Charm is a member of the idol girl group, Cherry, managed by the Japanese company, Make It Entertainment (MINT). A chance encounter with her co-member, Lily, opens a Pandora's box that reveals what happens behind the camera, off the stage and beyond...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
From thousands of online and on-ground auditionees, a total of 48 girls were shortlisted. These 48 girls would compete for three months to get a spot in the Top 16 who would become the official members of the idol group. Since MINT was a Japanese company, we followed the Japanese idol system wherein the public would see and be part of the aspirants' journey from day one to the day they become full-fledged idols.
For the first month of the program, it was all fun and getting-to-know kind of vibe. The first week was getting used to the new environment, system and people. They equally divided us into three groups: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, with 16 members each. The provincial applicants stayed in a dorm in QC. We were provided with daily food and weekly allowance for our essentials. A service would transport us from the dorm to the studio thrice a week for our schedule. Our schedule was usually basic training in singing and dancing. We would attend the training camp twice a week and every week, we would perform in groups in the noontime show in front of the audience. The audience would then comment on our performance as a group, and pinpoint an aspirant who underperformed and another one who performed best. In our third to fourth week in the program, they gave us team challenges which required teamwork and application of what we had learned from our mentors for the past two weeks. The challenges included making our own team rendition of the same song for all groups, and our own choreography of the same music. The first month passed by quickly, and we were not prepared for what was in store for us in the second month.
If the first month was full of RBUs - Rainbows, Butterflies and Unicorns, the second month was hell. This month was the start of the weekly eliminations. We were randomly divided into four teams. Each week, we would come up with our own team performance for our mini-live stage which we would perform every Saturday on the noontime show in front of the audience and in front of a panel of judges. The panel of judges would then select the weakest member of each team to be eliminated. The first and second weeks of elimination were really nerve-racking and heartbreaking. We were scared to be called to step forward just to get left behind by our peers. Being eliminated then felt like the end of our dreams, and it was the worst nightmare for dreamers like us.
Most of us were able to adjust on the third week of eliminations. We would expect what it would feel like to be eliminated but at the same time, hopeful to not have been the next one to leave. In the fourth week, we were already thick-skinned and just wished that it were the other girls to be eliminated instead of us. After all, we would not get this far just to leave in the end. From 48 girls, we were now down to 32.
The final month was a cutthroat competition. Members of our teams were reshuffled again, forming four teams with eight members each. We were assigned a mentor for each team to train us on a song our mentor would pick for us to perform in front of the panel of judges. The team with the lowest score from the panel of judges would be eliminated every week for two weeks. In the first week, Team B was eliminated while in the second week, it was Team D. In the third week, they had a surprise announcement that eight eliminated members were chosen to return to compete for the Top 16.
