3rd Blogaversary Series Day 3
I'm sure those of you who have read all of my blog posts know that Ateez was my gateway into K-Pop. That means that I actually heard the Ateez covers of K-Pop songs before hearing their original. In fact when friends of mine tried to teach me their favorite groups, like BTS or Shinee, I would get excited when I heard a song I recognized and tell them that I knew the song because Ateez had covered it. This was both a good and bad thing, because I doubt my friends enjoyed me saying, "oh that's not how Ateez did it" when listening to an original song by their ult groups. Sorry friends!
What I love most about an Ateez cover is how they both try to pay homage to the original artists, even going as far as to try to emulate their costumes, and also make the song their own. So for today we will be going through the group numbers Ateez has covered.
BTS
Let's start with BTS. Ateez has been very vocal about their love of BTS. Wooyoung has gone as far as to say he is the resident Ateez ARMY member and has cited Jimin as his idol. If you look for it, you can see he jumps at the chance to sing Jimin's parts in their covers. In addition to the dance covers of Fake Love and Idol was saw in yesterday's post, there is also a solo cover we will get to later in the week. Today we will focus on the three full covers and a MAMA mashup they did of BTS songs. In release order they are:
Song: I Need You Performed by: Ateez Original artist: BTS
Song: Boy With Luv Performed by: Ateez Original artist: BTS
Song: On Performed by: Ateez Original artist: BTS
We will get to the BTS MAMA mashup later since it involves other groups, but I did want to add this comparison video Ivan Squad made so you can see Ateez and BTS performing the songs side by side. You will need headphones. I think in their earlier years they stuck more to the original song than they do now, so it is a pretty good comparison.
Song: Boy With Luv Performed by: Ateez Original artist: BTS
Block B
Block B's label, Seven Seasons, is managed by KQ so they are Ateez's semi older brothers. Ateez has performed two Block B covers. One at KCON 2019 as a special stage and one in a mashup on Immortal Songs. Since Immortal Songs is a whole other level of covers, we will get to those in it's own section. For now, we need to talk about Very Good.
Y'all, they even got the VELVET SUITS!! Can we talk about Ateez in velvet suits? Have we gotten a velvet suit moment since Wonderland (when they were used too sparingly for my liking, I just need to say)? Bring back the velvet suits!! Actually, would the purple tour outfits be considered velvet suit adjacent? Those are masterpieces as well. Sorry, I'm back, let's watch their performance because it is a doozy.
Song: Very Good Performed by: Ateez Original artist: Block B
Song: Yesterday Performed by: Ateez Original artist: Block B
EXO
Yesterday I showed you a dance cover of EXO's Growl, but they also did a full cover of the song in 2020. Jongho and Seonghwa were both injured but at least Jongho got to sit on the side and sing. Poor Seonghwa had to miss KCON:TACT entirely that year.
Song: Growl Performed by: Ateez Original artist: EXO
Shinee
Shinee is another group that Ateez included In their MAMA mashup, but they also covered one of their most famous songs that is still one of my favorite Shinee songs to this day. I would like to say that I appreciate that Ateez did not try to replicate the hair styles some of the Shinee members were sporting during the music video. Sorry, it needed to be said.
Song: Sherlock Performed by: Ateez Original artist: Shinee
Now that we have made it through BTS and Shinee, we have arrived at the MAMA mashup! This was Ateez's rookie MAMA performance, and I don't know if this is a rookie thing, a small company thing, or something KQ wanted to do, but Ateez mashed-up their song, Wonderland, with famous songs from past boy and girl groups for this performance. It should be noted that Jongho performed the girl group cover in its original key! For some reason the original video from Mnet's official site was deleted so this nice Atiny reposted it so it would not be lost.
Song: Blood, Sweat, and Tears Performed by: Ateez Original artist: BTS
Song: View Performed by: Ateez Original artist: Shinee
Song: Goodbye Baby Goodbye Performed by: Ateez Original artist: miss A
We also got a dance practice if you want to avail yourself of that.
Shinhwa
I am sorry to say that I knew nothing about Shinhwa until the writing of this post but here is what the internet told me. Shinhwa formed in 1998 and is the longest running K-Pop group in existence and is part of the 1st generation of K-Pop. I remember there being some slight controversy when Ateez was about to perform this cover at the 2022 KBS Song Festival because the original song had a racial slur in it, but Ateez changed the lyrics during their performance. Also, the Swan Lake sample is chefs kiss!
Song: T.O.P. Performed by: Ateez Original artist: Shinhwa
iKon
I became an Atiny directly after Kingdom: Legendary War while Imitation was airing so at that time, I had ZERO knowledge of anything other than Ateez. Seeing them interact with their senior groups was so wholesome and one of my favorite interactions was Ateez's pure joy at getting to perform a cover of an iKon song and know that iKon was going to cover one of their songs. Since the other songs they performed on Kingdom as a group were all Ateez songs, they were able to release their Kingdom versions in Fever: Epilogue. I will forever be sad that they were not given permission to release this epic cover.
Song: Rhythm Ta Performed by: Ateez Original artist: iKon
Seventeen
During Ateez's trainee days, even before they were called KQ Fellaz, they practiced Seventeen's Pretty U as one of their monthly evaluation songs. During Ateez's 2024 Fan Meeting, they showed a clip of that practice. Poor San was SO embarrassed!!
They then performed the whole song with a much sturdier couch.
Song: Pretty U Performed by: Ateez Original artist: Seventeen
Western Artists
Ateez has also covered a couple of western artists. These may be my favorite covers outside of Immortal Songs/Kingdom. You can really see how they made these songs their own.
Song: Leave the Door Open Performed by: Ateez
Original artist: Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, & Silk Sonic
Song: Stay Performed by: Ateez Original artist: Justin Bieber & The Kid LAROI
KCON
In 2022, Ateez was the first group asked to perform KCON's signature song. I honestly don't even know what category this falls in because Ateez was technically the first group to perform it. So are the other groups covering Ateez or are all the groups performing their own cover of the song? It is a quandary, but either way, I am adding it here.
Song: Poppia Performed by: Ateez Original artist: KCON
Immortal Songs
We have now arrived at the final group of Ateez covers, the ones they did on Immortal Songs. These are the legendary stages that brought us Jongho's first octave jump high notes, Yunho and Mingi singing so low that it is practically inaudible, Seonghwa hitting his note while also jumping off of a table, a song where every member raps, etc. Ateez has performed on this show as a group six times and won four of them. In fact, Ateez holds the record for most wins of an idol group. The only times Ateez did not win were the King of Kings episodes where they were going up against fellow winners of Immortal Songs, but to be honest, even getting invited to those shows is a feat. Their performances on this show have also created partnerships with senior idols like Kim Jong Kook and glowing reviews from idols like Psy and Rain. The former who used Ateez songs to train his own trainees.
Song: Black Cat Nero Performed by: Ateez (Win 1) Original artist: Turbo
Song: It's Raining Performed by: Ateez (Win 2) Original artist: Rain
Song: Right Now Performed by: Ateez (Win 3) Original artist: Psy
Song: Anyhow Song Performed by: Ateez Original artist: Seo Taiji
Song: Fantastic Baby Performed by: Ateez Original artist: Big Bang
Song: NILLILI MAMBO Performed by: Ateez Original artist: Block B
Song: Highway in the Gale Performed by: Ateez (Win 4) Original artist: Yoo Jung Suk
I think that's all as of March 2025. I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you tomorrow for Hongjoong Covers.
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