Origin and release year: South Korea (2022)

Starring: Kep1er, Brave Girls, LOONA, VIVIZ, WJSN, Hyo Lyn, Girls’ Generation Tae Yeon

Round theme: Cover song battle

Warning! This article contains spoilers!!!

Read the other Queendom 2 reviews here: Round 1, Round 3 (part 1/part 2).

Cover match-up:

1. Hyo Lyn —> LOONA
2. WJSN —> VIVIZ
3. VIVIZ —> WJSN
4. Kep1er —> Brave Girls
5. Brave Girls —> Kep1er
6. LOONA —> Hyo Lyn

My personal ranking for the first round of performances:

1. Hyo Lyn
2. LOONA
3. Kep1er
4. Brave Girls
5. WJSN
6. VIVIZ

Review of Queendom 2 Round 2 Performances:

WJSN performed ‘Navillera’. This performance gave me goosebumps. I especially felt that the vocal line killed it! Yeon Jung and Yeo Reum were my personal stars of the performance. I think Yeo Reum really took the advice from MONSTA X Joo Honey and Hyung Won to heart and gave it her all. This performance was definitely a step up from the first round.

Honestly, LOONA’s ‘Shake It’ stage was one of the best stages I have ever seen. The storyline, tricks, props, choreography, vocals, musicality, balance between creating a new version of the song and staying true to the original, just everything was flawless. I loved it! I hope they can take these brighter concepts into more of their comebacks.

Brave Girls was brilliant performing ‘MVSK’! I felt like their execution and stage presence was amazing and their voices sounded incredible considering that their throat condition was poor (due to recovering from COVID-19). I would’ve ranked them higher, but I felt like their story didn’t connect that well on a narrative level. The props like the necklace were a bit small (besides the jewels) and I’m not sure where the neon masks connected with the story even though it was cool. That was the only personal downfall for me but I really enjoyed the performance.

For VIVIZ, I think the performance of ‘Unnatural’ in itself was beautiful and really grand scale. The dancing was also killer but I’m not sure if they chose their song well enough. Vocally, I just didn’t enjoy how the song sounded compared to their other vocal performances. The arrangement was also excellent but the actual vocals were a let down for me as I felt that the song didn’t necessarily showcase their vocals that well. I have to give SinB props for the rap portion though, it revealed another charm to her.

Kep1er performed ‘Pool Party’ and ‘Rollin’’. I thought their performance really encompassed who they are as a group. It was playful, fun, and all of the performance elements (stage design, outfits, dance, rap, vocals, etc.) were on point. It felt like a real party, too. I have to give a shout-out to Da Yeon for pulling off her fall so professionally.

Hyo Lyn was quite literally out of this world. I had a lot of respect for her as an artist already but this performance solidified that. Her musicality, stage presence, daringness; honestly there are not enough words for all of the things that I want to praise from this stage, everything was stunning. She was immaculate. It has to be in the top two of the best stages I’ve ever seen in K-Pop.

The official results/ranking for round two:

1. Hyo Lyn
2. LOONA
3. WJSN
4. VIVIZ
5. Kep1er
6. Brave Girls

My final thoughts about the results:

I think the first two spots were well deserved. I would’ve liked to switch Kep1er with WJSN but have to acknowledge that the crowd reacted well to WJSN. At the same time, I think Brave Girls was definitely not the worst stage (not to say that there was a worst one) but I wish they had gotten more acknowledgement for the performance even if they couldn’t be ranked higher.

What did you think of the second round of Queendom 2?