Korean police to investigate LE SSERAFIM’s controversial ‘Music Bank’ win

South Korean police have begun investigating HYBE girl group LE SSERAFIM’s win against trot singer Lim Young-woong on a recent episode of Music Bank.

• READ MORE: LE SSERAFIM on being HYBE’s first girl group: “Diamonds are made under incredible pressure”

On May 29, Segye Ilbo reported that the Yeongdeungpo Police Station in Seoul, South Korea has started investigating allegations that the result of the music programme’s May 13 episode was rigged. Notably, at the end of that episode trot singer Lim Young-woong had lost to rookie girl group LE SSERAFIM.

“As the allegations have not yet been confirmed, we currently plan to investigate by speaking to the complainants and more,” shared the police, as translated by Soompi. “If the allegations of manipulation are found to be true, we will switch to a full-scale investigation.”

During the episode, score breakdowns revealed that Lim’s ‘If We Ever Meet Again’ had significantly outperformed LE SSERAFIM’s ‘Fearless’ in terms of digital performance, but ultimately lost after being awarded zero points in the broadcast score category.

Music Bank rankings are determined 60 per cent by digital scores, followed by 20 per cent by broadcast scores, 10 per cent by viewer panel surveys, and 5 per cent each by physical album sales and social media scores.

According to Segye Ilbo, Music Bank also received complaints regarding Lim’s score of zero in the broadcast category. The programme initially claimed that ‘If We Ever Meet Again’ was not played on any KBS TV programs, radio programs or digital content during the tracking week of May 2 to 8, thus accumulating zero points in the category.

When it was pointed out that the song had in fact been played on several KBS radio stations during the tracking week, Music Bank added: “The radio broadcast score is calculated using only seven KBS Cool FM radio programs. Aside from these seven programs, other [KBS radio] programs do not factor into our scores.”

In other LE SSERAFIM news, member Kim Ga-ram is current on a hiatus following the escalation of bullying allegations made against the K-pop idol. The 16-year-old singer first found herself embroiled in bullying allegations last month following her introduction as part of the group’s line-up.

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