SNSD / Girls’ Generation was certainly the epitome of ’spectacle’ for the year of 2010. The group went beyond their ‘SNSD’ group name to become one great trend – it’s difficult to talk about Korean fashion or culture without mentioning these girls.
This year, SNSD made their official advancement into the Japanese market, and after one month, the group already appeared on the top ranks of the Oricon charts. It was a shower of awards towards the end of the year, as SNSD also won the Disk Daesang at the ‘2010 Golden Disk Awards’, ‘2010 Melon Music Awards’, and also received the song of the year at the ‘KBS Music Festival’.
The girls recently sat down and reflected on their achievements in the past year, check it below.
Did you have an after-party after winning the Golden Disk Daesang award?
“We couldn’t have a large scale one because we were too busy. We went to a restaurant with the other staff to eat samgyubsal and share stories. We were really happy when we received the award, but we were just as burdened with it. We thought, ‘Why did we receive this award?’ Recently, we’ve realized that it’s a lot harder maintaining what we’ve been building up. We’ve also realized that SNSD can’t everything. The only pathway for us is to show as great of a stage as the status of our name.” (Taeyeon)
Tiffany, you weren’t at the scene because of your leg injury. Did you watch it on TV by yourself at home?
“I was screaming out ‘Daesang SNSD’ and cried by myself. Before the members went to the awards show, I joked to the members, “If you can’t pick up a good award, then whatever.” I thought the members might be sad after not winning an award, so I was about to go out to buy nice food. The moment we received the Daesang, I sent a text message to the members saying, “Daebak”. After screaming for a while, it was just fascinating – the fact that I was not on stage and instead sitting at home watching it.” (Tiffany)
When people go up on stage, the norm seems to be the statement, “We won’t forget our rookie mindset”. How does SNSD feel about this?
“This reminds us a lot from our trainee days. For our ‘Into The New World’ debut, we thought it was waste of time traveling from the practice room to our dorms, so we slept in sleeping bags in the practice room. We shouldn’t ever forget those heart-fluttering moments.” (Taeyeon)
After you received the Golden Disk Daesang, a picture of Super Junior’s Siwon hugging Sooyoung, who was crying, became a big topic. What was the response of the members?
“Everyone took fun out of it. Sooyoung said, “To think that there are dating rumors with Siwon oppa, it’s an honor”, and even captured a screen of a portal site with ‘Siwon and Sooyoung relationship rumors’ being the #1 search result. We were all a bit disappointed that it wasn’t real, but the members jokingly congratulated her.” (Hyoyeon)
“After the Golden Disk Awards, I met Siwon oppa in the waiting room of ‘Music Bank’ and told him ‘thank you’. I don’t know whether it’s because of my free following personality, but even if I’m with a male celebrity, I never get scandals. Isn’t that a sad deal too? I was thankful that I was in dating rumors with such a cool guy. Haha.” (Sooyoung)
“SNSD achieved a lot of things in 2010. It was really an active year for SNSD, but what was it like for each of the members? What were the fun and rewarding aspects about the year?
“I bought a house for my parents. It’s much better than their old house, and it’s an apartment in Incheon. It’s heartwarming.” (Hyoyeon)
“I gave into buying a bag I’d been eyeing for a long time. It wasn’t anything expensive, but it was something that isn’t launched in Korea yet. I ordered through the internet but I haven’t received it yet. My heart’s fluttering. It was a present to myself for doing well this year.” (Sooyoung)
“During our photo shoot in Phuket, it was combined as a vacation so us members and the staff had fun. We swam by ourselves and had fun. I didn’t have a lot of expectations but it was such a cozy time just to ourselves; the happiness felt like dream. People might think, “But it’s such a trivial matter?”, but for celebrities like us, normal days like that is true bliss.” (Taeyeon)
“Those kinds of trivial happiness were the ones that also stayed in my memory. During the World Cup, the members wore bright red t-shirts and supported the national players. It was really exciting.” (Sunny)
“Living like a ’student’ whenever I went to school were the happiest times for me. Even though I wasn’t able to go on dates or group trips, I didn’t think being able to eat at the cafeteria with my friends and walking around campus would be that much fun. I also did weird body acting in front of my friends during acting class.” (Yuri)
“I bought a car for my parents. I paid 80% while Krystal paid 20%.” (Jessica)
Any disappointing moments in 2010, and anything you want to do next year?
“My older brother went to serve the military, but I’ve never been able to meet him during visiting hours. Ever since the Yeonpyeong Island bombing, because of the emergent situation, I heard they barely get any resting time. Not being able to warmly talk to my brother keeps catching onto my thoughts. The most I was able to do was send 15 copies of my autograph. I hope the situation improves so I can meet my brother.” (Taeyeon)
“I haven’t been able to have a lot time together with my family. I want to laze around the new apartment with my family and have fun feeling freedom.” (Hyoyeon)
“I want to return to school… but nothing’s been decided for next year.” (Sooyoung)
“The most important priority is to keep healthy. I’ve been in a cast 3 times this year. I hurt my wrist during my appearance on ‘Dream Team’, and hurt my ankle while preparing for the concert. This time, I tore my posterior cruciate ligament in my knee. I went all in for our ‘Hoot’ album preparation, but the thought of everything I put out there turning into nothingness was a great disappointment to me.
Meanwhile, I was able to feel the aspect of importance of work as my desire to go on stage became bigger. When I broke down in frustration, the members patted me on the back and said, “Tiffany’s eyes will be overflowing with passion when she gets back up on stage.” Even the fans showed their love as they said that SNSD was only to be “nine members.” I became teary from all the love. During my resting period, I studied a lot of Japanese. I got told off by Sooyoung a lot for my poor Japanese, but these days she’s praising me.” (Tiffany)
You said there is a huge responsibility that comes with the name “SNSD”, so how does it feel as a SNSD member to always having to live beautifully?
“We’re really happy, but we also do suffer minor troubles. It has come to a sad point where our fingernails, toenails, hair and feet are constantly worked without rest. Since we must always make them look pretty always clean them, there’s nothing that remains. Our fingernails get cut in half while we have to keep re-dying and perming our hair so it gets very damaged. On top of that, since we have to dance a lot in high heels, our feet are really ugly. So much hard skin has formed, and our toes have skewed.” (Jessica)
It’s already your 4th year since your debut in 2007. Rather than ‘Girls’ Generation’, doesn’t the name ‘Ladies’ Generation’ seem to be more fitting now? Until when will the name ‘Girls’ Generation’ title be not embarrassing to say?
“What is there to be embarrassed about. Moreover, we were the most embarrassed when we debuted. At the time, foreign words for names were becoming a trend, so a name like ‘Girls’ Generation’ sounded childish. But these days, when the fans’ shout ‘Girls’ Generation’, we feel pride. We think we were able to be well exposed because of our name, so we also consider our name with all the workers at the agency included.
Even when we’re 50, I don’t think we’ll ever be embarrassed of being ‘SNSD’. Wouldn’t it be more of an honor? We joke around with each other saying that we should look over each other after we have kids and then have a concert. We might not be able to hold out lollipops like we do in “Kissing You“, but wouldn’t we be doing music that fits that age. We want to show ourselves maturing right~ till the end.” (Tiffany)
How did you spend your Christmas.
“We watched “Secret Garden“. We’re all fangirling over Juwon and Oska. We sit together from 9.30 PM onwards to wait for the drama. I called (Yoon) Sang Hyun oppa and told him how awesome Hyun Bin was, but I think he was a bit sad. On Christmas Day, I called him to say, “Oppa Oska was really awesome today!”, and he answered, “Yes, you need to support Oska as well so I get more strength.” (YoonA)
Tell us what you hope for in the other members.
“I want Sooyoung to experience love, because you need to be in love to express your feelings well. It would be good if she could express an intense ‘feel’ to her choreography and singing.” (Jessica)
“Sunny should maintain herself better. She has such a easygoing personality that she doesn’t care much for her hair. She should take more care in what she wears and wear some lipstick too.” (Sooyoung)
“Tiffany really should stop getting hurt. She always gets hurt when she’s with me or somewhere where I can see. I get shocked every single time.” (Sunny)
“I want Hyoyeon to develop her innate variety show skills more. She’s a really funny person but she can’t see her light on broadcast. I’m looking forward to Hyoyeon’s variety show domination.” (TIffany)
“I want Jessica to hang out with us more. Jessica’s a very social type, so she has a lot of friends. On some days, when we see Jessica, we greet her saying”Long time no see”. Haha. I want to see Jessica a lot more next year.” (Hyoyeon)
“I want maknae Seohyun to date ‘We Got Married’ ‘husband’, Yong Hwa, in real life. Is this too random? I think they’re a really pretty couple and suit each other well. Since Seohyun has always been a thorough child, even if she dates, I don’t think it would affect her activities as SNSD too much.” (Taeyeon)
“I want YoonA to become a girl that suits her age. YoonA seems to be getting younger. I want to see a more feminine YoonA.” (Yuri)
“Our maknae Seohyun seems to be getting more stubborn. Haha. I wish she can listen to her unnies better.” (YoonA)
“I hope our biggest sister Taeyeon keeps healthy. Since she’s the leader, she has a hard time taking care of us. When all is said and done, health is the greatest priority.” (Seohyun)
Lastly, what are your hopes for next year as SNSD.
“We want a world tour. We’ve heard that we have fans in Europe too. Since we’ve done Asia and American concerts, we want to go on a real world tour. Interestingly enough, whenever we have these interviews each year, our wishes always come true. During our debut, we just said, “We’re SNSD”, but last year we said, we wanted an independent concert, and it ended up coming true. It might be too early to make that wish, but aren’t you only cool when you dream big?” (Yuri)
