{"id":25757,"date":"2022-04-24T19:02:47","date_gmt":"2022-04-25T02:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/?p=25757"},"modified":"2023-01-16T00:01:57","modified_gmt":"2023-01-16T08:01:57","slug":"exos-chen-and-the-controversy-that-broke-out-before-his-departure-for-military-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/exos-chen-and-the-controversy-that-broke-out-before-his-departure-for-military-service\/","title":{"rendered":"EXO&#8217;s Chen and the controversy that broke out before his departure for military service"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>EXO<\/strong> member <strong>Chen<\/strong> marks the end of his 18-month military service this April. The hiatus for being called up to the military is a complex stage for every South Korean artist; however, Chen&#8217;s case is particularly sensitive for <strong>EXO-Ls<\/strong> due to the circumstances in which the idol had to leave for the <strong>army<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>On January 13th, 2020, weeks after EXO&#8217;s last concert to date, Chen wrote a <strong>letter<\/strong> to fans on <strong>Lysn<\/strong> and announced that he would be getting <strong>married<\/strong> soon. He also revealed that his was expecting a <strong>baby<\/strong> with his fiancee.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\">\n        <blockquote hcb-fetch-image-from=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/philconcerts\/status\/1216619443813416962\" class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">EXO&#39;s Chen is getting married and will soon become a father \u2728 He shared the good news to fans through a handwritten letter.<\/p>\n<p>Congratulations, Chen! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KWkJSwvwcM\">pic.twitter.com\/KWkJSwvwcM<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Philippine Concerts (@philconcerts) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/philconcerts\/status\/1216619443813416962?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">January 13, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n        <\/figure>\n        \n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Due to the fandom culture of South Korea, the reaction of a group of local fans was total <strong>rejection<\/strong> of the singer in the first days of the news. Thus began a campaign for the SM agency to remove the artist from <strong>EXO<\/strong> arguing that a family man could not work as an idol and should be faithful to his fans.<\/p>\n<p>In contrast, international fans expressed their <strong>support<\/strong> for Chen and tried to get noticed on social media. EXO-L defended the value of the singer&#8217;s private life and his <strong>independence<\/strong> from his work as a musician.<\/p>\n<p>You may also like: <\/p>\n<p>On February 20th, the agency <strong>SM Entertainment<\/strong> set a precedent by reaffirming that the idol would not <strong>separate<\/strong> from his companions. According to the official statement, the EXO members decided to stay together in the future without changes.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>That same day, Chen sent an additional letter where he <strong>apologized<\/strong> for the way he broke the <strong>news<\/strong> of his wedding. Not unlike other members who went to the <strong>military<\/strong> before him, Kim Jongdae had his farewell group photo alongside Suho, Baekhyun, Sehun, and Chanyeol on October 26, 2020.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\">\n        <blockquote hcb-fetch-image-from=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WORLDMUSICAWARD\/status\/1320787873235390469\" class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/EXO?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#EXO<\/a> Say Farewell To <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Chen?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#Chen<\/a> In An Emotional Last Encounter Before He Leaves For Military Service!\ud83d\udc51\ud83d\udc9a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/weareoneEXO?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@weareoneEXO<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/npLkTJuL7X\">https:\/\/t.co\/npLkTJuL7X<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gXUnVPjPLP\">pic.twitter.com\/gXUnVPjPLP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; World Music Awards (@WORLDMUSICAWARD) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WORLDMUSICAWARD\/status\/1320787873235390469?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">October 26, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n        <\/figure>\n        \n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Now that two years have passed since the <strong>controversy<\/strong> and his time in the military has ended, there is much anticipation for Chen&#8217;s future activities, as he is one of the best vocalists of his generation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EXO member Chen marks the end of his 18-month military service this April. The hiatus for being called up to the military is a complex stage for every South Korean artist; however, Chen&#8217;s case is particularly sensitive for EXO-Ls due to the circumstances in which the idol had to leave for the army. On January [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2817,"featured_media":25764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[939],"class_list":{"0":"post-25757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kpop","8":"tag-exo"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}