Tied at 147, then split 80–70: two ballads, one painful result

Both singers had earned 147 votes in the previous round. Faced with a head-to-head contest that was difficult to call, even the judges' faces told a story. The two performance clips are linked below.

In episode four, broadcast October 26, Im Bada chose Lee Moon-se's 'Forever With You'; 15-year-old Heo Chae-min chose Lee So-ra's 'I'm Happy,' opening unaccompanied. The result was 80 to 70: Im advanced to round three and Heo was eliminated.

The margin was ten votes, but the reactions were more complex. On air, singer BIBI reacted with astonishment to Im's performance, while Moon Geun-young said Heo's voice evoked an emotional resonance similar to Lee So-ra. On October 27, a Korean community poster also reshared Im's clip and wrote that his voice recalled musician Yoo Jae-ha. That is one poster's impression, not a measured public consensus.

The verified reactions come from different places: judge BIBI praised Im so highly that she wished he could be designated an intangible cultural treasure; judge Moon Geun-young admired the resonance in Heo's voice. A Korean forum poster likened Im's voice to Yoo Jae-ha. We could not independently inspect individual YouTube comments, so no sweeping claim about viewers crying or favoring one singer is made.

Revisiting familiar songs by Lee Moon-se and Lee So-ra through younger voices invites listeners to bring their own memories. An audition vote decides who advances that day; it does not assign a permanent numerical value to either performance.

The broadcast aired October 26, 2026. The head-to-head count was 80–70; 147 each refers to the previous round, not the duel. The linked YouTube clips correspond to the performances, but we did not independently watch each video in full. The judges' comments are attributed to reporting about the broadcast on October 27.

The next questions concern Im's following round and Heo's future musical work. Further dates or return appearances have not been verified and should not be treated as announcements.