Miss Trot 4's Chae Yoon Challenges the Longest-Serving Veteran

Trot singer Chae Yoon finished the TV Chosun 'Miss Trot 4' competition in 16th place. This challenge, where her 17 years of dedication solely to trot shone through, delivered inspiration to many. Chae Yoon revealed that she felt more regret about her stage performance than the result.

"It was a good experience and I learned a lot, but it's true that I have regrets regardless of the outcome. More than regretting the ranking, the thought that 'I could have shown a better stage' kept lingering."

In 'Miss Trot 4', her third attempt after 'Miss Trot 1' and 'Miss Trot 3', Chae Yoon aimed to shed the burden of her nickname '17-year veteran no one knows' and make her name known through the competition. Unlike in the past when she tried to hide her 17 years of experience, this time she resolved to confidently showcase her accumulated skills.

"Even though I've been active for a long time, I felt I wasn't widely known to the public, to the point where they might wonder, 'Was there a singer like this?' So, this time, I really wanted to leave behind an impactful stage. Rather than aiming for a final ranking, my biggest goal was to create a stage that would definitely make people remember my name and get to know me."

In the master preliminary round, she chose Lee Eun-ha's 'Winter Rose' and received praise for her deep tone and emotional expression. In the 'Active Duty X' stage, which used a blind audition format, she made her presence felt solely through her voice. Chae Yoon described the blind stage, where she could be evaluated solely on her voice and singing without prejudice, as a positive experience.

The most talked-about performance during the 'Miss Trot 4' competition was the bold and sexy performance showcased in the first round of the main competition's death match. Although it was a concept she had never attempted before, she realized new possibilities by looking back at the process of breaking her own limits.

"It was a huge challenge because I'm not usually the type to perform sexy concepts, nor do I often sing songs of that genre. I thought I had to express that color and feeling well on stage to have a chance, so I thought a lot about it. I kept asking people around me, 'Isn't this awkward?' during practice because I was worried it might look strange. I was particularly concerned about the dancing and performance, but while expressing the sexy vibe, I newly discovered, 'I have this kind of flair within me.'"

Through this competition, Chae Yoon confirmed new, hidden possibilities within herself and stated that she is now ready to move on to a wider stage. She considers her participation in 'Miss Trot 4' itself a great honor and expressed her ambition to work even harder in the future to etch her name into the public consciousness.

"Just being able to participate in 'Miss Trot 4', Korea's representative trot competition program, is a great honor in itself. Knowing how many people want to be on that stage, I am grateful just to have received such a good opportunity. I will continue to work hard so that the spark ignited by this experience can burn even brighter."