Wednesday, December 8, 2010

SNSD participates in charity donation relay for “Seven Days of Miracles”

The members of SNSD will be holding a donation relay via MBC’s “Seven Days of Miracles” on December 9th for a single-parent mom, Kim Jung Ok, who’s been diagnosed with cervical cancer.

Kim, whose husband passed away due to diabetes, suffered a car accident which left her mentally affected. While raising two children, ages 13 and 14, she worked at a restaurant and factory until she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in December of 2009.

Each of the nine members donated an item personally precious to them, but what caught the attention of all was their autographed debut album, the only one they claim to have owned. Excited with the prospect of seeing one, MC Kim Jae Dong exclaimed, “This is heaven!

SNSD also set out to trade items with their fans, causing a long line to stretch before them of fans wanting to trade in their laptops, netbooks, monitors, game consoles and other fun items. One male fan even presented a unique self-composed song titled, “Taeyeon ah, would you like to go to Hongdae with oppa?” along with an SNSD t-shirt.

SNSD’s Jessica rumor denied by SME, ‘Sports Chosun’ writer blames allkpop

Below is a raw translation of an article in the Sports Chosun about the rumor pertaining to SNSD’sJessica that can be found here.

Our comments will follow the article.

“What is the truth behind SNSD Jessica’s alleged sexual harassment?

An english-based Hallyu celebrity news site allkpop posted footage from the 12th Korean-Chinese Music Festival that was directly filmed by a Chinese fan. They titled it ‘Jessica Sexual Harassment’ because they thought a man was inappropriately touching Jessica during the goodbye ending stage.

allkpop stated, ‘In the video, right after Jessica says the ending speech on behalf of the group, she quickly turns to Hyoyeon and seems to whisper something into her ear. Hyoyeon then looks in the direction of the man to the right of Jessica (from the videographer’s vantage point) in apparent shock and disgust at something, while Jessica proceeds to move to the far left where Sooyoung is standing. Meanwhile, the man on the right slowly begins to remove himself from the scene, as he walks out of sight to the right.’

Along with this description, they provided a link to the video and posted a fan picture of Jessica’s unhappy face as if Jessica really was molested.

However it was recently confirmed their allegations were in fact false. First of all, the video the Chinese fan directly filmed themselves was shaky and it is impossible to tell whether the man next to her really did act inappropriately. A representative of SNSD’s agency, SM Entertainment, came forth to state, “The rumor is not true at all. If something like that happened at the scene, we would have taken immediate action. Please do not misunderstand the situation to be something it isn’t.”

With their malicious reports, allkpop has damaged the image of SNSD. To be honest, it is not the first time allkpop has scarred the Hallyu Wave. This site spreads rumor material in order to raise their viewer numbers for the site. In 2008, they described Big Bang’s ‘For the World’ album as ‘The biggest musical disaster in 10 years’, and more recently they stated, ‘Japanese girl group SND48 are not able to debut in Korea because of the negative remarks of Korean netizens’, and ‘Lee Da Hae belittled Filipinos’, thus intentionally spreading distorted truths and encouraging an anti-Hallyu Wave.

The problem lies with allkpop’s ripple effect. allkpop is the representative English-based Hallyu celebrity news site with over 1 million readers. It is a very famous site that many international fans visit, with a popularity so great that even the cyber diplomatic missions site ‘VANK‘ (Voluntary Agency Network of Korea) would post promotional news on their notice board. Therefore rumors such as “A famous singer getting molested at an international event” would be regarded as the real truth to international fans, which can potentially be harmful to Korea’s national image.

Netizens have been voicing out, ‘Why are they talking bad about SNSD’, ‘I don’t have an answer for allkpop. I think there’s a problem with the administrator,’ ‘Isn’t this a national disgrace’.”

To be honest, we debated even addressing this article, partially because of the sheer ridiculousness of it all, and partially because we have already written about these concerns in the recent past. However, this new attack has forced us to address the article because we feel disconcerted about two issues:

1) The fact that the ‘Sports Chosun’ writer has chosen to brush off these allegations about sexual harassment in order to attach an ‘anti-Hallyu wave’ sentiment to allkpop belittles the issue of sexual harassment to ‘Sports Chosun’ readers.

2) The fact that the minute allkpop posts a rumor or controversy, we become credited with demonizing Korea.

We’ll begin by tackling the first issue.

The suggestion that allkpop damaged the reputation of SNSD because we published a story about a man ‘allegedly’ touching Jessica in an inappropriate manner is borderline offensive, not only to the intelligence of every reader, but to every woman who has had to endure humiliating unwanted advances. In fact, we’re going to say the nonchalant attitude shown in the article is out-and-out warped.

Why in the world would a man inappropriately touching a woman damage the reputation of the woman? If the rumor were true, shouldn’t the writer’s outrage be turned against the man in question and not the reputation of the woman? Our issue with the writer has absolutely nothing to do with whether the rumor is true or false, but everything to do with the writer’s suggestion that a woman being inappropriately touched somehow reflects negatively on the female. Instead of investigating what actually did happen, the writer took the opportunity to launch a hate campaign against allkpop, which I suppose speaks to the true intention of covering the rumor.

She’s purportedly the victim of an embarrassing situation, and SNSD has become victimized as well by this writer’s idiotic swing at us. We’re seriously puzzled over how the writer can gloss over the sexual harassment situation in order to lash out and assert that, by reporting on it, allkpop causes fans to hate on Korea.

Which brings us to our second point.

In case you missed it the first time, here’s the first time allkpop got attacked with a ridiculous claim from the Korean media. We intended that to be the be-all, end-all bulwark against accusations of being an anti-Hallyu hate-mongerer.

Unfortunately, that maneuverer was clearly ignored in favor of more juicy stories to ’support’ the writer’s argument. From our view, there is a clear problem when the writer chooses to spin what is clearly stated as a rumor article into some grand scheme by allkpop to ruin the image of SNSD and Korea.

There are so many articles that promote K-pop on this site, an overwhelming majority, but the moment one article addresses a controversy or a rumor, we are anti-Hallyu wave again. It’s as if the only thing they can tolerate from an international site posting about Korean entertainment are positive, glowing reports about everyone and everything – as if we should pretend that nothing ever bad happens in K-pop.

Hilariously though, in the ultimate double standard, the Korean entertainment media apparently feels free to post about rumors and netizen comments all they want in order to sell papers and get hits on their site, but apparently we aren’t allowed to post up international rumors and international netizens comments. No, not an international site, because when an international site does exactly the same thing that the Korean media does, it’s apparently anti-Korea by their logic.

It’s offensive to us because K-pop has gone international, and we all have a deep love for it, but it’s frustrating to see that certain Korean media members do not seem to be able to come to terms with the fact that with the internationalization of their product will come international fans and international opinions.

As allkpop grows, we are certain that this is not the last time we will be criticized by the Korean press, but as our readers, you can be rest assured that these baseless attacks against our integrity and purpose will not lead to allkpop leaving our readers in the dark about any events just to avoid silly attacks such as this. We will continue to serve you as best as we can, and that’s a promise.

SNSD's Jessica did NOT get "molested"


We previously reported a rumour on a Fancam that shows Jessica being "molested" which caused a big commotion among fans.

A representative of SMENT has comfirmed that the rumours are NOT true.

“The rumor is not true at all. If something like that happened at the scene, we would have taken immediate action. Please do not misunderstand the situation to be something it isn’t - representative of SMENT

Sooyoung shed tears on Strong Heart


Sooyoung shed tears while conveying the story of Park Seungil, a former basketball coach who is currently fighting the Lou Gehrig’s disease. According to kidshealth.org:
“Lou Gehrig’s disease damages motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. Motor neurons are
nerve cells that control muscle movement. Upper motor neurons send messages from the brain to the spinal cord, and lower motor neurons send messages from the spinal cord to the muscles. Motor neurons are an important part of the body’s neuromuscular system.”
On SBS ‘Strong Heart’ aired on December 7th, Sooyoung said, “SNSD went to visit Park Seungil, a former basketball coach who is suffering from the Lou Gehrig’s disease”.
She added, “His current girlfriend is helping to nurse him. She is Park Seungil’s first love. They were destined to be together even after Park Seungil went abroad to study, became a basketball coach and later married someone else. After he was diagnosed with the disease, Park Seungil decided to file for a divorce. After that, his current girlfriend looked for him and managed to find him. When they finally met, Park Seungil asked ‘Would you be with me?’. She agreed and she has been looking after Park Seungil for 5 years now”.
After listening to Sooyoung’s touching story netizens commented:
-”From today onwards, I’m a fan of Sooyoung”
-”Sooyoung not only has a pretty face but also a pretty heart”
-”Sooyoung is a warm person”

Korea-China Music Festival to be aired on December 12th

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‘The 12th Korea-China Music Festival’,co-organized by China’s CCTV and Korea’s KBS took place in KBS Hall Yeouido, Seoul on December 2nd at 7.30pm.

In this year’s event, artists from the Korean side are SNSD, CN Blue, 2NE1, Supreme Team, U-Kiss, Kara, SHINee, Shin Seunghoon, Park Junghyun, Chaeyeon, etc. China were represented by Sun Nan, Wang Fang, Han Hong, Hit-5, etc.

U-Kiss and Hit-5 joined hands to perform a song called ‘Friends’, while Shin Seunghoon and Sun Nan sang ‘I Believe’. SNSD who dressed in gold outfit performed ‘Hoot’ without Tiffany at the annual music festival.

‘The 12th Korea-China Music Festival’ will be aired at 6pm KST, December 12th on KBS 1TV.

Here are some pictures of our girls taken during their performance:

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For those who can’t wait till December 12th, here’s a fancam for you: CLICK HERE

Getting you ready for ‘The 25th Golden Disk Awards’

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We are just days away from ‘The 25th Golden Disk Awards‘ which will be aired LIVE, not only in Korea Republicbut to 6 other countries in Asia – Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand.

So, who were the winners last year? No worries. There’s no need to crack your head trying to recall. We have it here for you:

Digital Daesang
SNSD

Disk Daesang
Super Junior

Digital Bonsang
Baek Ji Young – Sensibility
Davichi – Davichi In Wonderland
Son Dam Bi – Type B
SNSD – Gee (The First Mini Album)
Lee Seung Gi – Will You Marry Me (Featuring Bizniz)

Disk Bonsang
SG Wannabe – Vol.6 – Gift
Super Junior – Sorry, Sorry
Druken Tiger – Feel Ghood Muzik : The 8th Wonder
2pm – 1집정규앨범 – Hottest Time of the Day
Lee Seung Chul – Mutopia

Samsung YEPP Popularity Award
SHINee
Super Junior

Rock Award
Epik High

Samsung YEPP Rookie/Newcomers’ Awards
Digital – 4minute
Disk – T-ara

For this year’s awards, there will be 11 categories in total:

1. Disk Daesang – 1 winner
2. Samsung YEPP Digital Daesang – 1 winner
3. Disk Bonsang – 5 winners
4. Digital Bonsang – 5 winners
5. Samsung YEPP Newcomers’ Awards – 2 winners
6. Ceci Popularity Awards – 2 winners
7. MSN Asian Popularity Award – 1 winner
8. COSMOPOLITAN Rock Award – 1 winner
9. Hip Hop Award – 1 winner
10. Producers’ Award – 1 winner
11. Achievement Award – 1 winner

SNSD to run, run, run….

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SNSD will be making an appearance on MBC’s ‘Sunday Night – Enjoy Today’.

At MBC Ilsan Dream Center, a production staff of ‘Enjoy Today’ said, “On the episode to be aired on December 12th, SNSD will be participating in athletic events with the ‘Enjoy Today’ team. They will be up against famous athlete, Im Choonae”. Im Choonae is a former Korean national athlete who had won 3 medals at the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul.

The staff added, “Shin Hyunjoon, Jung Joonho, Jung Hyungdon and others who are SNSD’s samchon (uncle) fans were so much in love with the super ‘hot’ girlgroup, SNSD that they could not take their eyes off the girls. We are really thankful to SNSD for lighting up the atmosphere”.

Wang Biho accused SNSD of plagiarism

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On KBS 2TV’s ‘Gag Concert‘ aired on December 5th, Wang Biho accused SNSD of plagiarism. According to Biho, the chorus of SNSD’s ‘Hoot’ particularly the ‘hoot hoot hoot’ portion, sounds similar to Country KkoKko’s ‘Happy Christmas’ (Christmas~Christmas~Christmas in the lyrics).

He added, “Not only the song, even the ‘Hoot’ arrow dance was based on Seo Kyungsuk’s arrow nose performance”.

Thsutleo.com Site Closing Down!! Sad News


As you can see in the pic above. No need to explain anything.
This is totally a sad news.

To whoever that still want to spazz over their photos please do so fast before they're closing down.

Thsutleo have done so many great things. Provide us with awesome photos of the girls, making a photobook of the girls. They're a great website.

But we must respect their decision. We cant do anything to stop it. Just wishing that they will decide to continue it again one day.


SMTOWN LIVE WORLD TOUR to kick off in Tokyo next January!

SM Entertainment’s in-house joint concert, ’SMTOWN LIVE WORLD TOUR‘, will kick off in Tokyo on January 2011. So far, the destinations for the tour include Seoul, Los Angeles, and Shanghai.

The Tokyo stop will be held on January 25th and 26th at the National Yoyogi Stadium. This is especially exciting as it will be the first time that Korean artists from an entire company will come out to perform in Japan.

The Yoyogi Stadium houses 12,000 seats, and so 24,000 fans will be able to enjoy this large scale music event over the two nights.

Artists such as BoA, TVXQ, Super Junior, SNSD, SHINee, f(x), and many other SME artists are scheduled to attend.

Stay tuned to allkpop for further updates!

SNSD pretended to be KARA at an amusement park?

On the most recent episode of “Strong Heart,” SNSD’s Yuri revealed a cute story about identity theft called “SNSD’s Escape Instinct”.

Being loaded with a hectic schedule, it’s only natural that the girls want to have some fun. Yuri explained, “There was a day where SNSD’s secret escape instinct got brought out. We wanted to go somewhere to relieve our stress, so we decided on an amusement park.”

She went on to say, Hyoyeon, Sooyoung, me, and Yoona left without our manager knowing. The four of us all wore the same scarves, hats, and masks so it actually made us more obvious. People were recognizing us. Our plan was almost foiled from the start. Hyoyeon said that she thought of a good strategy, and bought Scream masks that covered our entire heads.”

“It was July so it was really hot… Our masks started getting humid and we couldn’t see in front of us. We waited an hour to ride the roller coasters in that state. After staying like that for an hour, people started to figure us out.”

“Since there were 4 of us, people thought we were SISTAR, miss A, or another 4 member girl group. We thought the suspicions were relieved when we started talking in male voices.”

Yuri continued, “Jessica got out of practice late and contacted us saying she wants to join. She came with the exact same mask on. Since there were now 5 of us with the same mask, people started suggesting we were KARA. However, they observed that the one with the long legs was Sooyoung, and we were almost found out. We all decided to pretend we were KARA, and did the ‘butt’ dance. Thankfully, it all went according to plan and we got to ride the roller coasters.”

Yuri also brought out her ‘Kkab’ self on the show by dancing to PSY’s ‘Right Now‘:


SNSD’s Sooyoung understands more about love from Park Seung Il

In October, SNSD’s Sooyoung (along with Super Junior’s Siwon and Shin Se Kyung) visited former basketball coach and Lou Gehrig patient Park Seung Il.

During her appearance on the most recent episode of ‘Strong Heart‘, Sooyoung revealed a touching story related to the basketball star, and the impact of the visit.

She explained,

“Basketball player Park Seung Il has had Lou Gehrig’s disease for the past 8 years. I heard he liked SNSD, so I went to see him. The disease had advanced to such a state that he could only move his eyelids. He started fluttering his eyelashes when we went, and his girlfriend said that it was him showing a cute hidden talent. His girlfriend is currently looking after him by herself.”

“For her, Park Seung Il was her first love. However, the two had a twisted fate. In the end, Park Seung Il married a different woman and wanted to become a basketball coach, so he went to study abroad. Once he became sick, however, he decided to divorce his wife to let her go.”

“His girlfriend heard rumors about his ill health when he came out on TV saying that he was quitting coaching. When they reunited, he was already lying in the hospital bed. But he asked ‘Can you stay with me?‘, and she agreed. He hasn’t been able to move since. It’s been five years.”

“After seeing their love, I began to think that love was devotion. They never lose hope. He always says that when he gets up, he’ll marry her.”

After reflecting on the story, Sooyoung thanked the basketball star: “When I see him, I became comforted, so I want to thank him. He says he’s thankful to me, but I’m more thankful to him.”