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Pop culture seems to have many hostages.

There’s the ongoing misfortune of Britney Spears and then there’s the dark side of the K-pop industry, too.

Now, there’s this poor Russian chap who had so many fans on a Chinese television-based boyband competition that he was only voted off after reaching the finals, even after really terrible performances and pleading with the audience and judges to just let him go.

The Russian chap in question is Vladislav Ivanov, a 27-year-old part-time model from Vladivostok, who became too popular for his liking when he entered the show called Produce Camp 2021 on a whim.

He was a translator for the show when producers were taken with his good looks and asked him to join as a contestant, offering that he “try a new life”.

Not knowing how much the spotlight would cost for his freedom, with a contract that kept him bound to his duties on stage, Ivanov, or Lelush as per his stage name, came to really regret his decision.

The Guardian explains more:

The programme concept, which originated in Korea, pits young performers against each other to train and eventually form an 11-member international boyband, chosen by a voting public.

Ivanov and his fellow contestants were sequestered in dorm rooms on Hainan island and their phones reportedly confiscated.

He so badly wanted off the show that he told the audience “don’t love me, you’ll get no results”, and pleaded constantly that no one vote for him.

His first song was a Russian rap that was performed rather half-heartedly and really didn’t match up to the high-pop of his competitors:

He pleaded:

“Please don’t make me go to the finals, I’m tired,” he said in a later episode.

And pleaded:

“I hope the judges won’t support me. While the others want to get an A, I want to get an F as it stands for freedom,” he was reported saying.

But they kept him on, for some reason, until the finals, which was a full three months and 10 episodes.

Bizarrely, fans related to his grumpiness as they called him “the most miserable wage slave”, urging each other to vote and “let him 996!” in reference to China’s digital industry culture of chronic overwork – 9AM to 9PM, six days a week.

They also celebrated him as an icon of “Sang culture”, a Chinese Millennial concept of having a defeatist attitude toward life.

While Ivanov was “trapped” in China, an online campaign at home worked to get him released from his contract, using hashtags like #FreeLelush or #СвободуЛелушу.

After he was eventually voted out in the final episode, which aired on Saturday, he leaned into this grumpy persona and ate a lemon on camera, saying he never wants to be supported again, ending off with a serious: “I’m not kidding.”

This whole ordeal sure does leave a sour taste in one’s mouth, doesn’t it?

[source:theguardian]