Red Velvet's Irene Discloses Her Shocking Working Hours

While most fans know that early starts and late nights are typical for K-Pop idols, Red Velvet‘s Irene has revealed just how long and grueling a single workday can be during promotions.

As part of promotional activity for her solo debut with “Like a Flower” last November, Irene shared an impressive “Special Stagegraphy” clip which saw her perform 10 minutes of choreography for several songs from her album. In a new behind-the-scenes video, the star was seen practicing the impressive dance moves alongside rehearsing for another performance video of the title track.

After finding out she required two sessions of practice per day, Irene joked, “I was like, ‘Ah, I’m in trouble,’” with staff remarking that the preparations were like “doing a year’s worth [of work] all in months.” But nothing could compare to how intense the shoot itself would be.

At 10:20 pm on the final day of rehearsals, the Red Velvet soloist revealed that she had a staggering 17 hours of shooting planned for the following day.

With five performances lined up, she shared that she would be on set from 10:00 am the next day to 3:00 am the day after. On top of that, she’d need to be up for a call time of 6:50 am before filming began, just hours after her last practice session was set to end. Recalling her past activities, Irene shared that the longest she’d ever danced before was eight hours in preparation for a Red Velvet concert. “But this is like filming after filming. That was just for practice,” she explained, jokingly crying. “Practicing and filming are two different things.”

I’m so tired. My thighs feel so tired… But at least our dancers are with me. I’ll cheer up and do my best for the filming.

— Irene

In reality, her actual workday ended up stretching even longer than expected. When shooting finally ended at 5:51 am, Irene told cameras that she’d woken up at 6:10 am the previous day, making the full day’s schedule just a few minutes shy of 24 hours long from start to finish — an entire day.

While it may seem like idols must have superhuman abilities to stay awake and active for so long, the singer opened up about her exhaustion at the end of the shoot. “Really guys… nothing’s easy,” she said, adding, “I’m sure you guys feel the same. Nothing’s easy for me either.” She went on to reveal that the long hours of practice had taken their toll, lamenting that she could have given a better performance if she’d had more energy.

I rarely lose my voice but I’ve been practicing so much… I felt it could’ve been even better. I feel so sad, but I feel my physical stamina isn’t keeping up.

— Irene

On top of the long hours Irene had to contend with, the choreography she performed across the 20-hour shoot wasn’t easy. The high heel dance for B-side track “Calling Me Back,” for example, was so difficult to perfect that Irene fell numerous times behind the scenes while practicing the complex spin and splits.

But, despite Irene feeling she could have done better, fans were blown away by the skill Irene showed off in her final performance videos, all made possible by extreme hard work.

Following the release of “Like a Flower,” Irene was previously praised for straying from Tik Tok-inspired choreography with the title track’s high-energy, ever-changing choreography.