors, such as stress and lack of sleep, are also likely to blame. 

In 2023, K-pop star Hyein, who is a member of the girl group NewJeans, revealed the paltry meal she was surviving on during a music video shoot.  

In a short clip shared online, the teenager, who was fourteen at the time, was seen picking at some sliced avocado, two-halves of a single cherry tomato, and some yellow rice.

Meanwhile Momo, who is a member of the chart-topping K-pop group TWICE, once confessed to starving herself so severely that she feared for her own life.

The Japanese performer, now 29, said that she was told to lose 7kg (15lbs) in a week ahead of TWICE’s official debut in 2015.

If she failed to do so, she wouldn’t make it into the group.

She ended up eating nothing more than a cube of ice and exercised nonstop for a week to hit her target weight.

‘I didn’t eat anything for the whole week and went to the gym all the time. I spent all my time so there was no water in my body,’ she revealed on the program Jihyo Candy Nights.

‘And when I laid down on the bed and tried to sleep, I was scared that I wouldn’t wake up again, so I suddenly started crying,’ she continued.

‘I ate one cube of ice, but I thought that I might get fat with even that. That’s what I did, but I didn’t lose 7kg by the D-day, so they gave me about three more days.’

Momo was able to make it into TWICE, who have since become one of the best-selling girl groups in music history.  

Just last year, another popular girl group member issued a public apology after receiving backlash online for gaining weight.

Jang Ye Eun, best known by her stage name J as a member of girl group Stayc, sparked chatter online after appearing slightly curvier during a number of live performances.

The star, who was 19 at the time, later addressed the speculation around her weight in a social media post where she admitted that she’d started working out and dieting to slim down.

‘To be honest, I saw the fancam and I’m sorry I didn’t maintain my figure well,’ she wrote, according to AllKPop.

‘I’m going to go on a diet a little. I’ll do it slowly while eating good food. Hehe.’

In April, former K-pop star Wu Xuanyi, 30, was rehearsing for a performance on the popular Chinese talent competition series Sisters Who Make Waves when she collapsed on stage.

Footage of the incident spread like wildfire on Chinese social media sites. 

In grainy clips, the singer and actress can be seen being carried off stage by staff members.

Xuanyi’s agency later confirmed that the star had fainted from a mixture of extreme exhaustion from being overworked, on top of harsh weather conditions. 

Many of the performances on Sisters Who Make Waves are filmed outdoors, exposing the contestants to the elements.  

Xuanyi and Hyuna are far from the only Asian pop idol to faint from exhaustion. 

In 2019, Im Yeojin was performing with her girl group LOONA when she collapsed on stage at Mexico City’s Pepsi Center amid the group’s gruelling world tour.

In footage of the incident, the K-pop star struggles to remain on her feet before toppling to the ground.

One of her bandmates desperately tries to grab her arm to prevent the fall, but ends up getting pulled down with her.

Other stars to suffer major health woes include Keena, who took a two-month hiatus from her girl group Fifty Fifty ––best known for their record-breaking Hot 100 hit Cupid–– in May after suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The 23-year-old had previously been involved in a brutal lawsuit against her record label, after she and her bandmates accused the company of forcing them to work while they were ill and for not being transparent about their income. 

The label, Attrakt, denied all allegations and filed a countersuit.

Keena later withdrew from the lawsuit and returned to Attrakt, while her three bandmates continued on and formed a new group called Ablume under a new agency.  

In video that shocked the world, Hyuna, 33, was performing her hit Bubble Pop at the Waterbomb Festival in Macau over the weekend when she became woozy while trying to push through the song’s signature choreography.

In horrifying footage, she can be seen sluggishly gyrating her hips and turning around before crashing to the ground.

Her backup dancers and a security guard then rush to her aid and carry the unconscious hitmaker off stage.  

When Hyuna collapsed, she had been on an extreme diet which saw her shed 10kg (22lbs) in just one month.

Just last week, she shocked longtime fans after sharing a photo of her bruised and blistered feet standing on a scale, which revealed her weight to be 49kg (108lbs). 

The singer, who is 5’5″, scolded herself for eating in the post’s caption and said that she still had ‘a long way to go’ on her weight loss journey.

Hyuna has been open about her many health woes, which have been caused by years of disordered eating.  

The K-pop veteran, who was just 15 when she debuted on the music scene, previously confessed to eating just one piece of sushi a day so that she could keep her weight down to 40kg (88lbs).

‘Back then, I’d survive on a single piece of kimbap while pushing through all the scheduled activities. And that destroyed me. By 26, I was so unhealthy,’ she revealed on the program B-Season. 

She went into more details about her issues on the Korean talk show Point of Omniscient Interfere, where she admitted that the lack of food led to her developing a fainting condition called peripheral neuritis.

‘I used to eat very little. There were times when I would go a week without eating, and I even developed peripheral neuritis,’ she said, according to Allkpop.

‘Whenever my weight dropped too low, it would trigger it. I would faint after surviving on just one piece of kimbap. I fainted 12 times in a month.’

Vasovagal syncope, also known as reflex syncope, a medical condition that causes a brief loss of consciousness due to a decrease in heart rate or blood pressure.

In 2020, Hyuna fainted several times while filming a music video for her album I’m Not Cool.

Her wealth woes continued the following year, with the singer fainting again while filming the video for her song Ping Pong.

In 2019, the hitmaker confirmed that she’d also been diagnosed with depression and a panic disorder.

Hyuna first shot to fame as a member of the legendary girl group Wonder Girls in 2007, when she was just 15.

However, her parents pulled her from the group after just five months because she was suffering from chronic gastroenteritis and fainting spells. 

She later returned to the music scene in 2009 as a member of the group 4minute, who went on to become one of the biggest K-pop acts of the early 2010s. 

Outside of the group, Hyuna launched a hugely successful solo career. 

She charted a string of solo hits throughout the 2010s including Ice Cream, Red, and I’m Not Cool.

She also became the face of brands like Calvin Klein, Loewe, and Puma.  

In recent years her popularity has dipped and her last few singles have failed to chart.

South Korea is known for having some of the strictest beauty standards in the world, and is revered for its cutting-edge plastic surgery procedures and skincare.

Some of the most common physical features considered beautiful in the country include a V-line jaw, pale skin, double eyelids, a thin high nose, and a small face.

According to statistics, nearly 25 percent of women aged 19 to 29 in South Korea have undergone plastic surgery.

The unrealistic beauty standards in the country have since sparked backlash, particularly from feminist groups.

In 2022, a popular cosmetic surgery reality series was shut down following growing criticism from the public.

The show, titled Let Me In, saw people come in and plead their case to receive a plastic surgery makeover so that they could improve their lives.