Kingdom Legendary War

Writer: Suhasini Singh (Pune, Maharashtra, India)

Editor: Arpita Jena (Baripada, Odisha, India)

Kingdom, the battle among six trending boybands: IKON, SF9, Ateez, Straykids, Theboyz and BtoB is known as the male counterpart of Queendom. It is the sequel of ‘Road to Kingdom’, hence the winner team (TheBoyz) secured place in this show. 

_{Picture Credit: IMDb}

This program has four rounds of performance, the finals broadcasted live on 3^rd June 2021. The 4 rounds were ranked on the basis on following criteria

1. Self-evaluation, which made up 25% of the total points
2. Experts voting, which made up 25% of total points
3. Global voting, made up 40% giving the audience the authority to choose the winner
4. Performance video view count, which made up 10% of the total points

_{Picture Credit: DRAMAS WITH A SIDE OF KIMCHI}

INTRODUCTION STAGE

Each team had to perform their hit song that received 1^st place in music show. They had 100 seconds to express themselves. The song choice of all the bands made the audience curious about them as a band. For me, I wasn’t really interested in exploring their music, but through kingdom I have added six legendary bands to my little list of the bands I Stan. 

_{Video Credit: Mnet K-POP}

The viewers voted for their top 3 bands through whosfan app and after self-evaluation, stream count and expert’s evaluation the results were revealed. The winner boy group got the benefit to set the cue sheet for the next stage.  They also received 1000 points.

TO THE WORLD

This round was a really interesting one. The bands rearranged their stage which was different from their usual one. They took their representative hit song and performed it like a total different genre. Let me give you a spoiler, Ikon performed on their famous song Love Scenario and Killing Me giving out one of their best stage performance.

_{Video Credit: Diggin’ K-Contents}

The performances were really mesmerising and all the bands did an amazing job. Each band had 3 votes to cast after the performances where they decided who was the top 3. There were also 30 professional judges who chose their top 3, alongside with the voting on whosfan. The top boyband for this round gets 2,000 points.

RE-BORN

Through this round we saw a new avatar of the songs performed by the bands. The bands exchanged their songs and performed it adding their own colour to it.  It was a really difficult task as each band has their own way to portray their music, the bands had to keep their genre in mind and add their own flavor too.   

_{Video Credit: JENNY}

We have to agree that they have portrayed the songs amazing. The bands added a storyline to tell us something amazing through their performance! Well, I am making you curious right?

THE SPORTS DAY

We as fans are seeing kingdom as a war to choose the king but this show was an amazing way for all the bands to know each other.  The sports day event was an opportunity for them to explore together. It was time for all the bands to forget about their competition and just enjoy themselves.

_{Video Credit: MULTIPUFF}

We surely enjoyed the little interactions between them and not to mention them teasing and cheering for each other! Well we discovered our sportsmen here who can for sure make to the Olympics someday!

NO LIMITS

The last task before deciding the real king! This task was divided into two parts. 

The part one divided the bands into two groups further dividing the members into three units: Rap unit, Dance unit, Vocal unit. The teams was selected by ATEEZ the top band for the previous task.

_{Video Credit: Diggin’ K-Contents}

The two groups will compete against each other in rapping, singing and dance. The winner unit would grab 5000 points dividing it equally amongst the 3 bands in the team, the total points being 15000 gives chance to all the unit to express themselves!

Straykids, BtoB and Ateez came together forming the “MayFly” unit. TheBoyz, SF9 and IKON came together forming “The One” unit. All the units came up with amazing performances.  The relationship between the unit members was just so precious, they were now more like brothers than colleagues. 

_{Video Credit: briczennie}

For Part One 33 special judges where invited which included the famous choreographer Lia Kim, Shindong and Donghae from Super Junior and their junior artists Weeekly, Mirae and Tribe.

The part two was again a competition between them as bands. They had no limitation to what they wanted to show as a band.  The bands came out with amazing performances and surprises for the viewers. The evaluation was done in the same way as in the other rounds. However for self-evaluation they could now choose only two groups instead of three.

_{Video Credit: Diggin’ K-Contents}

FINAL- WHO IS THE KING?

All the bands performed a newly produced song live for the final episode. This song was released digitally on May 28, 2021. All the main vocalists came together performing a wonderful song “A boy’s Diary” giving shivers to the audience with their angelic voice.

For all the atinys out there, this performance will surely make you emotional. Mingi participated in the recording of the song though he isn’t there physically but you will all be pleased to hear his voice. 

Here’s a list of the songs performed for the finals:

1. Finale (Show and Prove)- Btob
2. Kingdom Comes- The Boyz
3. At ease- IKON
4. Believer-SF9
5. The Real- Ateez
6. Wolfgang- StrayKids

_{Picture Credit: DRAMAS WITH A SIDE OF KIMCHI}

Kingdom was not just a show, it was an opportunity for me to explore these amazing bands. After watching kingdom I have started to respect every group for who they are.

Well there are many fanwars but I realised that’s it’s not always about the competition sometimes it’s about the time spent and the memories they have. I want to recommend this to all the fans who are trying to get into kpop but don’t have any motivation. This show will surely make you explore them! 

_{Picture Credit: KOREABOO}

And aren’t you curious who is the real king? Well then, it’s time for you to binge this amazing show!